Robbie Lauf

142 years ago today, a young Theodore Roosevelt nearly gave up on his life after his wife and mother died on the same day in the same house. His journal entry that day: “The light has gone out of my life.” What did he do? He went to the Badlands and was reborn. Keep going.

One month from today. On July 4, 2026 — America's 250th birthday — the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opens its doors for the first time. The first new presidential library in over a decade, in the same Badlands landscape that changed the man it's named for. Opening day itself is sold out. But here's the good news: this isn't a one-day event. The Library is open all summer, all fall, right through the end of the year — and tickets for those dates are available right now. So if you've been waiting for a sign to plan the trip, this is it. Pick your weekend. Tell the people you'd want beside you when you walk out onto that boardwalk for the first time. And get your tickets before your favorite dates fill in. Reserve now: trlibrary.com/tickets #TheodoreRoosevelt #GrandOpening #July4 #America250 #VisitMedora #DareGreatly

Get ready, Patriots! One month until the 4th of July!

@KristiWHanson Best show ever. Truly.

@RobbieLauf Omg!!! Goosebumps! I can’t wait to see it!

Opening night of the Medora Musical! 🇺🇸

A perfect day in Medora: 71 degrees and sunshine from sunup to sundown. And then, just as evening settled in, the Badlands did what the Badlands do. Our Executive Director, Robbie Lauf, was working late at the Library site when this storm rolled in over the buttes — and caught it. The rain it carried is welcome: it feeds the native prairie we're working to restore on the land around the Library, the grasses and wildflowers that green up across the Badlands after a good soaking. Theodore Roosevelt knew this country's skies could turn in a heartbeat. He lived through its blizzards and its heat and wrote about both with awe. Looking back on his ranching years on the Little Missouri, he remembered: "In the soft springtime the stars were glorious in our eyes each night before we fell asleep; and in the winter we rode through blinding blizzards, when the driven snow-dust burned our faces." Beauty and force in the same sky. That's the Badlands — and it's a big part of why this place changed him.

“There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of great and generous emotion, of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder.” - Theodore Roosevelt One month to go to Grand Opening 🇺🇸

A typical evening in Medora.

― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned

@WWarkenthien We don’t - but it’s on the dream list!

@RobbieLauf did you guys get this one at the museum?

Theodore Roosevelt famously brought a copy of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina to read while tracking down three thieves who had stolen his boat on the Little Missouri River in 1886. Needing to stay awake during the multi-day pursuit through the badlands, TR read it to pass the time.

Incredible day with our first @TRPresLibrary team orientation for 60+ incredible team members in western North Dakota! One month to go 🇺🇸

Bears got a QB on a Madden cover before Jordan Love won the North

Nature is (literally) healing.

The first-ever episode of the Discover Medora Podcast just dropped — and our own Executive Director Robbie Lauf is the inaugural guest. Recorded live at the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame, Robbie sat down with host Kari Dunn to talk about why Theodore Roosevelt's story belongs in the Badlands, what's actually happening here on July 4, 2026, and the moment he met his wife (named Medora, no less) on a blind date in town. A few things you'll hear: → Why this place healed T.R. — and why Robbie believes it can do the same for the next generation → The story behind the building Snøhetta designed to hide in the Badlands instead of compete with them → The River of Doubt experience that visitors will be talking about long after they leave → Why a one-day Medora trip isn't enough — and what Robbie recommends instead "This is kind of an unveiling to the world that the T.R. story, the culmination point, the fulcrum point in his story, happened here in North Dakota." "We built a 100,000 square foot building on a butte top that hadn't been developed, and did it in a way that is going to make it zero water, zero waste, zero energy." If you're planning a trip to Medora — or you're just curious about what's being built on that butte top — this is the conversation to start with. Listen now: ow.ly/XBAP50Z5pyf Thanks to @visitmedora for having us as your very first guest. #DiscoverMedora #TheodoreRooseveltPresidentialLibrary #TRPL #Medora #NorthDakota #Badlands #TeddyRoosevelt

The Bohl Bowl.

Toured @USBR's Heart Butte Dam in North Dakota yesterday, one of many @USBR sites used to irrigate farmland, prevent flooding, maintain fish and wildlife habitats and support recreational activities!

Exciting to see the finishing touches coming together at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, set to open on July 4th for @Freedom250! This will be a worthy tribute to his legacy of conservation, patriotism and adventure that helped shape the American story.

NEW EPISODE: Senator Mitt Romney on Formative Moments, Presidential Leadership, and the Question of Legacy What keeps a politician anchored to his principles when every incentive pulls the other way? On the latest Good Citizen, Senator @MittRomney traces the answer back to his father's kitchen table — where George Romney, a man who rose from government housing in El Paso to the governor's mansion in Michigan, never once confused success with worth. Senator Romney joins host Ted Roosevelt V for a wide-ranging conversation about moral clarity, the outsized influence of presidential character on American values, and why he built a deliberate system to guard against self-rationalization during the impeachment trial. "The human mind has the capacity to rationalize self-interest. It is something we are all subject to," he told Ted. "You have to begin by asking yourself, what are your most fundamental values and is obedience the truth and right and wrong, as you understand it, one of those fundamental values?" He also offers a surprisingly grounded take on what it will actually take to rebuild common ground — and it starts with something simpler than you'd think. Listen now: ow.ly/wgkh50Z0TiS #GoodCitizen #TheodoreRooseveltPresidentialLibrary #TRPL #MittRomney #Leadership #Citizenship #MoralCourage

50 days. We're at the halfway mark between when tickets went on sale and when the doors open. The countdown has a different energy now. Fifty days feels close. Fifty days feels real. The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opens July 4 in Medora, North Dakota — and every one of those 50 remaining days is a day closer to telling the story that this landscape has been waiting to tell for 140 years. T.R. arrived in the Badlands in 1883. He left a changed man. Now there's a place built to show you how and why — in the exact terrain where it happened. 50 days. Have you grabbed your tickets yet? trlibrary.com/visit #OpeningJuly4 #TRLibrary #TheodoreRoosevelt #Medora #NorthDakota #GrandOpening #CountingDown #50Days