MEDORA, N.D. – A project several years in the making has now officially opened in Medora, N.D.
The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library’s grand opening celebration happened Saturday, while earlier in the week, the dedication of the library was held. The dedication, attended by President Donald Trump, was a part of America 250 celebrations across the nation, including one in neighboring South Dakota, where Trump spoke at Mount Rushmore.
“This might look behind us like a more of a traditional museum where you’ve got displays and historical artifacts and interactive things, and it does go chronologically,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said. “But as you go down, this is a spine, and off of that there are different interactive opportunities to learn.”
Interactive Technology
The library, situated in Medora, has lots of interactive technology.
“In this Cuba exhibit, you will be in the middle of the battle,” Burgum said. “It’s like you’re charging up San Juan Hill with the president.”
There is also an opportunity to see things from Roosevelt’s youth, including when he rode a train after finding out his mother and wife ‘are near death.’
“You can actually ride the train and experience him as he’s heading towards this incredible moment of darkness,” Burgum said.
The interactivity at the library is thanks to a partnership with Microsoft, he said. That includes an exhibit Burgum calls “AI Teddy.”
“So between his spoken words, his written words, all the letters that he wrote – He wrote more letters than Washington and Jefferson combined. So all of that has been loaded up into a closed, as they call it, walled garden And so the brain of AI Teddy only knows what he wrote, what he said, what he spoke,” Burgum said. “And then a few approved historians that have written biographies about him that’s all verified. That’s all loaded in there.”
He said President Donald Trump. had a chance to go in here and visit with Theodore Roosevelt and ask him questions.
“He asked him about the Panama Canal. ‘Was that your greatest achievement?’ And then we were leaving, and then he wanted to come back. And he goes, ‘I got a few more,’” Burgum said. “And he asked TR about, you know, when do you pursue war and when do you pursue peace? And they had a powerful conversation about that.”
Teaching the future students
Burgum said there are desires and plans for students to come as fourth, eighth and eleventh graders.
“You can come back each time and have a different experience,” he said.
North Dakota university leaders have also grasped the beauty that is the library – including the University of Mary’s Monsignor James Shea.
Shea told Burgum that they are going to build the library ‘into curriculum for the school.’
Burgum also spoke to Higher Education Commissioner Brent Sanford.
“I said, ‘Brent, this private sector university is moving pretty fast. You need to get new university presidents out here,’” he said.
Looking to the future
Burgum said reaching the opening of the library ‘is a great milestone.’
“When we started, we had nothing. We had no land. We had no architect. We had no budget. We barely had any believers in it,” he said. “But we had a date.We had a release date, like we used to have in the software business. And that release date was going to be July 4th, 2024.”
Burgum said there is ‘so much more we can do here.’
“TR Conservation Scholars, I think we do it,” he said. “It’s going to be right up there with the Rhodes Scholarship. It’s going to be one of the top scholarship programs in the world.”
‘World-Class institutions’
Burgum, who before serving as Secretary of the Interior under Trump was governor, says there are a lot of takeaways for North Dakotans.
But the biggest of them?
“You have to look at this project and understand that in North Dakota, even in rural North Dakota, we can build world-class institutions,” he said. “We can have an impact on the nation, the world from North Dakota, just like TR did.”
