The Time Theodore Roosevelt Got Into a Bar Fight...

By | September 13, 2016

Theodore Roosevelt once found himself in a bar fight in Mingusville, Montana, now Wibaux, Montana, around the summer of 1884 (Roosevelt never specified the exact date of the incident). That time, he was still relatively unknown in the area.

Roosevelt had been riding for his own enjoyment through the badlands and the prairies of western Dakota Territory and eastern Montana Territory for many days when he arrived at the Nolan’s Hotel in Mingusville. There, he encountered a bully who, like others had done who did not know Roosevelt well, teased him about his glasses. Roosevelt described the incident in his own words in his autobiography:

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By the next morning, the bully had left town on a freight train.

Before coming to Dakota, Roosevelt was a successful boxer at Harvard. He maintained an interest in various martial arts throughout his life, including judo, kendo, jiu-jitsu, boxing, and wrestling, practicing many of them at the White House.

H/T NPS