Theodore Roosevelt’s 1903 Visit to Albuquerque

Cover of book Keep it for Your Children: Theodore Roosevelt's 1903 Western TripAs part of his “Tracing TR’s 1903 Train Trip Tour,” author James Blase will be presenting at a special meeting of the Albuquerque Historical Society at 1:30 PM, on Wednesday, July 3 at the Auditorium at the Albuquerque Museum. Mr. Blase’s new book, Keep it for Your Children: Theodore Roosevelt’s 1903 Western Trip, creates a first-person journal of a 66-day western train trip the President made during his first term in office, in the spring of 1903. The train trip included stops in Albuquerque and Santa Fe on May 5, 1903. The audience will have the opportunity to purchase autographed copies of Mr. Blase’s 390-page book, at a discounted price.

Mr. Blase will make a Powerpoint presentation, complete with photos, of the entire 66-day trip, but emphasizing the President’s time in Albuquerque. The presentation is being made in conjunction with a two-week Amtrak western “loop tour” train trip Mr. Blase will be making, beginning in St Louis Missouri (the “Gateway to the West”) on July 1, and continuing through New Mexico, the Grand Canyon, Southern California, Oregon, Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota, culminating back in St. Louis. The tour’s route mirrors much of the President’s, in 1903.

Photo of Jim BlaseJames “Jim” G.Blase is an estate planning attorney in private practice (trust lawyers for hire from here) in St. Louis, Missouri, and adjunct member of the faculty at the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. Producer of the 2004 4-hour, 4-dvd box set, The 1904 World’s Fair Reconstructed: A Virtual Tour of the entire Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Jim’s first exposure to Theodore Roosevelt was when he wrote a term paper on the President’s education, during his first semester of college in 1975. He became even more interested in President Roosevelt when he latter attended New York University in Manhattan, and lived just blocks away from the President’s boyhood home.