Roosevelt, Theodore

Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States.  Vice President Roosevelt ascended to the Presidency after President William McKinley was assassinated in Buffalo, New York.  Roosevelt was sworn in hours after McKinley's death on September 14, 1901, and won re-election in the 1904 Presidential race.  Roosevelt's Presidency was defined by his attacks on large corporations, or trusts, and his foreign policy summarized by the slogan "speak softly and carry a big stick."  Perhaps President Roosevelt's most meaningful act, as far as Arizona was concerned, was to enact the 1902 Reclamation Act, which provided the federal government with the means to get water to the dry lands of the American West.  The Roosevelt Dam on the Salt River, completed in 1911 and named for President Roosevelt, became the first federal funded reclamation project under the 1902 legislation.  Roosevelt himself dedicated the dam on March 18, 1911.