When President Theodore Roosevelt pertained to Riverside, he did what a lot of travelers do in an unfamiliar city: pack in as much as possible.

After arriving at 6 p.m. by train, Roosevelt got a scenic tour, offered a speech, planted a tree on Victoria Avenue, attended a banquet, got in a night's sleep at the Mission Inn and, the next early morning, fulfilled hotel owner Frank Miller and planted a tree on the premises prior to departing by train at 8 a.m.

" He wasn't here even a complete day," says Glenn Wenzel, who's studied the president's if-it's- Tuesday-this-must-be-Riverside visit, "but he crammed so much into it."

I'm blogging about this little bit of regional history since Roosevelt was here May 7-8, 1903. "It is 120 years," Wenzel states.

A retired minister and the author of two books about Mount Rubidoux, Wenzel published a slim book last fall, "When Teddy Came to Riverside." A great deal of info about Roosevelt's stay exists since papers recorded it thoroughly, bless our hearts.

Roosevelt is one of four sitting presidents to stay at the Mission Inn or its predecessor, the Glenwood Inn.

A photo illustrates President Theodore Roosevelt transplanting one of the parent navel orange trees on the premises of the Mission Inn on May 8, 1903. The tree passed away 15 years later. The picture is shown at the Mission Inn Museum. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).
Convening in the hotel lobby, just past the notoriously wide chair built for President William Howard Taft that visitors like to being in for selfies, Wenzel and I snagged a table under the oil picture of Roosevelt for our conversation.

Why was Roosevelt in Riverside? Did he need to hit up donors or deal with his golf swing?

No, he was on an enthusiastic cross-country tour by train.

Roosevelt had actually ascended to the presidency when William McKinley, whom he worked as vice president, was assassinated in 1901. Roosevelt faced an election in 1904 as an incumbent who had never been straight chosen.

In early 1903, Roosevelt revealed plans to tour the West. From April 1 to June 5 he took a trip on an unique six-car train, going west to California, up the West Coast to Washington state before heading east back in Washington, D.C., making frequent stops to see natural marvels and press the flesh.

There were experiences along the method. The conservation-minded president roughed it in the backcountry of Yellowstone and Yosemite. In Victorville, on his way to Redlands, Roosevelt eluded his security information to sneak into the steam engine taxi for the adventure of it.

" Roosevelt got to be president because of an assassination," Wenzel points out. "People were worked with to secure him and he kept disappearing.".

On May 7, Roosevelt reached the Santa Fe Depot in Redlands to much fanfare. He rode in a carriage to the Casa Loma Hotel, where he was welcomed to California by the governor.

The audience broke up, to the mystification of the president. Glenn Wenzel looks at a picture of President Theodore Roosevelt that hangs in the Mission Inn's Presidential Lounge. The lounge was originally the suite where Roosevelt himself hung out in his May 7-8, 1903 pajama party.
In San Bernardino, he spoke on a momentary phase in today's Pioneer Park before the journey continued to Riverside. He remained over night at the Mission Inn, which had actually just opened under that name in January. It still had that new-mission smell.

Says Wenzel: "It was quite the plum for Riverside to get him not only to stop but to spend a night here.".

Roosevelt stayed in a four-room suite on the very first flooring. A portion is now a bar called the Presidential Lounge. Wenzel and I walked in and appreciated the picture portrait of Roosevelt installed above a fireplace.

As kept in mind, Roosevelt planted 2 trees while in the area.

After touring orange groves owned by Cornelius Rumsey, Roosevelt ceremonially turned a shovel of dirt to formally plant a palm tree at the head of Victoria Avenue at Myrtle Street. The palm was named the Victoria Palm after England's Queen Victoria but quickly ended up being known as the Roosevelt Palm.

It's still standing today.

The Roosevelt Palm, planted by President Theodore Roosevelt on May 7, 1903, still bases on Victoria Avenue at Myrtle Street in Riverside. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).
" A lot of individuals do not know it's there," Wenzel states.

I chose a solo go to. Curiously, somewhere along the line someone thought it was a great concept to plant an entire stand of palms around the president's, which blunts the effect.

A historic marker at the tree's base denotes which one is the Roosevelt Palm. It reads May 8 rather than the correct May 7.

May 8 is when Roosevelt planted a second tree - - or rather, transplanted it.

This was among two trees in Riverside known as the moms and dad navel orange, the speculative set planted in 1873 by Eliza Tibbets and from which all navel orange trees because have come from.

One of the moms and dad navels was given to the city, which transplanted it on a small lot at Arlington and Magnolia opportunities, where it's still standing today, albeit inside a protective camping tent. The other was rescued by the newly formed Riverside Historical Society.

On May 8, Miller and his family met with Roosevelt at 7 a.m. in his suite, then escorted him outside to transplant the homeless moms and dad navel.

Up until the president's death in 1919, Miller sent him a basket of oranges from the tree every year. And on March 21, 1911, the fruit was delivered in person. The former president, who 'd left office in 1909, made a brief, unpublicized train stop in Riverside while traveling between Phoenix and Los Angeles. Tipped off, Miller and his sibling, Alice, brought him a basket.

" This is the first time that I have consumed from a tree I have actually planted myself!" Roosevelt is said to have actually exclaimed.

Would you like to check out? Sadly, that tree died in 1922. It was by natural causes, by the way, not an assassination.

brIEfly

After leaving Riverside, Roosevelt's next stop remained in Claremont, where he talked to a crowd of 10,000 at Pomona College and, yes, planted a tree: an oak. And, oops, the tree started to pass away within 2 weeks, as my coworker Joe Blackstock composed in 2002. Out of shame, school officials had the not-so-mighty oak rooted out in the dead of night and a substitute planted. The replacement "Roosevelt Oak" lasted till the early 1980s.

David Allen composes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, three slim saplings. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on Twitter.