Just to the right outside the park entrance is Chimney Park. Once the site of a meat packing plant, all that remains is a tall chimney, the foundation of the slaughter house and cornerstones of the ice houses. There is also a small section of railroad track where the spur off the Northern Pacific railroad was. The Marquis de Mores, a French aristocrat, had the idea that instead of transporting cattle by railroad to be slaughtered, he would slaughter them while still high quality and ship the meat in refrigerated railway cars. He came to the North Dakota Territory in 1883, started his business, built a home and founded the town of Medora named for his wife. Although the business failed in 1886 due to competition from Armour and Swift in Chicago, the effects of weather and drought, market failure and inattention to business, the town of Medora has continued to flourish and is a quaint, pretty little tourist town today just outside the entrance to the national park.
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| Chimney at de Mores Meat Packing Plant |
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| Railroad Spur and Slaughterhouse Foundation |
The de Mores built a 26 room two story frame house overlooking the town known as the chateau. Although only used for three summers, the de Mores' entertained many important people including Theodore Roosevelt. They both loved to hunt and went on many hunting expeditions, some lasting several months. Used to living in mansions in New York City and huge chateaus in France, they brought their servants with them and entertained in high style. The house has been restored and is mostly furnished with original items belonging to the de Mores. After being used a a boarding house for a short period, their son donated the house to the state in 1936.
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| Chateau de Mores from National Park Road |
We stopped at the visitors' center of the chateau first for a short film and a small museum showing information about the packing plant and the home. There was also a room dealing with German immigration in North Dakota. In 1910 10% of North Dakotans were foreign-born German immigrants. By 1980 Germans and their descendants were 50% of the total state population. That would account for the meal Ted had the other day.
We toured the chateau, meeting another couple traveling the country in an RV and comparing notes on places we had been. Although rustic, the table was set with their original fine china. The original wallpaper was still on the walls as well a some of the original carpets. The bed, desk, armoires, trunks, chamber pots, comb and brush set, etc. were all original as when they left in 1986, they did not know they wouldn't return.
When we finished the tour we drove back down into Medora and wandered around a bit before having lunch at Maltese Burgers, a take-out burger place named after Roosevelt's first ranch. Most of the buildings in the seven block town are owned and maintained by the non-profit Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation. Everything was immaculately done and we had the feeling we had stepped back in time. There were no chain stores or restaurants, just a fun place to wander around. Throughout the small downtown there were interpretive signs showing what different buildings had once been or what had once been there and no longer was.
The Little Missouri National GrassLands comprise 1.1 million acres of land which encompasses all three sections of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. South of Medora is a 58 mile wild and scenic loop that winds through beautifully sculptured canyons and hills, etched with grays and reds. Unlike, the rugged badlands just north, this land was mostly green with the bright red dirt roads we were traveling on making a striking contrast. Of the more than sixty miles of red dirt road we traveled, we only met two other vehicles. The views were spectacular but it seemed like every time we stopped to take a photo there was an oil well in our way.
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| Beautiful Red Roads |
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| Oil Well Center Distance |
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| Not Everything has Eroded |
We drove over lots of cattle guards, saw lots of cows, dozens of oil wells, several ranches, six horses, eight pronghorn, and two wild turkeys. One group of five pronghorn ran down the road in front of us, with their big white rear ends showing, for quite awhile before turning into the field. They are one fast animal. When we got back, the back of the car was covered with fine red dust.
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| Pronghorn |
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| Big White Rear Ends |
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| Red Dust Everywhere |
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