2024 Theodore Roosevelt Symposium

Conservation and Sustainability

September 5-7, 2024



In the pages of The Outlook, in July 1900, Theodore Roosevelt famously wrote: "A man is worthless unless he has in him a lofty devotion to an ideal, and he is worthless also unless he strives to realize this ideal by practical methods." In two great and related areas, the conserving and sustaining the land, he put his ideals into practice. Speaking to the National Editorial Association in June 1907, Roosevelt said "the conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life." In questions of land, law, water, and the national parks, among others, the 19th TR Symposium looks to conservation and sustainability as two of the most important themes of his time and ours.

Join us September 5-7 to hear from several distinguished scholars, including keynote speaker Darrin Lunde of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, who will speak on the significance of the Smithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition of 1909-1910.

This year's format will differ slightly from previous years, in that we have shifted the balance towards panel discussions rather than individual lectures. This decision was based on guest feedback, which generally showed much greater interest in the panels, and the greater opportunities they provide to ask and answer questions. See the "Event Schedule" tab for information on the panels.

This symposium is supported by grants and donations from several organizations, including the City of Dickinson, the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, and the Rob and Melani Walton Foundation, as well as by the generous support of our individual donors.

 

All event times are in Mountain Daylight Time.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2024

5:00 PM – VIP Dinner – DSU Student Center - Reserved for paid ticketholders.

(This dinner was originally planned for Brickhouse Grille - response was so great that the number of guests outgrew the venue!)


FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2024
8:00 AM – Registration and light refreshments – DSU, Klinefelter Hall foyer

8:30 AM – A Brief Introduction to Theodore Roosevelt and the Gilded Age by Dr. Jeff Wells, Dennis and Vaune Johnson Endowed Chair in U.S. History, Dickinson State University – Klinefelter Hall, Beck Auditorium

8:45 AM – Panel 1: “Nature’s Sanctuaries: Protection of Public Lands”
Panelists:

  • Shannon Straight, Executive Director, Badlands Conservation Alliance
  • Joshua Lefers, Director of Conservation, Audubon Great Plains
  • Ryan Taylor, Director of Public Policy for ND, SD, and MT, Ducks Unlimited
  • Moderated by Clay Jenkinson, Theodore Roosevelt Humanities Scholar, Dickinson State University

9:45 AM – Refreshment break – Klinefelter Hall foyer

10:00 AM – "From Theodore Roosevelt's Desk To Yours" - A Demonstration of the TRC Digital Library

  • Dr. William Hansard, Outreach Coordinator, Theodore Roosevelt Center
  • Kelly Hyland, MLIS, Digital Collections Cataloger, Theodore Roosevelt Center
  • Erik Johnson, MA, MLIS, Digital Collections Cataloger, Theodore Roosevelt Center

11:00 AM – Panel 2: “Braving the Elements: Woods, Water, and the City in Roosevelt’s Time”
Panelists:

  • Rachel Lane, Programming Associate, Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library
  • Dr. Dario Fazzi, Professor of Transatlantic Environmental History, Leiden University and Roosevelt Institute for American Studies, Middelburg, NL
  • Dr. Ben Johnson, Professor, Department of History and School of Environmental Sustainability, Loyola University Chicago
  • Moderated by Dr. Michael Cullinane, Professor of History and Lowman-Walton Chair of Theodore Roosevelt Studies, Dickinson State University

12:15 PM – Lunch break – Student Center

2:00 PM – Panel 3: “Executive Power and American Conservation”
Panelists:

  • The Hon. Scott Bales, J.D., former Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court
  • Mark Squillace, J.D., Raphael J. Moses Professor of Law, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Moderated by Steven D. Easton, J.D., former President of Dickinson State University

3:00 PM –  Keynote Address: “Roosevelt’s African Expedition and Conservation Today” by Darrin Lunde, Collections Manager, Division of Mammals, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

4:15 – Reception – Lowman-Walton Hall, Fisher Industries Theodore Roosevelt Gallery

  • Exhibit, “Theodore Roosevelt: A Life in Letters” and mini-exhibit, “Conservation and Sustainability”
  • TRPL Morris Collection and TRC Archives Show-and-Tell with Sue Sarna, Senior Curator of Collections at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library and Kelly Hyland, MLIS, archivist at the Theodore Roosevelt Center.
  • Book signing with select symposium speakers.


SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2024
10:00 AM – Elkhorn Ranch – Attendees are encouraged to meet at the Elkhorn Ranch unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Commentary will be provided by Clay Jenkinson.

For those who wish to carpool or to follow other vehicles, please meet us at Chimney Park in Medora (35 miles west of Dickinson). We will depart at 9:00 am sharp. Carpool seating is limited. If you would like to volunteer seats in your vehicle, please let a member of the TR Center staff know.

Be prepared for a mildly strenuous excursion. The Elkhorn Ranch site is about ¾ of a mile from the parking area. The hike, generally about 15-20 minutes each way, is level but unpaved. There is no seating available.

The event is expected to last anywhere from one to two hours, but there is no hard duration set. You may come and go as you please if on your own. If you have events to attend in Medora, flights to catch, or are otherwise on a set schedule, please keep this in mind.

See below for directions to the Elkhorn Ranch unit. Please be advised that the site is remote – roads are unpaved and cellphone signal is limited or non-existent. There are no gas stations or other services.

Information and directions to the Elkhorn Ranch unit: https://www.nps.gov/thro/planyourvisit/elkhorn-ranch-unit.htm 

 

Symposium guests can also participate in other activities in Medora on Sept. 7, including a hot air balloon rally, both prior to and after the Elkhorn visit. Here is a direct link to the lineup of events: https://medora.com/hotairballoon/

Guests may also be interested in a visit to the Chateau de Mores and enjoy a drive on Chateau Road up the hill to view the presidential library site.  


Dr. Jeff Wells is the Dennis & Vaune Johnson Endowed Chair of U.S. History and an associate professor of history at Dickinson State University. An expert in Gilded Age and Progressive Era politics, Wells serves as an advisor to the Theodore Roosevelt Center. He has published numerous articles and chapters related to politics in Roosevelt’s era.



Shannon Straight is the Executive Director of the Badlands Conservation Alliance. He is an advocate for collaboration and is grounded in the belief that BCA will play a vital role in shaping North Dakota’s future that better balances resource development with conservation. He is determined to collaborate with all those willing to preserve and protect our sacred spaces.



Joshua Lefers is Audubon Great Plains’ Director of Conservation. He is well versed in conservation and biology of Northern Great Plains rangelands and birds, and has a strong understanding of the culture of habitat restoration and conservation in landscapes dominated by private working lands. He leads partnership building and fundraising to support working lands conservation programs, and oversees Audubon-administered working lands programs in the Dakotas and Nebraska.



Ryan Taylor is a fourth-generation rancher, published author, former policy maker and advocate for rural people and rural places. Taylor was a North Dakota State Senator for three terms, one of which he served as senate minority leader. As a Bush Foundation Fellow, he traveled to Norway to study public policies governing the country's well-respected oil and gas development. He joined Ducks Unlimited in 2019 as public policy director for the prairie states of North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana.

 

Clay Jenkinson, Theodore Roosevelt Humanities Scholar, has devoted most of his professional career to public humanities programs, including lectures, symposiums, documentary film-making, and first-person interpretation of historical characters. He made his North Dakota debut appearance as Theodore Roosevelt at Dickinson State University in the spring of 2005, at the inception of the TRC, and his creative vision has guided its development.



Darrin Lunde is the Collections Manager in the Division of Mammals at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. He is active in promoting the shared missions of great mammal collections around the world. He has named more than a dozen new species of mammals and shed light on hundreds of other, lesser-known species. His overarching professional goal is to illuminate the rich diversity of mammals with which we share the world.



Rachel Lane is a Programming Associate with the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. A former TR Center intern, Lane also writes a monthly history newsletter about Theodore Roosevelt and his world called Missing Pieces. She is the 2024-2025 Theodore Roosevelt Association Fellow for the Study of the Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt, awarded by Harvard University’s Houghton Library.



