President Theodore Roosevelt Attests to the Enduring Value of Hunting and the Wilderness in His Life

"Hunters can be allies in the fight against the destruction of the land and its animals: [Your book] will make the lover of big game and of the wilderness an instrument against…the destruction of both.”

Theodore Roosevelt strove for a life that embodied his ideal of assertive masculinity. He was at various times an outdoor sportsman, explorer, western rancher, and soldier, as well as a strong political leader and writer on history and public affairs.

Conservation of natural wonders and natural resources became TR's legacy. He started his efforts to preserve Yellowstone National Park as early as 1894 when he was president of the Boone and Crockett Club (a hunters' organization comprised of eminent scientists, lawyers and politicians), and worked with the Secretary of the Interior to enlarge the park and improve its governance. In 1903, as President, Roosevelt determined to travel through the West and visit national parks there, most especially Yellowstone, which had just become much more accessible to the public with the opening of the Northern Pacific Railway link to Gardiner, Montana, at Yellowstone’s north entrance.

TR used his presidential authority to protect wildlife and public lands by creating the United States Forest Service (USFS) and establishing 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, 4 national game preserves, 5 national parks, and 18 national monuments. He also protected approximately 230 million acres of public land.

Likewise with hunting.  He was perhaps the most famous hunter in America, and his trips to Africa and the Amazon as an explorer are legendary. In 1909, after leaving the White House, Roosevelt would head to Africa on a great hunting trip with his son.  He would collect specimens to send back to the Smithsonian and hunt the great beasts of the Continent. But here as well he argued for responsible hunting and not for the destruction of entire species, which he had seen happen to the American bison. The decimation of bison, and the eradication of elk, bighorn sheep, deer and other game species, was a loss that Roosevelt felt indicative of society's incorrect perception of our natural resources.

In 1902, Edward North Buxton published a book entitled “Two African Trips,” which detailed his experience among hunters and locals in Africa.  Buxton was a hunter, but also worried that rampant hunting, in which one hunter might kill 25 animals in one morning, would end in the destruction of that species and the inability to further hunt or even see that animal. He aimed to support the cause of big game hunting and of game preservation, which he felt not inconsistent.

Typed letter signed, on White House letterhead, Washington, December 8, 1902, to Buxton. “My dear Buxton, I have been delighted with your book.  You are one of the most potent among the teachers and pioneers in the movement which will make the lover of big game and of the wilderness an instrument against, instead of in favor of, the destruction of both.  As I grow older, I do not lose my taste for hunting, and I think my fondness for the wilderness increases; but I certainly disbelieve more and more in butchery.

“I have taken the liberty of sending you a copy of a volume to which I contributed, in which you will see that I preach somewhat the same doctrine. With warm regards to all your people, and earnest wishes that I may see you on this side of the water while I am President and have you my guest at the White House.”

This is as splendid a manifestation of TR’s feeling that his love for hunting and the wilderness, which had such positive repercussions during his term in office, was growing with time, that we have ever seen.