Visiting The New High-Tech Teddy Roosevelt Library In Medora, North Dakota

MEDORA, N.D. — Following the directions from the Interstate 94 exit to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, you might wonder if you’ve missed North Dakota’s new tourist destination, so seamlessly does the building blend into the prairie.

That’s exactly the point. 

The architects who designed the library, which opened lasrt month, want visitors to draw as much inspiration from the exhibits inside the 95,000-square-foot modern marvel as they do from taking in the vast sweep of landscape outside.

And on a recent visit, it seemed that vision had been realized. 

While library visitors spanning all ages could be found crowding around the library’s many high-tech interactive elements, they also took time to relax in a rocking chair or trek up to the library’s roof to enjoy a 360-degree view of the 93-acre site. 

But be forewarned: The library is quickly becoming a popular tourist attraction, so you might want to book tickets ($26 adults) online in advance.

In the first few weeks, 40,000 visitors flocked to the library, its executive director said.

While tickets are still available for most days in August, the website cautions that it’s the busiest month in Medora.

“The Library expects to reach maximum capacity on many days and walk-up tickets may not be available,” according to a notice on the website.

Why North Dakota

Word about the new library has spread, thanks partly to a pre-opening visit from President Donald Trump and a healthy dose of media coverage.

There’s also a novelty factor: Unlike most presidential libraries, where planning begins shortly after the president has left office, this one only started to take shape about six years ago and more than 100 years after Roosevelt’s death.

Though Roosevelt hailed from New York, the library’s planners chose North Dakota because of the significance it and the American West held for the 26th president. After the death of his wife and mother on the same day in 1884, he retreated to the then-territory, where he owned the Elkhorn Ranch on the banks of the Little Missouri River.

In 2020, planners launched a competition for architects and unanimously selected a design inspired by a leaf atop two pebbles that was the brainchild of Craig Dykers, the library’s lead architect and co-founder of Snøhetta, a Norwegian architectural firm. 

In addition to the building’s design, Dykers wanted to give visitors a variety of opportunities — from a kidney-shaped boardwalk loop through the grasses next to the library to its living roof — to appreciate the uniqueness of the Badlands.

Arrive Early, Linger A While

But as anyone who has visited this part of the West before can appreciate, the summer heat can be relentless, especially with little shade covering.

If you’re visiting this summer, you might want to opt for a morning entry and budget time to explore the boardwalk and roof when it's still relatively cool. The temperature can easily top 100 degrees.

The designers were well aware of how harsh this landscape can be, though, and planned for ways to provide visitors respite from the elements.

Most of the parking spots are shaded by a solar-paneled roof, which means your vehicle won’t be roasting in the sun all day. Many outdoor seating areas are shaded and the corridor that serves as the library’s main entrance is entirely under cover.

That shade was helpful because there was a long queue and about a 20-minute wait to bypass security and actually enter the exhibit.

At check-in, you’ll be handed an interactive RFID-enabled wristband and have the option to personalize your visit by registering basic information on an electronic kiosk and taking a photo, all of which come in handy for unlocking the exhibit’s many interactive elements.

As the gal greeting visitors said over and over: “You don’t have to do it, but I highly, highly recommend you do.” 

A Winding, Interactive Journey

The library might well rank among the country's most technically advanced, and some of those elements work better than others for learning about the legacy of this one-of-a-kind dynamo.

The exhibit more or less winds you through Roosevelt’s life chronologically, though a central exhibit hall you’ll return to frequently can be trying to get through. 

After check-in, you’ll be greeted by the voice of actor Nick Offerman, who is heavily featured in the exhibit and invites you into the Roosevelt home, where the future president overcame a challenging and asthma-afflicted childhood.

From there, you’ll see the future conservationist's budding fascination with animals and nature take shape, navigate eccentric obsession with taxidermy in college, his falling in love and enduring a double whammy tragedy that forever shaped his life.

One of the exhibit’s most poignant moments is a dark room that holds only Roosevelt’s diary, opened to the page where, on Feb. 14, 1884, he marked the page with a large X and wrote, “The light has gone out of my life.”

That diary is one of relatively few original items on display; most others are replicas. That’s owing to many of his belongings being displayed elsewhere, namely at the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site in New York City and Sagamore Hill National Historic Site on New York’s Long Island.

But the items don’t have to be real to get a real sense of what shaped this man.

You can step inside a replica of his log cabin in North Dakota, sit around a campfire as cowboys joke about the “dandy,” head into battle with the Rough Riders in Cuba, track his political rise and fall, experience the shenanigans of the Roosevelt children during their years in the White House, tag along for his near-deadly post-presidential expeditions, and stand in the family’s summer home when more tragedy strikes and word goes out that “the old lion is dead.”

All throughout, there are display cases to pore over that contextualize Roosevelt’s sometimes-complicated legacy, tap your wristband to generate a photo of what you might have looked like during one of Roosevelt’s many eras, and you can even ask the late president a question of your choosing, which he’ll answer thanks to the magic of AI.

A young visitor asked AI. "Teddy how many countries existed" when he was president and, after a long delay, he offered a thoughtful response.

Keep an Open Mind

Along with Offerman, you’ll hear a number of familiar voices throughout the exhibit, including George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Garth Brooks, Oprah Winfrey, José Andrés, and Doris Kearns Goodwin, who each take their own spin on reading Roosevelt’s famous 1910 “Man in the Arena” speech.

But one thing that’s surprising is that you won’t hear much of Roosevelt himself, even though some recordings of his speeches still exist.

Even without his voice, you might be surprised by what you learn about a politician who wouldn’t neatly fit into either of today’s dominant political parties. 

A familiar refrain throughout the exhibit is a visitor beginning what amounts to a fill-in-the-blank sentence by saying, “Oh wow, I had no idea that he ...”

All of this is intentional. 

The experiential elements in the library are intended to go beyond exploring Roosevelt’s legacy and encourage visitors to think about their own civic obligations, as Edward O’Keefe, chief executive officer of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation, told Cowboy State Daily last year.

“We wanted to build a place where you can learn about, and from, Theodore Roosevelt, where you can connect with friends and family and nature so you can decide what change you want to see in the world,” O’Keefe said in a piece published by Fast Company.

Other Things To Do

While the library has many places to sit and take a break from the exhibits, there’s also an on-site restaurant with options that are very good — albeit a bit pricey. If you arrive hungry, plan your meal accordingly, as many menu items were sold out by about 3 p.m.

Nearby Medora is teeming with plenty of kitschy tourist shops and you can easily drive the 36-mile loop in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in about two hours, with enough time to stop and snap photos of bison, prairie dogs, or a herd of wild horses. 

Medora might seem more bustling than in past visits, and while there are more lodging options now it remains a tourist trap of sorts. More plentiful (and affordable) options are in Glendive, Montana, about 60 miles west on I-94. 

There’s an additional bonus to staying over the border in Montana: Glendive is home to Montana’s largest state park, Makoshika State Park, where you can walk among badland formations where the fossil remains of many types of dinosaurs have been unearthed. The park’s entrance fee for nonresidents is $8.

Anna-Louise Jackson can be reached at: Jackson.Anna@gmail.com