Page 7 Spring 2012 THE MARQUIS DE MORES-THEODORE ROOSEVELT PRESENTATION RIFLE by Edmund Lewis, M.D. Many years ago when reading John Parson’s The First Winchester, I was intrigued by several of the illustrated guns. One of these was the Model 1873 presentation rifle given by the Marquis de Mores, to Theodore Roosevelt in 1885. It was not until much later that I found the authenticity of the rifle questionable for reasons that will be discussed later. Theodore Roosevelt traveled West in September 1883 to hunt buffalo, landing at the small town of Little Missouri, on the west bank of the river of the same name which wended its tortuous way through the western part of Dakota Territory. This desolate, butte-ridden country was first explored by French voyageurs who called it Mauvaises Terres, or the Bad Lands. Roosevelt so loved the land and the hard way of western life that he purchased a small ranch, the Maltese Cross, at Chimney Butte, several miles south of Little Missouri, where he wrote several of his books and began exploring the idea of raising cattle. For some time Roosevelt was considered a spectacled eastern dandy who hardly fit the mold of the local settlers and cowboys. In time, as is well known, he proved them wrong and more than gained their respect. Somewhat earlier, in March 1883, an even stranger creature had arrived in Little Missouri.
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