When TR arrived in Little Missouri in September of 1883 to hunt for buffalo, he was stunned by the wild, rough terrain, and yet curiously taken with it. There is a desolate, eerie, beauty in the badlands of North Dakota, where weather, time of day, and time of year create ever-changing color and shadow plays on the stratus of the unusual rock formations.
Shelter is necessary for the survival of the body, and houses provide that shelter; the building of a home, however, is a more tender necessity that sustains the heart.
The Plains are in a drought; one that has crept slowly and steadily northward from its epicenter in the south, which has been without adequate moisture for several years. The most severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, remains in the central plains, burning up portions of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, and extending into the southwest and the Rocky Mountains. Dry conditions don’t end there, but continue throughout the entire Great Plains region.