Planned Mine Threatens Quiet Of N.D. Roosevelt Ranch

Theodore Roosevelt's great-grandson wants to stop development near the site of former president's badlands ranch in western North Dakota.

 

 

 

 

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Theodore Roosevelt's great-grandson wants to stop development near the site of former president's badlands ranch in western North Dakota.
 
The ranch itself is now part of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

But great-grandson Tweed Roosevelt has asked President Barack Obama to designate the area including an adjacent plot as a national monument.
 
The designation would block a proposed gravel mine and threaten plans for a bridge over the Little Missouri River.
 
The Forest Service bought the 5,200-acre parcel across from Roosevelt's Elkhorn ranch in 2007 for $5.3 million.

Conservation groups contributed $500,000 toward the purchase.
 
But the deal didn't include mineral rights and a Montana businessman now wants to create a gravel mine there.
 
Tweed Roosevelt argues the mine would bring unwanted heavy machinery, roads, noise and dust to the area.

(KFGO file photo)

 

AP

   

© 2012 KFGO-AM  |  1020 S. 25th Street Fargo, ND 58103