Dr. Dario Fazzi is Professor of Transatlantic Environmental History at Leiden University and the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies in Middelburg, the Netherlands. His work is situated at the crossroads between diplomatic and environmental studies. He has published extensively on transatlantic protests, U.S. global base politics, and anti-toxics campaigns.



Dr. Benjamin Johnson is a Professor in History at Loyola University Chicago.  Dr. Johnson's primary areas of research and teaching include environmental history, North American borders, and Latino history.  He has taught courses on North American and world environmental history, natural disasters, immigration and ethnicity in the United States, and border and transnational history more generally.



Dr. Michael Patrick Cullinane is the Lowman Walton Chair in Theodore Roosevelt Studies and Professor of History at Dickinson State University. He is the award-winning author of Theodore Roosevelt’s Ghost: The History and Memory of an American Icon among other scholarship. He is also the host of the podcast The Gilded Age and Progressive Era.



The Hon. Scott Bales, J.D. retired from the Arizona Supreme Court in 2019 after fourteen years of service, including a five-year term as Chief Justice from 2014 to 2019. He then served as the Executive Director of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver through July 2020. Prior to joining the court, Bales practiced law in Arizona as both a private and public lawyer, focusing on appellate and complex litigation.



Mark Squillace, J.D. joined the faculty at the University of Colorado Law School in 2005 where he served as Director of the Natural Resources Law Center until 2013. Professor Squillace is a former Fulbright scholar and the author or co-author of numerous articles and books on natural resources and environmental law. In 2000, Professor Squillace served as Special Assistant to the Solicitor at the U.S. Department of the Interior, and worked directly with the Secretary of the Interior on legal and policy issues.



Steven D. Easton, J.D. served as the 13th permanent President of Dickinson State University, from 2020 to 2024. Easton practiced law for more than 20 years before returning to higher education as a professor and administrator. As a professor, Easton's research, writing, and speaking focused on expert witnesses, effective trial advocacy, and professional responsibility (ethics).



Susan Sarna joined the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library (TRPL) in April 2023 as the Senior Curator of Collections. She is the former curator of Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, TR's home in Oyster Bay, NY. She managed two multi-million-dollar renovations and provided a new vision for interpretation through temporary exhibits and the redesign of permanent exhibits. Susan has lectured frequently, edited multiple Roosevelt books, and written articles for newsletters and academic journals.


Kelly Hyland studied history and English at Luther College. She was a Theodore Roosevelt Center intern during the summer of 2017, and after she earned her Master of Library and Information Science from Simmons University, she quickly joined the staff full-time. As a digital collections cataloger, Kelly links, describes, and prepares for publication the materials in the digital library.

TICKETS for sale on Eventbrite

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/19th-theodore-roosevelt-symposium-tickets-909845150337

Registration with meals is $100. Registration without meals is free. 

Livestreaming is FREE thanks to a generous sponsorship by the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. A free ticket is required.


LODGING options include:

ROOSEVELT GRAND DAKOTA HOTEL, SURESTAY COLLECTION BY BEST WESTERN
7-minute drive from Dickinson State University
532 15th St W, Dickinson
(701) 483-5600

Limited rooms available at a discounted rate. $99+tax, ask for "Theodore Roosevelt Symposium"
Reservation deadline - August 16, 2024


LA QUINTA INN & SUITES BY WYNDHAM
6-minute drive from Dickinson State University
552 12th St W, Dickinson
(701) 456-2500

BADLANDS MOTEL
40-minute drive from Dickinson State University
501 Pacific Ave, Medora
1-800-633-6721

ROUGH RIDERS HOTEL
40-minute drive from Dickinson State University
301 3rd Ave, Medora
1-800-633-6721


TRANSPORTATION/TAXI SERVICE options include:

Dickinson Public Transit: (701) 483-6564
Daily 6:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.

Dakota Taxi: (701) 334-6590
Superior Taxi: (701) 264-9895
Dickinson Transportation Services: (701) 690-2167