Backers get needed funds for North Dakota Roosevelt library

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota's governor, Microsoft, a Walmart heir, and a Fargo media mogul are among the major financial backers of a proposed presidential library for Theodore Roosevelt in the state's western Badlands where he hunted, ranched and lived a cowboy life before becoming the 26th U.S. president, the library’s foundation announced Tuesday.

The North Dakota Legislature last year approved $50 million to operate the library, but specified it must be matched by $100 million in private money to build it and fund an ongoing project at nearby Dickinson State University to digitize tens of thousands of Roosevelt’s papers.

The library foundation announced that it had obtained the $100 million in commitments late Tuesday, on what would be Roosevelt’s 162nd birthday. Roosevelt was in his 20s when he came to North Dakota to recuperate from the deaths of his wife and mother on the same day in 1884. He spent four years on a ranch in an area is now a national park and the state’s top tourist attraction. An effort to build a presidential library in his native New York failed — and North Dakota leaders saw an opportunity.

The library has been a top priority for Republican Gov. Doug Burgum, who has promoted the library as an anchor for North Dakota tourism and a fitting tribute to Roosevelt.

Roosevelt wrote three books inspired by his Western sojourn and, after returning to politics, helped conserve 230 million acres of land in a legacy that led to the creation of the National Park Service in 1916. The nearby Theodore Roosevelt National Park draws about 700,000 people each year.

Burgum, a former Microsoft executive, and his wife Kathryn, are listed by the foundation as pledging more than $1 million for the project. Microsoft also has committed more than $1 million, the foundation said.

“This is an...