Roosevelt River - History and Exploration

History and Exploration

Formerly called Rio da Dúvida (“River of Doubt”), the river is named after Theodore Roosevelt, who traveled into the central region of Brazil during the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition of 1913–14. The expedition, led by Roosevelt and ], Brazil's most famous explorer and the river's discoverer, sought to determine where and by which course the river flowed into the Amazon.

Roosevelt and his son Kermit undertook the adventure after the former U.S. president's failed attempt to regain the office as the "Bull Moose" candidate in 1912. The Roosevelt-Rondon expedition was the first non Amazonian-native party to travel and record what Rondon had named the "Rio da Dúvida", then one of the most unexplored and intimidating tributaries of the Amazon. Sections of the river have impassable rapids and waterfalls, which hindered the expedition.

Roosevelt later wrote Through the Brazilian Wilderness recounting the adventure. After Roosevelt returned doubts were raised on his account of the expedition. Roosevelt promptly rebutted them in a public forum in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the National Geographic Society. In 1927 American explorer George Miller Dyott led a second trip down the river, independently confirming Roosevelt's discoveries.