Theodore Roosevelt National Park

We spent the nights of 21-23 August (Wednesday through Friday) at Medora Campground in Medora, ND. It gave us two full days to see the sights. The campground itself is fair to good. Sites were decently sized, and there was some grass plus lots of trees. In facet there were so many trees we couldn’t get the satellite antenna to track. It was ok since I had a few seasons of “Endeavor” to catch up on. It is the prequel to the Morse series that I originally saw on PBS.

We didn’t do much on Wednesday, but we wandered around the town a bit. There is a state historic site in town, the Chateau de Mores. It was the summer hunting “cabin” of a French Marquis and his wife Medora, the town’s namesake. The Marquis tried raising beef and cold shipping the meat to the east, but lost a huge amount of money doing it. The house is quite fancy for the time period, and it contains a veritable goldmine of original furnishings, both the mundane (utensils and cooking supplies) and the ornate (beds with mosquito netting hangings and a huge piano). The family owned the 22 room house from the 1880s when they built it until they sold it to the state in the 1930s. I didn’t remember to take a picture of the outside, but it was a tall, two story house with big verandas on the very top of the hill.

Mundane items like the grinder are orignals

The parlor is also almost all original with the exception of the wall paper, a copy of the original

Another fun thing was seeing the Colorado Model A club in town!

My second favorite. I think that is a water container in front of the rear wheel.

There were lots to choose from, at least 14

Thursday evening we really played tourist and went to the Pitchfork Steak Fondue. Their claim to fame is spearing the steaks on pitch forks then cooking them. They also had the normal “fixins” at a cowboy-style event.

Steak (notice the pitchfork holes), coleslaw, great beans, potatoe, Texas toast, fruit and brownies. They had some fresh veggies too, but I didn’t get any.

We then went to the “Medora Musical.” I was expecting a play with music, but it was a musical variety show. I was surprised, but not disappointed. Two MCs, one who sang and the other was more a comedian, a nice band, 12 college aged singers, horse riders, and even fireworks at the end. There was also a nationally known comedian just after intermission. He was good, but the spectacle was the musical acts. Lots of costume changes.

Note the horses to the right of the stage

Lots of flag-waving patriotism with a mixture of country, rock, and gospel songs.

Friday we headed to the National Park. We went to the south unit this time (we did the north unit when we were at Lewis and Clark State Park). The scenery was more “badlands” in the north unit, but the south had some great views too.

There were also animals. The bison was walking at the edge of the road, away from the nursery herd. The main attraction of the south unit are the wild horses, and we did see this one band. I also got a hilarious video of a territorial prairie dog. Click on the link to see it. He or she is really getting after a territorial rival!

Rather ratty looking fellow at this time of uear

Umm. Video doesn’t work, so I will work on it later.

In the middle of all of this “touristing”, I also finished a sewing project. It is a washable throw rug made with quilt batting and a jelly roll of fabric (2 1/2” strips). I was quite pleased with it, and it fits fairly well in front of my sink. Hopefully it will keep the carpet there cleaner! It is actually isn’t as oddly shaped as it seems in the picture! I must admit I really like my new sewing machine and the sewing table I bought for it.

Tonight we are staying in a Cabela’s parking lot in Billings, MT. We have decided to head toward Yellowstone instead of Great Falls, so we are hoping to get a Fish and Game campsite north of Gardiner tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes.

We spent Monday, 19 August, seeing some sites around Williston. Williston itself is a heavily industrialized oil field town in the Bakken oil field area. I grew up in Oklahoma and have been through the Permian Basin in Texas, but I have never seen so much oil development as I did in this area of North Dakota. Most sites had only 2-4 pump jacks, but the largest we saw had 24 pump jacks in three gangs of eight. These were the big ones too, not the little ones seen most frequently in Oklahoma. It was still pretty clean with the rig sites being contained. Of course occasionally I would get a whiff of petroleum due to the numerous gas flares that burned, but it wasn’t as bad as Texas. I am guess it is because the Bakken field was developed more recently with stronger environmental policies. It was pretty amazing.

We first visited the Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence Center. Besides the obligatory Lewis and Clark exhibits, there was also a surprising display about rural electrification and the growth of electric co-ops. It was an entire room, and it was remarkably interesting showing the electric and non-electric versions of all kinds of conveniences such as irons and washing machines. Of course I forgot to take any pictures, but the river was not very close anymore.

We then went to the nearby Fort Buford site with a few rebuilt buildings from post civil war era. We weren’t as interested in that era, so we just looked around a bit. I did take pictures this time though!

We then headed to Fort Union, a much more interesting location to me. It was from the fur trade era, and is a National Historic Site (the two previous sites were ND State Historical Sites). I have never been to a bad NHS, and this one didn’t disappoint either.

It sits on a lovely hill overlooking the Missouri

Might as well post the first information sign for details.

The fort was the most important trading center along the Upper Missouri from 1828 – 1867. They have rebuilt much of the main fort including the palisades and some of the working rooms.

Looking at the gate and wall from the inside.

The crown jewel of the fort was the main building. It had a well documented exterior, and was rebuilt very faithfully to the 1850s view. Fabulous place, though no documentation of the interior was available.

While we were there two men who were retracing the route taken by General Ashley in the early 1820s. They had come the Columbia River drainage across South Pass using horses and mules. They had just arrived in pirogues and bull boats after a trip of hundreds of miles on the Missouri! They were dressed in period clothing, one as a French Canadian trader and one as Indian complete with only a breach cloth and shirt. I wanted to get a picture of them, but I was too shy to bother them. They were coordinating with the NPS about their journey.

We also decided to visit the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, about an hour from Fort Union. Gorgeous place.

Obligatory buffalo picture. Notice the tracking color.

It was hazy and I was shooting into the sun.

The Little Missouri carved the badlands of the park.

The colors are muted by the sun angle, but even better in real life

One of the more unique features of this part of the park are these odd cannonball secretions. They are just big circular rocks resulting from some sort of secretion, but no one knows exactly how they were formed.

Some not quite so round, but interesting.

We didn’t get back until late, and we were tired. We decided to just take Tuesday off, relaxing, sewing (me), and bike riding. We also caught up on the mundane chores of laundry and grocery shopping. We arrived Wednesday afternoon at Medora campground, the subject of the next posts.

Tag: Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Medora and Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Oil and lots of fur trade history