When President Teddy Roosevelt set out for his second visit to Yellowstone National Park in April 1903, the famed big-game hunter wanted to make it something special.

He and his family had visited the park in 1890 before he stormed San Juan Hill with the Rough Riders in 1898, or before he was been added to the Republican ticket as vice president to William McKinley in 1900.

As president, Roosevelt’s thoughts on the two-week trip that began April 8, 1903, turned to wildlife and his passion for hunting and to bag something big in the park.

“He actually writes to the secretary of Interior to get permission to do this because, of course, Yellowstone was closed to hunting for the public,” said William Hansard, historian at the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University in Dickin

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