How to Celebrate Theodore Roosevelt's Birthday

The day of Theodore Roosevelt's birth, October 27, is not a national holiday, though maybe it should be. Few lives deserve celebrating more than that of this larger-than-life character - writer, statesman, cowboy, historian, respected naturalist, ardent environmentalist, devoted father, outspoken advocate of women's rights, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and the youngest man ever to become President of the United States.

Things You'll Need

• Hiking Boots
• Party Food
• National Park Passes
• Binoculars

Instructions

1. Read one of Theodore Roosevelt's books - long before he became president, Roosevelt was a popular author. He wrote about three dozen books, including histories, biographies, and tales of his adventures in Africa, South America and his beloved Dakota Badlands.

2. Visit a National Park, forest or monument near you. No matter which one you choose, there's a good chance it owes its existence to TR: During his tenure in the White House, he provided federal protection for nearly 230 million acres of land.

3. Grab your binoculars, put on your hiking boots and take a bird-watching trek. Our 26th President was a dedicated birder. By executive order, he established the country's first 51 Federal Bird Reservations.

4. Visit Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch, now part of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. Here TR hunted, rode herd on his cattle, wrote many of his books and formed the conservation ethic that became his most enduring legacy.

5. Take a dude-ranch vacation. The dude ranch phenomenon owes its existence in large part to Roosevelt. His books inspired a whole generation of well-to-do Easterners to venture West, and a whole generation of ranchers to welcome them as paying guests.

6. Take a virtual tour of "Theodore Roosevelt: Icon of the American Century," a joint exhibit of the Smithsonian Institution and the National Portrait Gallery. (You can access it by looking up the Theodore Roosevelt Web site in any search engine.)

7. Throw a party for all your female friends and toast TR. As early as 1880 - when most laws still treated women as the property of their fathers and husbands - he championed the right of women to vote, to own property, to retain their own names after marriage and "to enter any profession she desires on the same terms as the man...."

Tips & Warnings

• President Roosevelt ordered the creation of 150 National Forests, 5 National Parks (including Crater Lake in Oregon and the Anasazi ruins at Mesa Verde), 5 National Game Preserves, the country's first 21 environmental Reclamation Projects, and the first 18 National Monuments - including the Grand Canyon.

• Roosevelt didn't confine his wildlife observations to the winged community. In his day he was considered the world's leading authority on large American mammals, and he led two major scientific expeditions - one to Africa, one to Brazil - for prominent American museums.