Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail by Theodore Roosevelt

No American president has been closer to the working life of the West than Theodore Roosevelt. From 1884 to 1886 he built up his ranch on the Little Missouri in Dakota Territory, accepting the inevitable toil and hardships. He met the unique characters of the Bad Lands—mountain men, degenerate buffalo hunters, Indians, and cowboys—and observed their changes as the West became more populated.
Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail describes Roosevelt's routine labor and extraordinary adventures, including a stint as a deputy sheriff pursuing three horse thieves through the cold of winter. Whether recounting stories of cowboy fights or describing his hunting of elk, antelope, and bear, the book expresses his lifelong delight in physical hardihood and tests of nerve.

TR's delightful prose provides a straightforward and very entertaining read.

The book is handsomely illustrated with 95 pen and ink drawings by the premier western artist of the time, Frederic Remington. 

“Ranch Life And The Hunting Trail is an evocative souvenir of a simpler America, written by the man who a few years later helped propel the country along the road to Empire.” Kirkus Reviews

“the author carries the reader into the quaint ranch life of the West with an ease that makes him revel, for the time, in the glories of the mud-chinked cabins and humble fare, until the song of the meadow lark is the sweetest sound in the world.” Rollin E. Smith, The Sportsman’s Magazine

Theodore Roosevelt (1858 – 1919) was the 26th president of the United States and a noted sportsman and naturalist. This book was first published in 1888. He died in 1919.