For years many of us, especially the last 3 years, have been trying to quantify the value the wild horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park bring to the state of North Dakota. 

I am sure many of you have seen a post by the Facebook Group Rare Equine Breeds that talks about a formula the state of North Carolina used to come up with a value on the Banker horse.

We took that model and applied it to our TRNP wild horses.  We then ran these numbers by our volunteer marketing team – that consists of some amazing people with impressive market research backgrounds – and they agreed that the way this estimated method looks sound!

If you listened to Cynthia Smoot’s presentation during our virtual summit, she said something that newly appointed Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, talked about during his confirmation hearing:

“We need to capitalize on the economic value of our natural resources.”

While we may be talking about different things – wild horses ARE a natural resource!  We KNOW that they impact state and local economies!

When we input numbers from this model into the formula used for the Banger wild horses, here is what we get:

How much are the Theodore Roosevelt National Park wild horses worth to the local economy of Medora North Dakota?

Theodore Roosevelt National Park had approximately 900,000 visitors to the park in 2023.  Please note, this number is expected to increase significantly every year, especially in 2026 with the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.

The wild horses are always within the top 3 reasons why people visit the park.  That means an average of 300,000 people come to Medora every year just to see the wild horses. 

The average visitor spends $50 for day trippers; $200 a day for overnighters: making the average $125/per day/per person

$125/per day times 300,000 visitors = $37,500,000 per year

$37,500,000 divided by an average of 200 wild horses in the park = $187,500 per horse, per year

Take that number times the average life expectancy of around 18-20 years and that brings it to $3,375,000 – $3,750,000 per horse in their lifetime! They are a true natural treasure to the state of North Dakota in every sense.

**These numbers do not include visitors that drive across the state of North Dakota on their way to see the horses.  Those visitors only increase the amount of money that the horses bring to the total economy in the state of North Dakota.

Yes, this will be part of Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates testimony in front of the North Dakota legislature. 

Feel free to use this in yours!

$37,500,000.00!! AGAIN, THAT IS: THIRTY-SEVEN MILLION, FIVE HUNDREND THOUSAND DOLLARS!!! PER YEAR!!!

That changes the perspective of things, doesn’t it?

Thank you to the group in North Carolina who came up with this formula.  We need to use this more in our advocacy for ALL wild horses. 

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