Maltese Cross Cabin - Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Continuing our August 2017 visit to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, we stopped at the South Unit Visitor Center to tour the Maltese Cross Cabin. Theodore Roosevelt had the cabin built in 1883 at his Chimney Butte Ranch, also known as the Maltese Cross Ranch for its brand, about seven miles south of its present location. He only used it for a short time before buying a larger ranch and building his Elkhorn Ranch cabin.

With a kitchen, living room, and bedroom downstairs plus a sleeping loft upstairs for the hired hands, the cabin was relatively large for frontier homes of the time. The cabin also had the luxury of wooden floors.

The cabin was moved to the St. Louis for the World's Fair and then to Portland, Oregon for the Louis and Clark Centennial Exposition. When the cabin was returned to North Dakota, it was located in Fargo and then Bismarck before its final move to the national park in 1959. The ponderosa pine logs are original, but the roof was rebuilt when the cabin was moved to the park. The window frames and front door may also be original to the cabin.

Most of the furnishings are of the period, but not necessarily Roosevelt's. The traveling trunk is the one Roosevelt used when moving back and forth to New York. He used the writing desk at his Elkhorn Ranch. The white hutch and rocking chair were either owned or used by Roosevelt.

The cabin is located immediately behind the visitor center. A short ramp makes it accessible to visitors in wheelchairs.

Maltese Cross cabin

Living room end of the cabin

Bedroom and kitchen end of the cabin

Ramp at front door

Roosevelt's traveling trunk

Kitchen

Dining table and writing desk

Rocking chairs

An entrance fee of $25 admits all the passengers of a single vehicle for seven days to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Other entrance fee options include a Theodore Roosevelt National Park Annual Park Pass for $50, an Every Kid in a Park 4th Grade Pass for free and a variety of America the Beautiful - National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Passes providing access to most national park, national forest, and BLM fee areas

• Annual Pass for $80
• Military Pass for free
• Lifetime Senior Pass for $80 or $20 annually for those age 62 and older
• Access Pass for free for visitors with a permanent disability

An entrance fee is not collected at the Painted Canyon Visitor Center.

The park website is https://www.nps.gov/thro.