Days 65 through 71 - falling in love with Medora

Days 65 through 71 - falling in love with Medora

Medora, as we will find out, was named for the wife of the Marquis de Mores, of whom more anon.  While there our days are filled with delightful experiences, mixed with training classes for my Virtual Instructor job, so I'm going to depart from my usual practice and give you the whole week in one post.

What makes Medora charming is that, although it has some modern conveniences, it's basically been kept as it was in the 19th Century when it was founded as a stop along the Northern Pacific railroad, now part of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe.   Trains still run through town (alas, only freight today) and the historic buildings, for the most part, are unchanged in appearance.  The year round population is about 120, swelled in summer to several thousand by workers in the various tourist facilities and the national park.

We stay in Sully Creek State Park, which turns out to be an inspired choice.  It's about 3 miles out of town, the sites are widely spaced, it's never busy, and a couple of resident deer check us out warily most evenings as we go to and from town.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park is the only NP named for an individual.  The President became a cowboy and rancher in this area after losing his wife and mother on the same day.  He later claimed he would never have been President except for his time in North Dakota.  The Southern unit of the park starts 1/4 mile out of town, and if your car still has any suspension after bumping over the first 5 miles of road, you can spend time with prairie dogs, bison and pronghorn and possibly, if you're not with our family, some elk.   That's if you have any breath left after taking in the sun-kissed rock formations.

An evening ranger presentation, grandly titled "Megafauna Management" teaches us not about how they handle saber toothed tigers, but rather bison, elk and deer.  They can't allow the population of any of these to get too high or they will eat themselves out of house and home.  The elk and deer can get in or out of the park whenever they want, but bison have to be rounded up once a year.  The lucky ones get released, the rest shipped out.  The ranger giving a second presentation has to do it from the 3rd row of the audience as a family of sparrows has nested above the stage and dive-bombs him any time he gets near.

We drive the 36 mile scenic loop road a couple of times during the week and never find the large bison herd, just stray males, often right next to the road.  At several points the road almost kisses the park boundary fence, beyond which we see herds of cows doing their (not very convincing) bison imitations.

Next to the visitor center is TR's original cabin, complete with his desk, bed and carved initials - probably old enough to be a petroglyph rather than graffiti.  Teddy later lived at a Elkhorn Ranch, further north.  It's no longer there but you can see the foundations if you can find the middle unit of the park.  We try one day, glad of the pickup as we bounce along the dirt roads and cattle grids, but despite following the instructions the rangers gave us, we never do find it.  Maybe that's where the missing bison are!

Three's also a north unit to the park.  Having missed Elkhorn Ranch we venture across the rolling prairies, approaching within 100 miles of the Canadian rolling prairies, and arrive at that unit's visitor center just after it has closed - somewhere we passed into the Central time zone and lost an hour!  We explore the higher badlands there, get to know some prairie dogs and the occasional bison, and record expansive views that I'm sharing with you.  Crossing the Little Missouri River after leaving, we find the hour we lost.

But there's more to Medora than the park.  3 ice cream stores, one of which also makes fudge, boast flavors like "Musical Fruit" (you'll know why in a moment!) that we have to try.  A second visit becomes essential to check on our memory of titillated taste buds.  We also get re-acquainted with some rodeo cowboys from our days of following the circuit, at the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame.  The rodeo section is complemented by detailed histories of the local tribes, and of the horse in the Badlands.  2 hours disappear in minutes as we immerse ourselves in these experiences.

The big draw for most tourists is the Medora Musical, celebrating its 60th year in an outdoor amphitheater originally built to showcase a reenactment of Roosevelt's exploits.  When we're not yee-hawing at country songs or splitting our sides laughing at the jokes, we get goose bumps at the patriotic tributes and sing along (quietly) with Broadway music.  A great show with a very energetic young cast from around the country, preceded by a steak dinner.  A highlight of the show for me came after dark, when one of the entertainers sang "Ghost riders in the Sky".  As he did, the back of the stage was open, revealing the (real) mountain behind it.   Six men and women on horseback climbed the mountain.  Although we could see them because of spotlights, they and their horses must have been treading the narrow path in the dark.  I'm sure I wasn't the only one with my heart in my mouth until they safely came down again.  Apparently this scene has been part of the show for years.

Some of these same singers also star in the Gospel Brunch where, after trying without much success to resist the temptation to fill our plates with eggs, ham, cinnamon rolls and many equally caloric foods on the buffet, we not only enjoy familiar and not-so-familiar gospel songs but also learn about the origins of the genre.

Theodore Roosevelt passed away in 1919 but he now spends an hour with visitors 5 days a week in the restored Town Hall Theater.  Actually it's an actor named Joe Wiegand who's made a career of portraying TR and, as we found out during the Q&A after his talk, knows just about everything about the man.  His sometimes acidic but always amusing commentary on TR's times and contemporaries made this one of the highlights of our stay.  We also bumped into Joe when in line at the musical, when eating dinner and just on the street.  He was never anyone but Teddy!

Chateau de Mores dominates the town from a hill just across the railroad tracks.  The Marquis de Mores, a French nobleman, moved to the area in the late 19th century with his wife Medora.  He had a summer home built, with 26 rooms.  He and his wife lived on the ground floor (separate bedrooms, as was the custom at the time) and he had a private bathroom with advanced plumbing, a rarity at the time.  They had a formal dining room where they ate gourmet meals including locally grown vegetables, accompanied by French wines and mineral water,  They wintered in New York city and although to them this was a summer home, to the locals it was a manor house or chateau. 

The second floor of the house had 3 large bedrooms for guests, as well as the children's rooms and, in contrast to the mores of the time (pun intended) rooms for the servants.  The house is still there and we had an extensive tour including an energetic presentation room a volunteer playing the 19th century newspaper editor.

Why, you are wondering, would a French marquis come to the Badlands of South Dakota?  The answer was a cunning business plan.  The Dakotas and surrounding states were used extensively for breeding cattle at the time.  Cattle were shipped by train to Chicago and points east, where they were slaughtered to provide meat for the affluent city residents.  Unfortunately there was a high mortality rate for the cattle.

De Mores built a slaughterhouse across the river from his "chateau".  The railroad already came through the area so he planned to transport meat from the slaughtered cows in refrigerated cars, to get a higher yield.  He built a town for the workers (across the river from his home - shades of Henry Flagler and West Palm Beach!), and named it for his wife, which you probably guessed by now.

A cunning plan it was, but 3 years later he abandoned it since it was not making a profit and his father-in-law, who was financing it, had had enough!  He offered the plant for free to anyone who could make it work, but there were no takers and in 1905 it burned down.  All that remains of the plant today is the brick chimney.  But the house still stands.

We're thinking Medora would be a good place to spend the summer next year.  There are plenty of volunteer jobs in the Park and around town, and you can also get paid for working at the Musical.  With my theater experience I could enjoy helping them out backstage.

Bottom line - a great week mixing wildlife, a National Park and entertainment.  This is why we chose to go on the road!  The cats seem content to spend their mornings and evenings with us, and sleep the rest of the day.