This weekend I drove the 4 hours over to North Dakota and camped at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the little town of Medora. The ride through eastern Montana and the park was beautiful! The park is in the North Dakota "badlands", and although I did not have to worry about bears I could hear the coyotes howling all night. In the park there are herds of wild horses that are so pretty. I saw them as I was driving, but they, apparently, meander right into the campground to graze as well.
The town of Medora is now a cute little town with lots of gift shops and restaurants, but it didn't start that way. When the Marque de Mores first moved to the badlands of ND in 1883 to start a cattle ranch there was nothing but open wild land. He and his wife Medora began to build, and the people to help work the ranch followed. The Marque came from a very prominent family in France, and was well funded in this new venture that he thought would make him the wealthiest person in the US. He was so confident that he moved his family out there, and built a "little" summer home. It was 26 rooms with all the modern luxuries. All of his friends from the east would come out to experience the Wild West and go hunting, but they could not be expected to stay in a log cabin. The people of the town began calling the house the Chateau de Mores. The house still stands today with 90% of the original furnishings and decorations. I got to tour the house and learn about the family. Unfortunately, the venture did not work out for them, and they moved back east after having lost a half a million dollars. One kinda cool fact is that they were in direct competition with Theodore Roosevelt who also came to this area to try ranching, but that did not stop them from being friends with him. They invited Teddy over for dinner at the Chateau many times. So, I saw the table that he sat at while dining with them. Pretty cool if you ask me.
The ride home was nice as far as traffic goes. Over the course of more then 200 miles I never turned off my cruise control. However, it was a little unnerving how smoky it was. There are a ton of fires burning out here and it was really obvious on Sunday. These pictures were taken at about 2 or 3 in the afternoon; the sunniest part of the day... usually.
Little did I know how deep the firefighter culture runs in this state. I have been told that when there are fires anywhere in the country the Montana fire fighters are the first called in to help. I hope they are able to contain all the fires here in their home state, and that the fireworks on the 4th don't cause too much trouble. There is a ban on all fireworks other then the cities displays. It will be a cautious holiday for this area.
Nonetheless, I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th! We are definitely blessed to live in this beautiful country!
The fires are so devistating. They have consummed so many homes in Colorado. I hope that the area gets some wet weather soon. When I think of ND I think about the cowboys that worked the C&M Ranch in WY. So the wild horses fit right in with my image of ND. Glad you are so far along in meeting your goal. Love you.
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