Stone Bridge U.S. History Students Visit Teddy Roosevelt Island

Anna(left) -How did Roosevelt choose which places should be national parks? ANSWER-He went to a few himself, friends recommended a few, and they were places that had a unique feature wildlife or land formations.

Meghan (center) Compared to the many people today that take a dim view of killing big game animals -should we retroactively judge Roosevelt harshly for doing the same thing? Answer: Since it was a different time period then, it was not seen as such a detrimental thing. They also used dead animals as a way to study them, so killing was almost like - helping the animals. However - today - Roosevelt would have not been allowed to kill like he did back then. Unfortunately because there was no hunting restrictions/laws, they did not know what they were doing.

Lauren (right) Teddy was youngest ever elected to NY state office. Was he in a hurry to be a big shot? ANSWER-Roosevelt had Asthma when he was younger so he was in a more of a hurry to get through life and was not trying to be a big shot necessarily. After he got sick as a teenager, his doctor said to live a simple life and take it easy. Roosevelt however, didn't like this and wanted to live a spontaneous life and accomplish many things.

Sarah (second left)  How serious was Roosevelt wounded when he was shot?  ANSWER- He wasn’t injured too bad. He could still finish his speech because it went through his glasses case. It wasn’t life threatening.

Alexa (center) Other than losing to Woodrow Wilson, did Roosevelt have a relationship with him? ANSWER- I'm not very sure. He didn’t like what Taft was doing so he created the Bull Moose Party to go against Woodrow Wilson.

Jade (left) What type of relationship did McKinley have with Roosevelt? ANSWER- They weren’t always on the same page. Roosevelt was very impatient. Mckinley let things happen on their own.

Sarah- How did Roosevelt rank his Nobel Peace Prize compared to his other achievements? ANSWER-It was definitely very important to him. As a man of his time and status, he really did not need to worry about helping others or advocating peace. But he was the kind of person that wanted to help and so for that the Nobel Peace Prize was probably a very great honor to him.

Mike (left) How good of a boxer was Roosevelt? We read that he boxed almost his while life. ANSWER- He was a skilled boxer in the sense that he put his 100% into everything that he did. It was unknown how many fights he won, but we know that he put his all into every fight.

Matt (center) I’ve heard that Trump been compared to Teddy Roosevelt. Do you think that’s accurate?  ANSWER-Both of them had good influence over the media and were very persuasive, but Teddy Roosevelt was more adamant to the truth and respectful to practically everything, including people and nature. 

Umar- In what ways did Roosevelt become the so-called “modern president”? ANSWER- He was an activist president. He was up forward and didn't accept the role of president as a caretaker. The presidents before him were caretakers who let congress do everything but Roosevelt wanted to bring the country into the future so he set up many things for the future.

Abi-Teddy's wife and mother both died on Valentine’s Day in 1884. How did that affect him? ANSWER- Yes, he was affected by it. He was depressed, so depressed that he quit the office work and moved to the Dakotas.

Brian- Historians at C-Span rank Teddy Roosevelt as the fourth best president. Do you think that is accurate?  ANSWER- It is more of an opinion. He changed the presidency to make it less of a caretaker and to be more involved. He went against his friends in government to raise the wages and lower the hours for workers. He also did a lot for the environment.

Ryan (center) Why did the person who shot Roosevelt shoot him? Reason? ANSWER- I really don't know. It could have been a political dispute.

Katiana (right)- Roosevelt said “life and death are part of the same adventure” what do you think he meant by this? ANSWER-Theodore Roosevelt was full out, he never did anything half-way. He also believed they were both unknowns and not be feared.

Abi presents Ranger Janet Green with Stone Bridge baseball hat in appreciation for taking us on the tour and answering our questions.

Waving goodbye to Teddy

Quick stop at the Lincoln Memorial

The spot where Martin Luther King delivered the I Have A Dream Speech at the March on Washington, 1963