Treasure Hunting

Feb 18

America’s Most Adventurous President?

I’ve found several common threads that link us Treasure Hunters together, but perhaps my favorite is our sense of adventure. Since it’s Presidents Day I thought I would share the history of one of my favorite and most adventurous presidents - Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.

Historian Thomas Bailey perhaps said it best when he labeled Teddy as “a great personality, a great activist, a great preacher of the moralities, a great controversialists, a great showman.” There is no doubt he was an adventure-seeking man, and us self-confessed ‘history buffs’ can set aside politics and appreciate Teddy’s endless quest for knowledge.

In March 1909, Roosevelt left for a safari in east and central Africa. His party landed in what is now Kenya and traveled to what is now Democratic Republic of the Congo before following the Nile up to Khartoum in modern Sudan. Roosevelt hunted for specimens for the Smithsonian Institution and for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. His party killed or trapped over 11,397 animals, from insects and moles to hippopotamuses and elephants. Roosevelt wrote a detailed account of the adventure in the book “African Game Trails”, where he describes the excitement of the chase, the people he met, and the flora and fauna he collected in the name of science.

In 1913 and 1914 Roosevelt went on another adventure, this time to the Brazilian jungle. His book “Through the Brazilian Wilderness” was quite popular and describes all of the scientific discovery, tropical scenery and exotic flora, fauna and wild life he encountered.

To honor the adventurous spirit of Teddy, here’s a list of some of his “Presidential Firsts” which show his true spirit was that of a Treasure Hunter:

In August, 1902, Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to take a public automobile ride. This occurred during a parade in Hartford, Connecticut

On August 25, 1905 he became the first U.S. President to ride in a military submarine when he boarded the USS Plunger (SS-2) and ran submerged with her for 55 minutes.

In 1906, he made the first trip, by a President, outside the United States, visiting Panama to inspect the construction progress of the Panama Canal on November 9.

In 1906, Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded a Nobel Prize.

In 1910 he became the first U.S. President to ride in an airplane.

In 2001, he became the first and only President up to date to receive a Medal of Honor, making him the only person to date to win the world’s highest peace honor, as well as his nation’s top military honor.

He was the first President to officially refer to the White House as such, on his official stationery. This had been the common name (referring to the color of the building), but until then, the official name was “The Executive Mansion”

He was the first President to wear a necktie for his official Presidential Portrait.

He was the first President to approve a coin, the Lincoln cent, with a man’s face on it, in 1909, just in time for the centennial of Lincoln’s birth. Lincoln was Roosevelt’s presidential hero.

So who was/is your favorite president? Who would you consider the most adventurous? Which one do you think has the spirit of a treasure hunter?

~ Elizabeth ~