Give the Gift of Medora for Christmas! INSIDE 2 1986 - 2016 president’s message 3 Theodore Roosevelt under harold’s hat Medora Foundation Turns 30 4 ask president roosevelt 5 ed schafer remembers 6-7 a trmf timeline 8 gift restores joe ferris store Optimism, Gratitude and Generosity…. edora will surprise people people of North Dakota in 1986. And for the next 15 Mwith its plans to continue a years, until he died in 2001, he guided us through the trend of record setting attendance restoration and reconstruction of this important place in and visitation in 2016. North Dakota’s history. My urge is to give you details about the upcoming season that “ It all started with Harold’s generosity, but explain why we are excited for the summer. Those details will have it continues today with yours ” to wait for our next newsletter. Randy Hatzenbuhler Instead I want to share the North Dakota would be a very different place today TRMF President source of our excitement. It is not if Harold had not created this foundation. I think often foolhardy or without consideration of the time I first realized how overwhelmed Harold of challenges. It is why the Theodore Roosevelt Medora was that people would be willing to give money to this Foundation is able to celebrate our 30th anniversary foundation he had created to take care of Medora. in 2016. It is part of our culture, our “DNA” that was His expressions of gratitude, given so graciously and given to us by Harold Schafer. Harold had “habits” often, were received as gifts. If only he could see, of optimism, generosity and gratitude. I intentionally today, what YOUR giving has done for Medora. It all refer to these as habits rather than attitudes or started with Harold’s generosity, but it continues today characteristics. with yours, and thousands of others who continue Habits require action, not just thought. to help us carry out the vision to connect people to Harold’s optimism created positive energy for Medora for positive life changing experiences. getting things done. He spoke, wrote and built plans Come visit us this summer. We think you’ll like the from an optimistic view. How else could he have new shows and store, and the new Life Skills Center. imagined the restoration of Medora?! His generosity And we are really proud of the New York Times article was not a one-time event; it was repeated and that listed Theodore Roosevelt National Park as one repeated until his goal to give everything away was of the “52 Must See Places to See in the World” during accomplished. Harold’s view of wealth and the good it 2016 (it was the #1 place in the United States on the can do through giving is what many write about, but few list!). The rest of the world is coming to know what actually do. Our team is catching up on thank you calls Harold recognized a long time ago. to people who made year-end gifts; it is remarkable One more thing. Before you put this newsletter how saying “Thank You” lifts our spirits. down, be sure to read the letter on Page 10 that I By the time you finish reading this newsletter, you received a couple months ago from one of our 2015 will see how this foundation came to be, and how seasonal employees. It’s the embodiment of the joy and important it was to not just Harold Schafer, but to his love of work, and Medora, that Harold brought to all of whole family, and all of us who have been involved with us who ever had the good fortune to be associated with it over the years. Harold truly did give Medora to the him. He would be so proud. COME JOIN US Become an annual member of the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation today. Fill out and send in the form on page 11, or go to MEDORA.COM/donate to learn more and THANK YOU, HAROLD, AND ALL THE SCHAFER FAMILY get involved. MEMBERS, FOR YOUR WONDERFUL GIFT! ~MEMBER~ 2 Under Harold’s Hat TRMF’s Founder and First Board Chairman Harold Schafer was well-known for a faded old felt hat covered with pins and buttons from people he had met and places he had been. A lot of wisdom emanated from under that hat, and each issue we bring you some of that, from Harold’s extensive files and those of his Gold Seal Company. The Creation of the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation (Excerpted from Aristocrat of the West: The Story of Harold the East Coast versus North Dakota. He told me anything TRA Schafer by Larry Woiwode) did in Medora would be like a sore thumb to them. That was his Harold was working out the details for judgement. He told me to do something instead with Medora, already severed from Gold Seal. the people of North Dakota.” How could he presume to attempt to give a So Harold traveled back, with Roosevelt heavy place on earth permanence? It was vanity. on his heart, and considered his prospects. He For a hundred years the town had gone its remembered Laurance Rockefeller was one of way without Gold Seal, there throughout the the founders of Williamsburg, and wrote to him, history of the continent, its value to the future asking if he could suggest someone who might increasing by the process of no change, help, in the way of legal advice, to create the kind of nearly opposite the way business worked. organization Harold envisioned. Rockefeller passed “I started asking questions of attorneys I on a name, and, more important, sent Harold a copy had worked with and members of the family. If of the founding papers of the reconstructed village of I put it under a foundation, should it be private Williamsburg. or public? It ought to be public, I decided, “The Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation broader in scope—they operate under broader is patterned exactly after it—take out the words parameters and should reach farther with Williamsburg, Virginia, and put in Medora, North their ideas. I tried to give it to the Theodore Dakota—but with one big exception. They put 400 Roosevelt Association.” plus million into Williamsburg, and we didn’t have Harold went East and talked with one one per cent of that.” of their directors, who said that no matter how much Harold might What Harold did give, along with family members who held shares admire the TRA or want to continue what he had at Medora by in Gold Seal, was two million in cash. To the press he said “The making it part of TRA, “it just wasn’t going to work. There’s a family has contributed Medora to the state of North Dakota”— terrific difference between the East and the West,” he said. “In the meaning all that Gold Seal had sunk into Medora over the decades, Roosevelt family itself there’s a different feeling about his life on all that Harold had built and reconstructed, plus the new amount. THANK YOU, HAROLD, AND ALL THE SCHAFER FAMILY MEMBERS, FOR YOUR WONDERFUL GIFT! 3 Ask President Roosevelt “Ask President Roosevelt” is a feature of the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation Member Newsletter, the Rough Riders Review. For four summers, veteran TR reprisor, historian, and actor Joe Wiegand has brought Theodore Roosevelt to life on the matinee stage at Medora’s Old Town Hall Theater. During the off-season, Joe Joe Wiegand as President Theodore travels the country as TR, representing Roosevelt the Medora Foundation. As part of every performance, in character as TR, Wiegand takes questions from the audience. Q: I’ve seen your show in Medora several times, and look Medora’s own Theodore Roosevelt, Joe Wiegand, in a scene forward to bringing family and friends to the Old Town from the Imax movie National Parks Adventure. Hall Theater this summer. Will there be anything new or Centennial of the National Park Service. To celebrate the special about your show? Centennial of the National Park Service, I A:I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the will be touring the United States throughout Salute to Medora. This year, to 2016 Medora the months of May, June and early July. celebrate the Centennial of the Musical Tickets Plans are in the works for TR visits and National Park Service, I’m going On Sale April 25 performances at dozens of National Parks, to add a number of stories about National Monuments, and National Historic the National Parks and National at Medora.com! Sites, sharing the stories of life at the Monuments, with a special salute to Elkhorn Ranch along the Little Missouri our first park, Yellowstone, and some and recounting the preservation of such new stories about life at the Elkhorn important public lands as the Grand Ranch along the Little Missouri, Canyon, Crater Lake, Wind Cave, Mount now an important part of Theodore Olympus, and Mesa Verde. To keep up Roosevelt National Park. with TR’s travels and performances on behalf of the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Featuring A Salute to the 100th Q: I hear you’re appearing in an Foundation, visit Imax movie now? Birthday of the National Park Service. www.teddyrooseveltshow.com A: Here’s the promo piece sent out by the show’s producers: Medora’s Theodore Roosevelt featured in National Parks Adventure “The film National Parks Adventure, produced by MacGillivray-Freeman Films, the world’s leader in Imax, follows Montanans Conrad Anker, Max Lowe, and Rachel Pohl on a climbing and biking adventure in a number of dazzling National Parks.