With the new year upon us, there’s no better time to explore how one of our most famous presidents might have drifted into the orbit of one of our most famous (mythical?) beasts.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), who emerged on the American landscape as a symbol of exuberant — some might say manic — masculinity before tumbling into the Presidency as a consequence of his predecessor’s assassination, was an active outdoorsman for nearly his entire life. He not only loved hiking, camping, and shooting big animals with high-powered firearms — he loved writing about those experiences. His books included The Wilderness Hunter, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman, and Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail.
In The Wilderness Hunter, Roosevelt describes a peculiar incident with a Native American guide while hunting in the Selkirk Mountain range (which extends through Idaho into eastern Washington):
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