For over a century, big game hunters have been coming to the rugged mountains of Western Colorado to escape their stressful everyday lives and lose their cares in the primal pursuit of deer, elk, sheep, lion and bear.

In 1905, Jake Borah was a successful hunting guide in the Glenwood Springs area. Most of his clients came from eastern cities, and were what Borah called “dudes,” which he defined as “a man who wears store clothes and a white collar and necktie” in an interview with the Denver Post and reprinted in the Glenwood Springs Avalanche Echo on May 18, 1905.

Borah explained in the interview: 

“Nine times out of 10 they planned to hunt in the big-game country of the Rockies without the least idea of how to handle a gun. Most of the dudes had to be told which end of the gun you shoot through.”

One particular client, who came by train from Washington, D.C., surprised his guide with his ability to handle a gun, as well as endure the rigors and discomfort of outdoor life on a three-week bear hunt near Divide Creek in the spring of 1905.

Borah declared:

“In the saddle, on the trail, eating camp dinner or sleeping under a tent, there was never a better all-around fellow than President Roosevelt. He was just one of the boys … The president did not stand apart as a dude, but joked and ate with us, rode and talked with us, as only a cow puncher could.”

Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt had been hunting big game for many years before President McKinley’s assassination resulted in the 42-year-old VP stepping up to lead the nation. He continued hunting during his two terms as president, taking several trips to different parts of the country. According to Borah, Roosevelt confessed one day:

“Oh, you don’t know how good it feels just to be an ordinary man for three weeks, not to have those secret servicemen with me, to know that I can ride the hills without being followed and watched all the time.”

Indeed, the location of “The Famous Bear Hunt” was kept a secret in these parts, as reported in the Rocky Mountain News on April 15, 1905:

Just about 27 miles from Newcastle, in a little cluster of tall pines at the mouth of the canyon, with East Divide Creek hardly 20 feet from the mess tent and the mountains looming behind, is Camp Roosevelt. It is an ideal spot for secrecy, [and] an ideal spot for hunting for game abounds in every direction. In other words, it is an ideal camp for President Roosevelt.

Provision has been made for just three members of the party; the President, P.B. Stewart and Doctor Lambert. No others will be allowed near the camp. Secret servicemen will be dropped at Newcastle. Secretaries, clerks and stenographers will remain in Glenwood. The president is going into the hills alone, and the guides and hunters with him will protect him.

Roosevelt adored nature and spent as much time as he could outdoors. He was an avid bird-watcher and was responsible for the creation of America’s first national wildlife refuge at Pelican Island, Florida.

In one of his many treatises on the environment, Roosevelt wrote:

“Of all the questions which can come before this nation, short of the actual preservation of its existence in a great war, there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us.”

In his desire to preserve America’s natural resources for future generations, Roosevelt created the National Forest Service and conserved over 200 million acres of public lands by establishing national parks, forests and wildlife reserves, earning him the nickname: “The Conservation President.”

In 1887, Roosevelt cofounded the Boone and Crockett Club, now the oldest wildlife conservation organization in North America, which established ethical rules for hunters.

Today’s hunters are no less a part of the conservation movement. Hunting organizations promote strict regulations that protect wildlife from unethical practices and overharvesting. Revenue from hunting licenses helps pay for habitat conservation.

Roosevelt’s own hunting ethics were brought to the public’s attention during a bear hunt in Mississippi in 1902. After three days without success, one of Roosevelt’s guides roped a bear that had been chased and exhausted by dogs. He tied the bear to a tree so the president could shoot his prize, but Roosevelt refused, saying it was unsporting.

News of the President’s actions spread, illustrated in numerous newspaper cartoons depicting the gallant hunter’s mercy toward the helpless bear. The cartoons are featured in a 2011 book, “BULLY! The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt” by Rick Marschall.

Capitalizing on the popular cartoons, Morris Michtom, a Brooklyn candy store owner, displayed his wife’s hand-made stuffed bears in their shop window, calling them “Teddy’s Bears.” When customers asked to buy them, Michtom first wrote the president for permission to use his name. Roosevelt allegedly replied; “I don’t think my name will mean much to the bear business, but you’re welcome to use it.”

Thus, the Ideal Novelty and Toy Co. was created and the teddy bear was born, not (as local legend has it) during “The Famous Bear Hunt” in Glenwood Springs, but in Brooklyn, New York.

For more information about President Roosevelt’s local hunting adventures, visit the Glenwood Springs Historical Museum and the Hotel Colorado.