In 1883, the Maltese Cross cabin stood seven miles south of Medora in the wooded bottomlands along the Little Missouri River. By badlands standards, it was practically a mansion. Ranch managers Sylvane Ferris and Bill Merrifield built it to Roosevelt's specifications: wooden floors, three separate rooms, a shingled roof, and a root cellar. The steeply pitched roof, unusual on the northern plains, created an upstairs sleeping loft for the ranch hands. The cabin's construction from durable ponderosa pine logs ensured it would outlast nearly every other structure from that era. Roosevelt arrived in Dakota Territory in September 1883 intending to hunt bison. He left having invested in the Maltese Cross Ranch, also known as the Chimney Butte Ranch. Like many ranchers of the era, he squatted on public lands or railroad property, never actually owning the acreage beneath his boots.

Roosevelt used the cabin actively from 1883 to 1884, living the life of a working cowboy. Then came Valentine's Day 1884. His wife Alice and his mother Mittie died within hours of each other in the same house in New York. Roosevelt fell into depression and retreated to the badlands. But he did not stay at the Maltese Cross. Instead, he went further north down the Little Missouri River and built a new cabin at the Elkhorn Ranch, which became his true home in the Dakotas. The Maltese Cross became associated with his earlier, more innocent time in the territory. He would maintain ranching interests in the area until 1898, but his active ranching days ended in early 1887. "I do not believe there ever was any life more attractive to a vigorous young fellow than life on a cattle ranch in those days," he later wrote. "It taught a man self-reliance, hardihood, and the value of instant decision."

The Maltese Cross Cabin's journey across America began during Roosevelt's own presidency. In 1904, it was exhibited at the World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. The following year, it traveled to the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Oregon. In 1910, the cabin moved to the state fairgrounds in West Fargo, North Dakota, then eventually to the grounds of the state capitol in Bismarck, where it remained for nearly five decades. The cabin's compact size made these relocations possible, though each move required careful disassembly and reconstruction. Finally, in 1959, the cabin was relocated to its present site at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park visitor center and restored. Additional preservation work occurred in 2000. The cabin that Roosevelt knew in the 1880s has now stood in more North Dakota locations than most residents ever visit.

Today, the National Park Service maintains the Maltese Cross Cabin as a historic landmark. Tours run from mid-June through Labor Day; the rest of the year, visitors explore on their own. Several items present in the cabin actually belonged to Roosevelt. The white hutch in the main room served as his bookcase and writing desk. A classically styled desk came from the Elkhorn Ranch cabin, where Roosevelt spent many hours recording his experiences and memoirs of badlands life. His leather traveling trunk, inscribed with his initials, sits in the bedroom. The common rocking chair may have been his, or may have come from an upstairs room at the Ferris Store where he occasionally stayed. Roosevelt's second cabin at the Elkhorn Ranch, 35 miles north, fared less well. Nothing remains there today except cornerstones, foundation blocks, and a covered well. The Maltese Cross Cabin endures as the tangible link to a future president's formative years.