Theodore Roosevelt was many things - boxer, cowboy, hunter, author, adventurer, soldier, president - but one thing that he wasn't was humble.

TR, or Teddy, would be smiling today, anticipating the attention that he will be getting during the coming week at Dickinson State University's TR Symposium and the dedication of the Elkhorn Ranch Aquisition (Eberts Ranch) as a part of U.S. Forest Service lands in North Dakota.

Expectations are that someone from the White House will be on hand for the dedication in Medora on Saturday, although who that might be remains a mystery.

And, during the week, two well-known Roosevelt biographers will make presentations.

H.W. Brands, author of "TR:The Last Romantic," as well as biographies of Andrew Jackson and Benjamin Franklin, will talk about "Theodore Roosevelt and the Creation of the Modern World" in a program at 7 p.m. MDT Thursday in May Hall on the campus of Dickinson State University. The presentation is free for students and faculty, there's a $10 ticket price for the public. Brands is the Dickson Allen Anderson Centennial Professor of History at the University of Texas.

The symposium continues through Saturday afternoon. For details, go to http://www.dickinsonstate.com.

Edmund Morris has written two installments of a projected three-volume biography of Roosevelt. The first volume, "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt," won a Pulitzer Prize in 1980, and the second, "Theodore Rex," was published in 2001. Morris also has published "Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan" and, interestingly, "Beethoven:The Universal Composer." Morris will speak at the commemoration of the Eberts Ranch at 2:30 p.m. MDT Saturday in the Burning Hills Amphitheatre, in Medora.

And there's important work to do for the public as well. There will be a series of open houses conducted by the Forest Service aimed at gathering input from people about how what was the Eberts Ranch should be used now that it's a part of federal land holdings. The purchase of the 5,200-acre ranch, a private-public effort, preserves the view shed from Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch, which TR established on the west bank of the Little Missouri River about 35 miles north of Medora in 1884.

The first open house will be held at 4 p.m. MDT Friday in the Student Union of Dickinson State University. Two more open houses will be held before the end of September, one in Medora and one in Bismarck.

In addition, the public also can attend a old-style radio drama.The DSU Theatre Department and KLTC will present a live broadcast of "TR," based on a play written by Allen Kenward, with the help of Roosevelt's biographer Hermann Hagedorn. The radio drama will be presented at 7 p.m. MDT Friday in Dorothy Stickney Auditorium on the DSU campus. Ticket prices are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors age 62 and over, and free for all DSU faculty, staff and students with ID. Tickets are available by calling 701-483-2154.

Dedication

2:30 p.m. MDT Saturday

Burning Hills Amphitheatre

* Remarks by: Gov. John Hoven, TR's great-grandson Tweed Roosevelt and TR's great-great-grandson Simon Roosevelt.

* Keynote speaker: TR biographer Edmund Morris.

Participants include the Friends of the Elkhorn Ranch, founded by leaders of the Boone and Crocket Club, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Theodore Roosevelt Association, former North Dakota governor and vice chairman of the TR Medora Foundation Ed Schafer, executive vice president of the Boone and Crockett Club Lowell Baier, chairman of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Andrew Hoxey, and others.

The USDA-Forest Service, Dakota Prairie Grasslands has taken over ownership of what's commonly referred to as the Eberts Ranch, located across the Little Missouri River from and adjacent to TR's Elkhorn Ranch, which is managed by the National Park Service.

TR in brief

* 1883 - Buffalo hunt in Badlands.

* 1884 - Establishes ranch in Badlands.

* 1886-1887 - Blizzards decimate western cattle herds, including TR's.

* 1897 - Appointed assistant secretary of the Navy.

* 1898 - Resigns Navy post and becomes lieutenant colonel of the first U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment to fight in the Spanish-American War.

* 1901 - Elected McKinley's vice president. McKinley dies in September, TR becomes president.

* 1902 - Establishes Crater Lake National Park, the first of several national parks TR authorizes.

* 1905 - Signs the act establishing the National Forest Service.

* 1906 - Visits Panama, becoming the first president to travel to a foreign country while in office and is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in ending the Russo-Japanese War.