Trump follows Roosevelt’s rails with ceremonial train trip to Medora

MEDORA, N.D. – After flying into North Dakota, President Donald Trump took the train for about a third of a mile in Medora on Wednesday, arriving as Theodore Roosevelt and other presidents have done – but with much more fanfare. 

People chanted “USA” as a five-car train painted red, white and blue pulled in with cheers for the president as he exited the last car. Horseback riders portraying Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders waited to escort Trump’s motorcade to a private tour of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library before he was scheduled to speak to a crowd gathered at the Burning Hills Amphitheatre.

There were no cheering crowds in 1883, when the newly born town of Medora had three men who would occupy the White House visit in the same week, according to William Hansard, public historian at the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University.

He said each man arrived on different trains and came to town for different reasons.

Roosevelt, with his time as president still years away, came to Medora to hunt bison, Hansard said during an interview.

Hansard said Roosevelt had a successful hunt and invested in what would become the Chimney Butte Ranch before leaving town.

“The only way to get there is going to be by train during his lifetime,” Hansard said. “Automobiles exist. He rides in and drives automobiles, but that would be a long way to drive. Every single time he ever visits Medora, it’s going to be on a train.”

Roosevelt made several trips to Medora, always by train, with his longest trip coming in 1886.

“Generally, most of the time, he’s only here for a few weeks and then in a couple of cases, a few months at a time,” he said. “He’s traveling back and forth between the Badlands and New York, so he’s riding the train a lot to do that.”

In 1900, when Roosevelt was campaigning for vice president, Hansard said he told a Medora crowd that “it was here that the romance of my life began.”

Roosevelt became president in 1901, after the assassination of President William McKinley.

In 1903, Roosevelt went on a speaking tour of Midwest and Western states that included a stop in Medora.

“Not quite a campaign tour,” Hansard said. “Just sort of a public speaking tour that was very general, not specific political campaigning at that time, but just sort of a way to see the country and visit the people and get the temperature, so to speak.”

Other notable visits to western North Dakota included then-Sen. John F. Kennedy, who visited Dickinson State University in 1958 to honor Roosevelt’s 100th birthday, Hansard said. Kennedy gave the keynote address at the celebration that year.

How does Trump’s visit compare with other presidential visits to the area? Hansard said he expected the Trump visit to be a larger spectacle than the others.

“Arthur’s visit was comparatively quiet. Former President Grant’s visit was quiet,” Hansard said. “At that time, (Roosevelt) was just a dude from New York. Nobody knew who he was. But in this case, you have someone who is a massive celebrity, presidential status aside, coming to this area. So it is going to be a spectacle the likes of which little Medora has never seen.”