Theodore Roosevelt
"My Impact on the West"
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Republican, Twenty-Sixth President
1901-1909
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Theodore Roosevelt was the most dominant figure in America from 1898 until his death in 1919. A sickly child, TR was determined to rise beyond his weaknesses and be as vibrant and significant as anyone in his day. That vibrancy took him on adventures throughout the world doing and seeing things that the ordinary man could only imagine. He experienced the Strenuous Life in its most beautiful and raw form. TR, however, not only was an adventurer, but a prolific writer, and therefore published accounts of Africa, South America, his Cuban Crowded Hour and his many locations in the American West.

TR was seen by both his friends and enemies as a bull in a china cabinet, yet every time he was faced by a new career challenge, he had a way of achieving far beyond what anyone might expect. The Presidency, with TR’s Big Stick, had grown in great significance by the time of his departure. The American West had grown. TR grew as well. By the time of his death, his writings were exhibiting a profoundness beyond the bluster of decades before. Remarkably, most all the issues TR and the Progressives stood for in the Presidential campaign of 1912 were adopted by the country and are in existence today.

TR’s specific contributions to the American West can be summarized in six major areas: 1) Western historian, 2) cowboy, adventurer, and sportsman, 3) conservator of Western resources, 4) preserver of natural treasures, 5) builder of the East/West bridge the Panama Canal, and 6) the administrator of Oklahoma Territory into statehood.

The Western TR comes to life with Dr. Gray’s portrayal. TR tells of his exploits in the West, stories of his Western friends, and in particular his friendship with Frank Frantz, Comanche Chief Quannah Parker, Wolfhunter Jack Abernathy and his sons, Bud and Temple. He charges up Kettle Hill and boxes in the White house with Frantz, kills a rattlesnake with a whip on the Great Wolf Hunt, and swaps stories with the great Chief Parker. It is full of bluster, fun and tidbits that will be among the most delightful and educational forty-five minutes of your life.

“... I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life; the life of toil and effort; of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires more easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship or from bitter toil, and who out of these
wins the splendid ultimate triumph.
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April 10, 1899

“...Our country this great republic means nothing unless it means the triumph of a real democracy, the triumph of popular government, and, in the long run, of an economic system under which each man shall be guaranteed the opportunity to show the best that there is in him.
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August 31, 1910

Historical Portrayal Setting
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On July 29, 1910, former President Theodore Roosevelt is in Enid, Oklahoma, at the invitation of former Rough Rider and Territorial Governor, Mr. Frank Frantz. It is also the occasion for the arrival of Bud and Temple Abernathy on their return from New York. Bud, age ten and Temple age six, rode by horseback to Washington, DC, to visit President Taft and then went on to New York to greet former President Roosevelt on his return from a trip to Africa and Europe. They purchased a new “Brush” automobile and are about to get back home. Mr. Roosevelt has agreed to speak briefly to the assembled crowd before Bud and Temple come through town on their way to Frederick, Oklahoma.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Enid’s own, and Oklahoma’s last Territorial Governor, Mr. Frank Frantz.

Governor Frank Frantz
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“For years I have been asking President Roosevelt to come to my home town of Enid, Oklahoma. It has taken two boys, Bud and Temple Abernathy, ages ten and six respectively, to get him here. “I had the pleasure of serving with Mr. Roosevelt as a Rough Rider in the Spanish-American War and as the last Territorial Governor of Oklahoma.

During his presidency, President Roosevelt helped Oklahoma become a state, helped create the Platt National Park in Sulphur and the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge near Ft. Sill. As an avid “Westerner from the East” we have invited him to Enid where the greatest land rush in history was held only seventeen years ago, and asked him to talk about his impact on the development of the “West.

Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the former President of the United States, President Theodore Roosevelt.”

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