8 Fascinating Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Medora In North Dakota
North Dakota’s most popular attraction is the wild west town of Medora. If you’re from ND, you’ve probably seen the commercials, driven past the billboards, or perhaps even walked by a tourist information kiosk in your local mall about this town. But what makes it so special? You probably know about its famous musical and beautiful location, but here are 8 things you probably didn’t know about this fascinating town.
1. The town is named after the wife of the Marquis de Mores, the Frenchman who founded it. Additionally, her name was derived from a poem that was popular at the time.
2. The amphitheater where the famous Medora Musical happens is called the Burning Hills Amphitheatre. Before 1991, the theater was just a dirt hill with wooden logs to sit on for the audience, but had a complete overhaul and is the beautiful theater it is today.
3. The town was founded entirely by the Marquis in 1883, when he spent a lot of money building stores, a hotel, his own huge house, the Chateau des Mores, and also started up a beef business.
Despite creating a boom town at the time, it was only 3 years later that it all fell apart to financial ruin and he went back to France. The town, of course, remained.
4. The first dude ranch in the United States was made about five miles outside of Medora by the Eaton brothers.
5. Before there was the Medora Musical, there was a play about the life of Theodore Roosevelt's time in the badlands called Ol' Four Eyes presented in the original amphitheater.
6. Speaking of Roosevelt, it was his traveling to Medora to hunt bison that made him fall in love with the land, start two cattle ranches in the area, and spend so much time here.
Later in his life, he would credit the North Dakota badlands as the "romance of [his] life" and the reason he became a successful president.
7. The same company that made Mr. Bubble (one of the most popular brands of bubble bath soap of all time) was also responsible for restoring Medora and making it North Dakota's most popular tourist attraction.
2016 was a banner year for the park. It received over 753,000 visitors that year - that's just a few thousand shy of the entire population of North Dakota!
Medora, North Dakota is in Billings County near the Montana border. How many of these facts did you know, and how many were new to you?
This place is pretty awesome and it’s no wonder why it’s the most popular attraction in the entire state. But if you’ve already done the Medora trip and are looking for some NoDak hidden gems that are more off the beaten path, follow this link.
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Leah moved to North Dakota when she was 12 years old and has traveled from the Red River Valley to the badlands and many places in between. She loves small-town life and currently enjoys living on a small farm in the ND prairie. She's always had a passion for writing and has participated in novel writing challenges such as NaNoWriMo multiple times. Her favorite part about this job is recognizing small businesses that deserve a boost and seeing the positive affect her articles can have on their traffic, especially in rural areas that might have otherwise gone overlooked.
