Backers of a new library dedicated to President Theodore Roosevelt recently sought the craftsmanship of some highly skilled electrical workers from western North Dakota, Local 714 to help build a carbon-neutral facility respecting the historic legacy of one of the U.S.’s most influential conservationists.

“This has been a great project for us,” said Minot Local 714 Business Manager Robert Wolf. “It’s a historic deal here in North Dakota.”

Since 2023, more than four dozen of the local’s members, working with signatory contractors Archkey Solutions and Northern Valley Electrical Service, have had a hand in just about every aspect of the library’s construction in Medora, next to the national park in western North Dakota that also bears the name of the 26th president.

“One of the things that was unique about this facility is that they wanted it to have zero impact on the environment,” Wolf said. For example: “The insulation on the wires couldn’t be petroleum-based because they didn’t want that impact.”

According to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation, the 96,000-square-foot building, which officially opened to the public July 4, is powered solely by renewable geothermal and solar energy, and it relies on a closed-loop wastewater system similar to those used on cruise ships. The library’s two-acre “living roof” is planted with thousands of native species, while its interior spaces are designed to allow in as much natural daylight as possible.

“The audio-visual in there is incredible,” added Wolf, who became business manager about a year before construction began. “They took me into one of the rooms where they had designed the acoustics to where, if you stand in one spot and speak, your voice echoes around that whole chamber, just as if there were speakers in there. The whole facility is like that.

“And we did it with our contractors. I think that says a lot,” he added. “When you go into a job like this, you don’t have to go look for specialty contractors. Our construction people will go in, they’ll bid that work, and they’ll do it competently.”

A native New Yorker, Roosevelt’s connection to Medora began when he established a ranch there after visiting in 1883. A year later, he returned to the region seeking solace following the sudden, hours-apart deaths of his mother and his wife, just two days after the birth of his first child.

As president from 1901 to 1909, Roosevelt helped cement his legacy as a conservationist by setting aside for protection millions of acres of land, establishing several national parks and bird reservations, and signing into law the creation of the U.S. Forest Service.

Most of Roosevelt’s documents and memorabilia after his death in 1919 were distributed to institutions such as the American Museum of Natural History and the Library of Congress.

A presidential library in Roosevelt’s name had been planned for construction on the campus of North Dakota’s Dickinson State University, which has been working since the 2000s on digitizing Roosevelt’s documents and memorabilia. But in 2019, the state’s Legislature approved plans for a privately funded nonprofit facility in Medora instead.

Wolf said that the finished facility fully honors the president’s legacy.

“Roosevelt was the environmental president, and I think they adhered to his mentality,” he said.

Most of the nearly 900 members of Local 714 work in inside construction, outside construction and telecom, Wolf said, with numerous compressor station projects over the last few years helping to keep the local close to full employment.

“We had a little bit of trouble [staffing the library project] over last summer because we had so much work going here,” said Wolf, whose local essentially covers the western half of a state that has a reputation for its remoteness.

“And in the winter, we’re a little less than desirable,” he added, noting that the wind chill there can sometimes fall to -70 degrees. “It’s not for the faint of heart, that’s for sure.”

The business manager credited Local 714’s experienced organizers for their ability to handle such challenges. Maintaining good relationships with contractor partners is crucial, too, he said.

“Archkey and Northern Valley really stepped up,” Wolf said. The library was a commercial project, but both contractors “moved the pay scale to ‘industrial’ to help attract people.”

Now that the library is open, Wolf hopes visitors will appreciate the role Local 714 played in bringing it to life.

“We’ve tried to promote it from our end and across our state because we want people to visit,” Wolf said. “We’ve done challenge coins that show Roosevelt on a horse. We’ve done T-shirts, and they’re selling like hotcakes.”

Wolf and his wife even celebrated their wedding anniversary in Medora, where they witnessed firsthand the lasting impact of Roosevelt’s conservation legacy.

“We drove through the park where we could look at all kinds of wildlife out there,” he said. “You still see bison, coyotes, wild horses and deer running through the fields.”

Visit ElectricTV.net to see more about the IBEW’s work on the library.