From Highlands to Badlands: My Journey with The Rubicon, Fog Lode, 4 Bears Casino, and Roosevelt’s Legacy
From Highlands to Badlands: My Journey with The Rubicon, Fog Lode, 4 Bears Casino, and Roosevelt’s Legacy
By Scott Prentice
The North Dakota Badlands and South Dakota’s Black Hills are lands of rugged beauty—golden buttes, whispering cottonwoods, and towering Ponderosa pines that stand as sentinels of time. As an artist, prospector, and developer, I’ve been shaped by these landscapes, from living and building The Rubicon, a 49-acre high mountain retreat in the Black Hills, to designing the first site plans for 4 Bears Casino in New Town, North Dakota, and working on Bakken oil rigs.
These experiences, set against the timeless backdrop of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and its iconic Elkhorn Ranch, are woven into my story.
A rare treasure—a Fog Lode mineral survey signed by President Theodore Roosevelt—ties my 9.05-acre claim to the Mount Roosevelt Friendship Tower and Roosevelt Tower in Medora, connecting my journey to a conservation giant. Here’s a reflection on this land, its growth, and my place in it.
Building The Rubicon: A Highlander’s Life
From 1998 to 2013, I lived as a highlander at 6,400 feet in South Dakota’s Black Hills, developing The Rubicon, a 49-acre retreat near Chism Gulch and Rubicon Canyon. This sanctuary included my 9.05-acre Fog Lode mining claim, a gem I’ve held onto while selling the rest. On The Rubicon, I built a three-story tower, a labor of love that reached for the sky but couldn’t outshine the towering Ponderosa pines that stood even higher, their needles catching the mountain light. Living at that elevation, surrounded by rugged peaks and quiet forests, strengthened my mind more than my brawn. The solitude and vastness of the Black Hills taught me resilience, clarity, and a deep respect for the land—lessons that carried me through my work in North Dakota.
Shaping 4 Bears Casino in the 1990s
In the early 1990s, as general manager of Concorde Gaming in Rapid City, I had the honor of working with architect Fred Thurston to select the site and design the initial plans for 4 Bears Casino & Lodge in New Town, North Dakota. Nestled on the Fort Berthold Reservation along Lake Sakakawea, this project was a cornerstone for the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation). We envisioned a cultural and economic hub that blended tribal heritage with the badlands’ stark beauty. Sketching those first site plans, I saw the potential for a place where the lake’s shimmer met the rugged hills.
Since opening in 1993, 4 Bears Casino has flourished. It now features 700 slot machines, a 15,000 sq ft gaming floor (remodeled in 2020), and a $95 million expansion with a seven-story hotel tower set for 2025. Employing 322 people (90% tribal members), it generated a $29 million payroll in 1996 and continues to fuel growth in New Town, a community of 2,700 residents thriving amid the Bakken oil boom. I’m proud to have played a role in its foundation, a testament to the tribes’ resilience and vision.
Grit and Growth in the Bakken Oil Field
By 2014, I was back in the badlands as a private contractor for Fuse Enviro, working on drilling rigs in the Bakken oil field. Spanning 200,000 square miles across North Dakota, Montana, and Canada, the Bakken produces 1.1 million barrels of oil daily from 18,674 wells with 38 active rigs (North Dakota Oil & Gas Division, 2024).
The boom transformed the region, creating a billion-dollar budget surplus by 2013 and doubling incomes in Mountrail County to $52,027 by 2010, ranking it among the top 100 richest U.S. counties. On the rigs, I witnessed the badlands’ beauty—golden buttes under starry skies—clashing with the glow of 2.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas flared daily, 20% wasted. The bustle of “man camps” and hundreds of truckloads per well brought prosperity but strained the land, a balance I pondered from my highland days.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park: A Legacy of Balance
Just 50–60 miles from 4 Bears Casino lies Theodore Roosevelt National Park, a 70,446-acre haven of badlands, prairie, and the Little Missouri River. In the 1880s, a young Theodore Roosevelt found solace here, especially at his 218-acre Elkhorn Ranch, 35 miles north of Medora. After losing his wife and mother in 1884, he built a log cabin (its stone foundations remain) and named it Elkhorn for two elk with interlocked antlers. This ranch shaped his conservation ethos, leading him to protect 230 million acres as president, including 5 national parks and 18 national monuments. The park, with its 500,000 annual visitors, hundreds of bison, 185 bird species, and 100 miles of trails, faces challenges from the Bakken, where 90% of surrounding grasslands are leased for oil, and 60 spills were reported in one week in 2024. Yet, it remains a shrine to Roosevelt’s call for stewardship. Just dew South leads my back home to Deadwood, Seth Bullock and wild Bill Hickok country.
Fog Lode: A Historical and Geological Treasure – From Tower to Tower to Tower
My trip on a foggy early morning to the Friendship Tower. This is always an exciting visit to go to cuz you never know what you’re going to see and this morning was very exciting it was the beginning of winter and I found a field full of frozen spider webs.
I started my journey in 1998 building the Rubicon Tower.. then it lead me to build my home.
Reminiscent of the Homestake headframe that have stood for a 120 years.
My 9.05-acre Fog Lode, part of The Rubicon, holds an estimated 100,000–264,000 ounces of gold, a geological treasure near Dakota Gold’s Richmond Hill project in the Black Hills. What makes Fog Lode truly special is its historical tie: the mineral survey, filed at the Land and Patent Office in Washington, D.C., bears Theodore Roosevelt’s signature.
From my claim, I can see the Mount Roosevelt Friendship Tower, built in 1920, and a straight line to Tower in Medora,
both honoring the president who balanced resource use with preservation.
The Friendship Tower, built by Seth Bullock as legend goes was where Seth went to look North and share his insights of westward expansion with his friend Roosevelt in Medora. Yes, there is a Tower in Medora. That story continues at a later time.
This signed document connects my highland retreat to the badlands, a thread linking my story to Roosevelt’s legacy across two states.
A Call to Celebrate the Land
From building The Rubicon’s tower under Ponderosa pines to designing 4 Bears Casino and working Bakken rigs, I’ve lived the interplay of progress and preservation. The badlands and Black Hills, with their raw beauty and rich history, have shaped me as much as I’ve shaped them. Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Elkhorn Ranch remind us to honor the land, as Roosevelt did. My Fog Lode, with its presidential signature, is a personal bridge to that vision.
Visit Scottprentice.com to explore my art, mining ventures, and more. Come see the badlands—hike the Maah Daah Hey Trail, visit 4 Bears, or stand at Elkhorn Ranch—and let’s cherish this land’s beauty and potential together.
Did Seth Bullock and Theodore Roosevelt communicate between their towers?
Read more about Roosevelt Friendship Tower and The Tower in Medora – A Ghostly Tale!