Day 46 - Bismark to Medora, TRNP

Contrary to what the weatherman said last night, we awoke to a nasty scudding clouds, windy mid 60s morning. But it cleared by afternoon, by the time we got to Medora about noon. (Quick stop in New Salem to see "Salem Sue", the world's largest Holstein). Medora is a very interesting place. Its the home of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the Chateau de Mores and the popular summer musical and various TR re-creations. The little town over the years has been restored to reflect its history. We are staying two nights at the Rough Rider Hotel, the central hotel/fancy restaurant in town. Dinner at the Pizza place, which was quite good.

The landmark feature as you get to town is the "stack", what's left of the meat processing operation that ran here from 1883-1886. The Marquis de Mores had a creative scheme. He figured it would be more efficient if he could process beef here and send the meat to New York in refrigerated rail cars, rather than send it "on the hoof". So, he set up a processing plant to slaughter his own cattle, send them to NY to sell from meat shops that he owned. Clever! It failed - never could get enough quality cattle to make it work. His mansion is across the street and has been restored and is now a state park. We'll visit there tomorrow.

The National Park pays tribute to Teddy Roosevelt who spent time here in the badlands during the 1880s, well before he became US President. He had two ranches, Elkhorn and the Maltese Cross.      . There's a 28 mile loop road that winds around the park with spectacular views and some great short hikes. If one is lucky, one can see some bison, elk, deer, wild horses, prairie dogs, and bighorn sheep. We saw some bison and a group of 8 beautiful wild horses (they call them "feral", I think that's a derogatory term). The horses were left here after the Army left after the Indian wars.There are about 800 bison in the park.

More exploring tomorrow as well as the famous summer musical!