19 Aug
Today we started the day visiting the Chateau de Mores. This 26 room hunting lodge and part time residence was built in 1883 by the Marquis de Mores, a French nobleman who was the founder of the town of Medora. The town is named after his wife, Medora von Hoffman, daughter of a New York banker.
The Marquis sought fortune here by establishing the town of Medora and building a beef packing plant operation, a stagecoach line, a freighting company, refrigerated railway cars, cattle and sheep raising and land ownership. They occupied the Chateau seasonally from 1883 until the fall of 1886. During that time many dignitaries were entertained here.
After 1886 the Marquis only visited the Chateau a couple times, while Medora and their children visited only once more in 1903 after the Marquis' death, at which time she spent six weeks there. After that the house was maintained by caretakers. They would ready the house for occupation in the spring but the family never returned. The eldest son gave the caretakers permission to operate the chateau as a boarding house in 1921. During this period the house suffered from theft and lack of maintenance.
In 1936 the Chateau and the land on which it sat was given to the state of North Dakota on the condition that it be maintained and opened to the public. It was restored from 1937 to 1941 by the Civilian Conservation Corps and again in 1995. The two people who greeted us in the Chateau today were both State employees and were very friendly and knowledgeable.
The visit to the Chateau started out at the Chateau de Mores Interpretive Center just across the road from our campground. There we watched an informative video and looked at various displays. There was a lot of focus on the failed packing plant. We will visit the remains of the packing plant and talk more about that later today.
Chateau de Mores Interpretive Center
A couple real cowgirls!
Then we drove up the hill to visit the Chateau. It has been maintained as it was back in the day.
The Chateau de Mores.
The attached porch wraps around the Chateau and provides a great view of the town and where the packing plant was located.
The dining room
Wine collection - over 600 bottles were found in the wine cellar when they began restoration.
400 of them contained mineral water
The kitchen and servant's dining room
The scullery where servants scrubbed pots and pans and did some laundry.
We then went upstairs and entered a main room off which were all the bedrooms. Much of the upstairs was being painted and repaired and the items in the rooms were covered with plastic.
The main room at the top of the stairs
One of many bedrooms upstairs
Another bedroom.
Back downstairs we entered the "Hunting Room". The Marquis and Marquise often entertained their guests by taking them on hunting trips. Preparations were made in this room and hunting equipment was stored here also.
Huge bear traps
Marquis bathroom/dressing room with indoor toilet, wash basin and bathtub.
Quite the amenities for 1883!
The Marquise bedroom. Note the short bed
The living room where guests were received and entertained.
A view of the packing plant in the distance from the porch.
The wrap-around porch.
From the Chateau we drove down towards the campground and stopped at the Packing Plant/Chimney Park, which is situated on the west edge of Medora. 
We mentioned before that the Marquis de More came here from France in 1883 seeking fortune. His plan was to establish a meat packing enterprise and revolutionize the meat producing industry by slaughtering and processing cattle close to the range. This would eliminate the cost of feeding and caring for the live animals during transport to larger cities to the east. There was also a lot of waste shipping live cattle as they lost a lot of weight in the transport. Shipping butchered meat would eliminate this.
So the Marquis built a large packing plant operation here in Medora with a slaughterhouse (abattoir), three icehouses, several outbuildings, a railroad spur track, and a corral. The ice was harvested from the nearby Little Missouri River in the winter and stored in the ice houses for use throughout the year to refrigerate the beef.
His operation failed due to various reasons, primarily because there was a lack of a constant supply of range cattle in prime condition for slaughtering year 'round and the plant closed just three years later in 1886. The packing facility sat empty and burned in 1907, leaving the tall, native clay brick chimney standing along with some of the buildings foundations.
So, interesting stuff on how this town came to be! With that it seemed only appropriate to visit another historic building, the Little Missouri Saloon!
Remnants of the boiler
Interesting door handle!
Various hats and dollar bills hanging from the ceiling
Joe found the right room!!
Brown ale for the cowboys, a mud slide and a margarita for the cowgirls!
We finished up the day back at the campground with a barbecue and fellowship at the Thornell's RV! Tomorrow we will likely do some laundry and make preparations to boogie on down the highway westward to our last stop before we get to the East Glacier National Park area.
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