News Releases for January 2005
January 19, 2005
Contact Randy Hatzenbuhler, President, Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation, (701) 223-4800
or the Governor's Office
Hoeven Announces North Dakota Float For Presidential Inaugural Parade
BISMARCK, N.D. - Gov. John Hoeven today announced that North Dakota will have a float in Thursday's presidential inaugural parade.
The float will feature the North Dakota “Legendary” theme and carry six people re-enacting legendary figures in North Dakota's history: Sakakawea, Theodore Roosevelt, General George Armstrong Custer, Sitting Bull, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
Hoeven credited the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation for an extraordinary effort in designing and building a float within a few short weeks. Greg Loftus, the set designer for the Medora Musical, designed the float. The Foundation's maintenance crew constructed the undercarriage and wooden frame supporting the float. Loftus then went about carving foam into Badlands scenery along with other elements of the design. Wade Westin, marketing and public relations director with the Foundation, rounded up the re-enactors.
“Randy Hatzenbuhler and the staff of the Foundation did a great job in building a float that reflects the character and history of our state,” Hoeven said. “They came up with an excellent concept for the float and then spearheaded the construction and had it built and on its way to Washington, D.C., in only a few weeks.”
The committee that made this project possible includes Hoeven, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, Public Service Commissioner Kevin Cramer, Hatzenbuhler and WDAY Radio talk show host, Scott Hennen.
Kinley Slauter of Medora, manager of the Burning Hills Amphitheatre for the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation, will drive the Dodge Dakota truck pulling the float in the parade. Fair Oakes Dodge in Washington, D.C. is loaning the truck for North Dakota to use. Chrysler Corporation used North Dakota's Badlands as a backdrop when it unveiled the Dodge Dakota pickup in the late 1980s.
Re-enactors on the North Dakota float are:
- Amy Mosset, New Town, portraying Sakakawea. Mossett is a Mandan-Hidatsa member of the Three Affiliated Tribes and a nationally recognized scholar, consultant, and cultural presenter on the life of Sakakawea.
- Ray Anderson, Apache Junction, Ariz., portrays Theodore Roosevelt. Each summer he portrays Roosevelt in the Medora Musical.
- Steve Alexander, Monroe, Mich., portrays General George Armstrong Custer. Alexander has depicted Custer for more than a decade at the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation-sponsored American Legacy Exposition and Custer Christmas at Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park.
- Ron His Horse is Thunder, portrays Hunkpapa Sioux leader Sitting Bull. His Horse is Thunder is president of Sitting Bull College at Fort Yates, N.D., and a descendent of Sitting Bull.
- Scott Mandrell portrays Meriwether Lewis. Mandrell is a Missouri schoolteacher who is portraying Capt. Meriwether Lewis in the full-scale Discovery Expedition re-enactment that reached North Dakota last fall.
- Craig Rockwell portrays William Clark. Rockwell is from Clarkston, Wash., and has presented his portrayal for members of Congress, the Western Governors' Association and has acted in three Lewis and Clark films.
Interestingly, this is the 100th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt's inauguration following his election as president in 1904.
The float's various parts were constructed in Medora and shipped by truck by Fargo's E.W. Wylie Corp. to Washington, D.C., where final assembly will occur.
Thursday's parade, which follows Pennsylvania Ave. from the U.S. Capitol to the White House, is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. CST and last about two hours. It will feature floats and marching bands from around the country. The parade theme is “Celebrating Freedom, Honoring Service.”
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