Elkhorn

After suffering a great personal loss, 25-year-old Theodore Roosevelt abandons New York politics for the lawless Dakota Badlands, where he plans to become a cattle rancher at the height of the Beef Bonanza. The former politician must now navigate a dangerous path through the Badlands, where his youth and physical frailty make him an easy target. Upon arriving in the frontier town of Medora, he immediately squares off with a gunslinging bully. Time and again, Roosevelt must prove his strength on the forty-mile journey to secure the property for his cattle ranch. Along the way, he is haunted by memories of loss, and he survives a first encounter with a powerful and deadly landowner, the Marquis de Morés. With the help of his lumberjack mentor, Bill Sewall, and his cowboy partner, William Merrifield, Roosevelt establishes the sprawling Elkhorn Ranch. The adventures and hardships of building Elkhorn will transform the young Roosevelt into a true cowboy and set him on a path to greatness.

Roosevelt’s efforts to prove himself a capable cowboy are off to a shaky start when he’s mocked by a loudmouthed ranch hand. On the spot, Roosevelt challenges the new hire to put up his fists or shut up. After Roosevelt proves his mettle, the two become fast friends. But soon, Roosevelt’s reputation takes another hit when a neighboring rancher accuses his men of rustling cattle. To save Elkhorn’s good name, Roosevelt and his men must capture the real thief and return the stolen livestock. In town, Medora buys a rundown inn and transforms it into the Hotel de Morés. Her first act is hiring a new manager, an impressive young woman named Rosie Maddox. When Medora realizes that a cattle rustler might be staying in the hotel, she tasks Rosie with uncovering the evidence.

Now that his cattle operation is up and running at Elkhorn Ranch, Theodore Roosevelt agrees to be photographed by a newspaperman. Determined to look the part, Roosevelt seeks out a seamstress to commission an authentic buckskin suit. While the cantankerous seamstress warns Roosevelt that buckskin isn’t well suited for the Badlands, Roosevelt collapses suddenly with another bout of enteritis, an illness that has plagued him his entire life. Out here on the frontier, without access to the proper medication, it suddenly becomes a matter of life or death. In a race against the clock, his trusted ranch manager, Bill Sewall, rides desperately into the Badlands to find the Sioux village that may have a remedy to save his friend. Meanwhile, the Marquis and Medora find themselves on the brink of financial ruin. To save their business empire, they decide to call in their debts at gunpoint.

When a masked bandit terrorizes the stagecoach line, killing a passenger, Theodore Roosevelt and his Elkhorn men join the citizens of Medora to track down the culprit. All the clues point to Redhead Finnegan, a petty criminal and ne’er-do-well who is suddenly flush with cash. The townsfolk confine Finnegan in an abandoned cavalry jailhouse, but he soon escapes and the stagecoach robberies resume. Deadwood’s sheriff arrives to help lay a trap, but things aren’t at all what they seem. In the end, it’s the town’s newspaper publisher who finally puts the clues together and identifies the killer, bringing his reign of terror to an end.

Theodore Roosevelt and his Elkhorn men strike out for the open range to participate in their first roundup. The weeks-long undertaking of sorting cattle is a chance for Roosevelt to prove himself a true cowboy. Unfortunately, the changing seasons bring back his asthma, and he is injured in a fall. Undeterred, Roosevelt rides alongside the rest of the cowboys as they drive and sort their herd across the Badlands. But the spirit of adventure quickly turns to fear when one of the cowboys turns up dead. Though it looks like an accident, some of the men aren’t so sure, and the sudden appearance of the Marquis de Morés puts Roosevelt’s mind ill at ease. With the cattle season coming to a close, Dow ponders if he should return to Maine as planned or stay in Medora to build a future with Rosie.