Building the Plane While You Fly It

Originally published on Substack Last week, I traveled to Medora, ND, for ACC’s annual summit. We brought 50 of our top members from across the country to the Badlands to spend a few days together at the newly opened Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. I knew the broad outlines of Theodore Roosevelt’s story before I arrived – how he had ranched in the Dakota Territory as a young man, that his time there had shaped his views on conservation, and that he would later credit those years with preparing him for the presidency. What I hadn’t appreciated was just how important this place had been during one of the most difficult periods of his life. And I certainly hadn’t expected it to affect me on a personal level as much as it did. On my final morning in Medora, I drove into the Theodore Roosevelt National Park for some post-event solitude and found