One cannot forget Teddy Roosevelt and his Dakota ranching experience during the Winter of 1886-87. He invested heavily in his Badlands operation (over eighty thousand dollars) and though I don't know how to compare it to today's dollar, it must have been a hefty amount. Apparently he did not have much investing sense but was headstrong and went ahead with his ideas. Beef prices were low and a drought scorched the grasslands, factors precluding any chance for profit.
In an interesting business arrangement, he had a couple of partners who always were a bit skeptical of the cattle venture, but Roosevelt made it attaractive for them. He promised a share of any profits to them and would stand any losses by himself. How could they lose? Luckily for Roosevelt, they were highly principled and wouldn't be a part of spending Roosevelt's inheritance in such a hopeless cause, so they parted with him and returned to their homes in Maine. To compound TR's money problems, his estate in New York required a good deal of financial support, too.
When the heavy winter losses were occurring, Roosevelt was spending his honeymoon with his wife in Europe. When he returned and was able to get out to his ranch, he noted, "The land was a mere barren waste; not a green thing could be seen; the dead grass eaten off till the country looked as if it had been shaved with a razor." The tourism people here in North Dakota have glommed onto Roosevelt's time spent here and are fond of repeating his quote: "If it had not been for my years in North Dakota I never would have become President of the United States." Just maybe he meant, "I lost my ass in North Dakota and had to get out of there."
