In the western territories a young Theodore Roosevelt found inspiring loneliness and a hunter's paradise. Out here TR enjoyed tough physical challenges and a pleasing distance from the half-formed men of the East, who grasped so desperately for money and power. As the "open season" on buffalo, antelope, mountain goat and white-tailed deer brought these species close to extinction, however, he began to understand the meaning and value of conservation-a progression expressed eloquently in the articles he penned for Century, The Outlook, Outing, Forest and Stream and other journals.

This volume is the first of two offering Roosevelt's complete and unabridged articles on the great western outdoors which inspired one of his most important legacies: the preservation of vast swaths of America's frontier in its natural state. Presented in chronological order, the articles reveal TR's personal progression from dedicated hunter and rancher to determined environmentalist, who came to understand the threat to western flora and fauna from unchecked development and decimating "recreational" sports. The collection includes writings on ranching and the cowboy life that appeared in contemporary juvenile magazines, including Youth's Companion and St. Nicholas.