National Parks - Rough Rider | 3
American History Tellers
Wondery
4.7 • 18.3K Ratings
🗓️ 29 August 2018
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Put out to pasture, thinking his political career over, Theodore Roosevelt was atop a mountain when he heard the news: an assassin’s bullet would likely take President McKinley’s life, and make Roosevelt president.
Upon his inauguration shortly after, Teddy brought his lifelong love of the natural world into the White House with him. He found his executive pen a powerful tool, setting aside vast swaths of land as preserves and monuments. And later, as he sought his first term as an elected president, he embarked on the most comprehensive tour of America’s natural wonders any president had ever made: he was struck speechless at the Grand Canyon, met naturalist John Burroughs in Yellowstone, and took “the most important camping trip in history” with John Muir in Yosemite.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music, download the app today. |
| 0:17.0 | Imagine it's 1.25 pm, Friday the 13th, 1901. |
| 0:23.0 | You and some friends are on a climbing expedition in the Adirondacks. |
| 0:27.0 | You've just descended 500 feet from the top of Mount Marcy, the highest peak in New York. |
| 0:32.0 | Your party leader organized this trip. His family has joined too, but when you all awoke this morning, |
| 0:37.0 | the thick drizzle convinced his wife to bring their children to a lower point on the mountain. |
| 0:42.0 | What your leader wished to push on, and so at 9 a.m., you and several other friends joined him on the climb. |
| 0:48.0 | It took three hours to reach the summit, but it offered a spectacular view. |
| 0:54.0 | As you made your way back down, you all agreed that the lake on the mountain's southwest slope, |
| 0:58.0 | the locals call it Tear of the Clouds, was a prime spot to enjoy, light lunch of sardines and heart tech. |
| 1:04.0 | As you eat, you notice your friend is quieter than usual. |
| 1:07.0 | What's the matter, Theodore? Not enough variety of flora and fauna. |
| 1:11.0 | Are you finding it hard to talk our ears off again today? |
| 1:14.0 | He gives a polite laugh, but he seems melancholy. |
| 1:17.0 | No, I just hadn't expected this to be the last high peak I'd climb. |
| 1:23.0 | You don't have plenty of peaks left to climb, you're only 42, 43 and 6 weeks. |
| 1:27.0 | Still, your life isn't stalling in middle age. |
| 1:30.0 | You feel certain he is destined for great things and higher peaks. |
| 1:34.0 | As a young man, he had a meteoric rise to fame and power, becoming a thorn in the side of career politicians in both New York and Washington. |
| 1:42.0 | He should still be governor, but party bosses maneuvered him into the delus job in the nation, vice president of the United States. |
| 1:50.0 | A position that provides no power or independence and prevents a man with ambition from doing anything worthwhile. |
| 1:56.0 | I never should have accepted this job. Cheer up. |
... |
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