Medora was founded in 1883 by a 20-something year old French aristocrat, The Marquis de Mores, and his wife Medora,Who was from a very wealthy East Coast family. Bankrolled almost entirely by his wealthy father-in-law, the marquis day Mores essentially built a fully functioning town in 1883, The centerpiece of which was his slaughterhouse and meat processing business that was intended to take advantage of the new railroad to transport processed meat to Eastern markets. Unfortunately, a drought ensued and the competition from Chicago meatpackers became intense. By 1886 he was out of business.
It was a very eventful three years. He became friends with Teddy Roosevelt, who also arrived in the Badlands in 1883 to hunt buffalo and later started two cattle ranches And fell in love with the country in a way that shaped his views as the greatest environmentalist ever to occupy the White House.
The marquis was a bit of a rabble-rouser. He and his entourage managed to get themselves into a gun fight with some of the locals who were offended by the Marquis placement of fences around his enormous property. One of the locals was killed and the marquis was ultimately tried and acquitted of murder. After leaving Madora he continued to live a colorful life that ended when he was shot by someone in his own entourage in north Africa in or about 1896. There’s a great story around that that was told to me by Quinn, an outstanding docent of the Château de mores. It is full of mystery and intrigue, but I have no time to go into that now.
Medora remained a sleepy little town with an amphitheater Until an enterprising man by the name of Harold Schafer (He of Mr. Bubbles fame) Came along and bought the local hotel and did a $7 million upgrade to the theater. He is credited with turning Medora into the wonderful little tourist community that it is today.
Meet Cindy. I met Cindy today and I like her a lot. I met her at an old gas station in a community of fewer than 100 people on the high plains of western North Dakota
For the past 17 years Cindy has been doing God’s work in a nonprofit organization that runs a home for wayward teens that includes an education program.
Like almost everyone else I have met in North Dakota, Cindy is a supporter of our president. She is particularly supportive of his efforts in the areas of deregulation and immigration reform. She discounts a lot of character issues and Russia issues based largely on the fact that she is distrustful of media coverage and is particularly offended by the activities of protesters. Her views are consistent with almost everyone I have met here and initially I just attributed that to the fact that South Dakota is a red state.
But North Dakota senator Heidi Heitkamp, a moderate Democrat, is also very popular here. As I leave the state, I come away with the impression that the good people of North Dakota are willing to listen and elect officials who will work through the complicated issues that face our nation today.
Toward the end of the day, I crossed the into the continent of Montana. Some of my riding out here will be on interstate 94, Where the speed limit is 80 mph!
I have made many new North Dakota friends over the past week and I’m looking forward to meeting many Montanans as my journey continues.
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