Wild Horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota

About 200 horses roam freely inside Theodore Roosevelt National Park (TRNP), and are found in the South Unit only. They were allowed to stay in the park, as a heritage herd, or to represent former United States president Theodore Roosevelt’s experiences in North Dakota, during the open-range ranching era of the 1800’s. These horses, the National Park states, were turned out by area ranchers ontio the open range to live and breed. When ranchers needed horses, they would round up horses and their offspring for use on their ranches. The land that would become TRNP, was once used as open-range grazing for horses and cattle. According to the NPS, when TRNP was fenced, a horse round-up was held in 1954, which removed about 200 branded animals. A few small bands of horses eluded capture, went unclaimed and now these horses continued to live free within the park boundary. The National Park Service has tried before and are presently trying to remove all horses, from the park. In 1970, a change of