More than 100 years after the iconic president’s death, in 2026, the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library will be open to the public. It will be the first and only presidential library where you can arrive by horseback or bike.
In January, North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum announced a $50 million donation from oil tycoon Harold Hamm to catalyze the construction of the long-planned project.
“We are still actively fundraising.,” library CEO Ed O’Keefe told the Bismarck Tribune, but added, “Harold’s gift is a game-changer, and we want everyone to get in the arena for the T.R. Library.”
The library’s organizers denied The Federalist’s request for an interview.
The new library will be located across 90 acres of U.S. Forest Service land near Roosevelt’s ranch and hunting grounds in the North Dakota Badlands. The library’s proximity to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the only national park named after a former president, sets up the new institution to be one of the most visited of its kind.
“We already have hundreds of thousands of visitors that are coming to the national park every summer,” Burgum said on Fox News last week. “We expect, with a library being added to that, that this will be the most visited presidential library in the country.”
The location also pays homage to Roosevelt as “the conservation president” for doubling the size of the National Park system in the White House after formative years in the American West.
“Roosevelt was the first Western president in the
