Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

On Saturday, January 17, we went to Sagamore Hill National Historic Site in Oyster Bay, Long Island with Ed, Jeanette, and Jeanette's sister Christa and her boyfriend Nick. It was a beautiful, freezing day with highs in the teens. It started out with clear blue skies, but clouded up in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day for a beautiful place.

Sagamore Hill was the home of Theodore Roosevelt, one of our best and most charismatic presidents.

On site there is a park welcome center, the house itself, a cemetery, trails, orchard, and a museum. Tours through the house are every hour on the hour. We found out that winter is a good time to come because few people come, and as a result, they make the tours longer, more informative, and in more parts of the house. I was pretty happy with that, but I would like to come back in the spring or summer - I'm sure it's beautiful here then.

Tours are $4/person. After buying our tickets, we walked up to the house and began our tour - just us and an English couple. I don't have many pictures because photographs aren't allowed inside the house.

The house was beautiful and really amazing. Roosevelt lived here from 1885 until his death in 1919, and while he was president, he called this his "Summer White House". Roosevelt was very much a naturalist, conservationist, hunter, outdoorsman, and general adventurist, as much as he was a politician. His house reflects all these characteristics. Taxidermy mounts of many of his trophies, gifts from governments from all over the world, gifts from Native American tribes, etc. My favorite room was a huge "library", with many of these gifts and mounts, books, etc. The woodwork here, as throughout the house, was amazing. It's hard to describe the house and this room - I wish I had pictures - but this room is kind of my dream office.

The house is situated in a beautiful place also. On top of a hill that overlooks the nearby Oyster Bay, part of Long Island Sound.

Roosevelt obviously loved this house and watching his kids grow up here. He was a very dedicated father who made a point to spend as much time with his kids as possible, even when he was president. He moved here in the 1st place because he wanted his kids to grow up in a rural setting.

The tour takes about an hour, but that time flies by. You get to see essentially every room, which is nice because it seems most of these kinds of tours I go on don't let you see large portions of the house.

After the tour we took pictures on the huge porch where Roosevelt and his family spent much of their time, then walked over to the Museum, which was originally a house built by one of Roosevelt's son's. The museum was great because it really chronicled Roosevelt's life. He really was an amazing man that accomplished so much. There's no way I can give you even a brief overview, but here are a couple of things that I really admire about him:

- He was a big conservationist and is largely responsible for the National Park system. In the 7&1/2 years he was president, he created 150 national forests, 51 bird reservations, 3 game reserves, 5 national parks and 18 national monuments. For everyday he was president, he protected an average of 84,000 acres of land, totalling more than 230 million acres - this is an area roughly equal to all of the states on the East coast from Maine to Florida. A lot of his efforts to protect land had the added benefit of pissing off congress and greedy developers.

- He was a naturalist and scientist. He traveled all over the word observing nature and collecting specimens for science. His trips included months in Africa collecting big game specimens, mot of which are still in the Smithsonian, and spending months in the Amazon. He actually was the first person to explore 1500 miles on a river in Brazil, which was then named for him

- He was a patriot. As a Rough Rider he became a national hero in the Battle of San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War in 1898.

- He was tough as nails. One of my favorite stories about him was that one time he was giving a speech when someone tried to assassinate him He was actually shot, but refused to leave the podium, and finished his speech for another hour and a half before leaving the stage and seeking medical help.

He was by all accounts a pretty amazing guy. I have a couple biographies of him but haven't had a chance to read them. I think this trip will help me to find the time.

We wanted to see his grave in a nearby cemetery, but it was closed because the walkway was iced over and dangerous.

Anyway, I hope if you ever get the chance, you'll go see this park. It was beautiful and we had a great time.