If Only Teddy Roosevelt Had Been at The O.K. Corral

 September 4, 2026

   A follow up on Theodore's Dakota adventures.

Daily Whip Out: "Teddy & The Boat Thieves"

Stranger Than Fiction

   Three fascinating details about Teddy Roosevelt's capture of the "Boat Thieves":

1. Teddy had the where-with-all to bring along a bulky camera so he could record the event. This is in 1886, a mere five years after the O.K. Corral fight (which ironically took place outside a photo gallery where no one took a picture!).

2. Teddy also brought along a book, Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina," to read while in hot pursuit of the outlaws.

3. After Teddy delivered his prisoners to the sheriff in Dickerson, North Dakota, they were sent to prison and one of them, Mike Finnigan, wrote to Roosevelt and said, "Should you stop at Bismarck this fall make a call to the Prison. I should be glad to meet you."

   If I saw any of this in a Western, I wouldn't believe it.

"History is a cruel trick played on the dead by the living."

—Old Vaquero Saying