Teddy Roosevelt- Cowboy President

Image courtesy Sharpwriter @ Deviantart

I know that we have had self described cowboy presidents in the recent past, but Teddy Roosevelt was the real thing.  A rugged individualist, conservationist, environmentalist, he left his asthmatic childhood in New York to become a rancher and cowboy in the Dakota Badlands.  While in the Dakotas, he took a turn as a deputy sheriff and managed to capture and transport a group of three outlaws nearly a hundred miles to trial without carrying a firearm.  Later, having stolen the mistress of the French owner of a local ranch, he was challenged to a duel.  Roosevelt accepted, and per the European code duello chose sawed off shotguns at ten paces as the weapons.  The duel was soon called off, Roosevelt and the French rancher became lifelong friends, and he kept the mistress.  After a turn as the New York City Police Commissioner and Secretary of the Navy, he rounded up a group of cowboys and Ivy League classmates to form the Rough Riders and went to war in Cuba.  Later, he became President of the United States, and once he got bored of that he went on epic expeditions exploring Africa and South America.  Awesome.

“Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport the world affords”- Teddy Roosevelt