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known for Indian massacres have also given this park, in a sense, an orphaned status. Only the WPA guide for North Dakota has ever really done this hilly, serene woodland justice.41 But Roosevelt felt that by signing a proclamation for Sully’s Hill that June, he was accomplishing many goals. For starters, he was beloved throughout North Dakota, like a favorite son. (He won the state in the 1904 presidential election by a landslide.) Roosevelt’s act on behalf of Sully’s Hill met with virtually no resistance. He was saying that North Dakota had subtle “wonders” equal to those in California, Oregon, and Wyoming. Since first visiting Fargo in 1880, Roosevelt had been enthusiastic about the Red River valley of Minnesota–North Dakota; and the tiny lakes around Sully’s Hill offered a chance for him to save a migratory bird area he treasured. Also, the wooded glacial moraine mounds of Sully’s Hill were in stark contrast to the surrounding prairies. It was an oasis for wildlife.

But mainly President Roosevelt, from reading so much about ornithology, knew that the Devils Lake area (of which Sully’s Hill was a part) provided essential bird breeding grounds in the Central Flyway. Sully’s Hill, in particular, was a favorite inland breeding ground of the American white pelican. If his administration was going to save pelicans in Florida and other Gulf states, he likewise needed to preserve the species’ northern wetlands and prairie habitats.* Although there is no documentary evidence, Roosevelt may have created Sully’s Hill National Park in solidarity with the American Civic Association. That same June, the association, under the conservationist leadership of the newspaperman J. Horace McFarland of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, initiated a well-publicized effort for America to create more national, state, and municipal parks. A devotee of Roosevelt’s philosophy of the strenuous life, McFarland urged that all politicians should adopt parks in their home districts. The Boone and Crockett Club had inventoried all federal and state parks and, embarrassingly, North Dakota had none; making Sully’s Hill a national park changed that.42 “The steep forested hills within Sully’s Hill are a unique island of trees in North Dakota’s sea of prairies,” a local wrote in Outdoors magazine, “and many people enjoy the fall colors during September and October.”43

Even while campaigning Roosevelt found time to stay involved in conservation efforts regarding the Boone and Crockett Club, Sully’s Hill National Park, Alaskan lands, California’s trout, Virginia’s flowers, and the Washington Mall. And his efforts in the movement to protect wild birds increased greatly. Pelican Island had merely whetted his appetite for more federal bird reservations. Edward Howe Forbush, founder of the Massachusetts Audubon Society and author of Birds of Massachusetts and Other New England States, had just released an alarming special report about the diminution of various species along the Atlantic coast. From Oyster Bay that July, the president wrote to Forbush about the wood thrushes, catbirds, meadowlarks, robins, song sparrows, chirping sparrows, and Baltimore orioles he found along the cove near Sagamore Hill. While these species seemed to be thriving on Long Island, Roosevelt worried about New England. “Are the birds,” Roosevelt asked Forbush, apparently with fingers crossed, “recovering their ground?”44

Roosevelt had encouraged states to form their own bird sanctuaries and forest reserves. Worried about the overharvesting of the Great Lakes pine forests, Roosevelt pleaded with the governors of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota to create state-run reserves. Following his bear hunt in Mississippi, Roosevelt also pleaded with southern states to develop forestry programs. In 1904 Louisiana became the first southern state to do so; the last one was Arkansas in 1931. Under Pinchot’s leadership close cooperation between federal and state forest units was encouraged.45

That summer at Oyster Bay, even under the pressure of the 1904 presidential election, Roosevelt found time to