Teddy Roosevelt’s Family Urges G.O.P. to Protect Public Lands

Four descendants of Theodore Roosevelt wrote to Republican senators urging them to oppose mining upstream from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Ted Roosevelt IV, a Manhattan-based investment banker and lifelong moderate Republican, said he believed his great-grandfather would have been "appalled" by the effort to allow mining near the wilderness.

The letter was signed by Ted Roosevelt IV, two other great-grandsons, Tweed Roosevelt and Mark Roosevelt, and Kermit Roosevelt III, a great-great-grandson. The descendants said they represented three branches of Roosevelt’s family and wrote that "The four of us below have never collectively co-signed a letter together, which should give an indication of how strongly we support voting no on this." The dispute centers on a proposed copper and nickel mine by Twin Metals Minnesota near Ely, just upstream from the wilderness area.

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