When a young Theodore Roosevelt stepped from his train car in September 1883, he had only a dim idea of what lay before him in the remote settlement of Little Missouri. Roosevelt’s interest in hunting a buffalo, as well as some personal interest in the lifestyle of the West, had led him to this remote outpost. With his pregnant wife Alice at home 2,400 miles away, Roosevelt stood alone in the dark as the train lurched away toward Montana. He knew no one in the small settlement before him, and was unsure how the locals might receive him. As he walked toward the Pyramid Park Hotel, the four-eyed New York dude was immersed in a world he had only read about, a place that bristled with distrust of outsiders, especially Easterners. Roosevelt could not have imagined how his adventure in this unfamiliar environment brimming with tough, independent men would forever alter the course of his life.
