Exploring the Chateau de Mores in Medora, North Dakota

This is a continuation of a travel series to The Great West.  To start at the beginning, go HERE,, HERE, and 

HERE, HERE, HERE,, HERE, HERE HERE,  HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE!

This week's travel post will be the final post of my travel series to the Great West.   For my final post I am covering the Chateau de Mores and the history of the sweet town of Medora.

On our last day in Medora we had a more civilized day.  After an early morning hike in Theodore Roosevelt National Park we went back into town to freshen up, grab some lunch, and explore the sweet little town of Medora.  We visited all the sites that were still open late in the season and some of the gift shops, and there was still some time left in our day so I suggested to my husband that we check out the other historic home open for tours in town.  Little did I know that we should have done the Chateau de Mores experience first, because it was far more than just a home tour.  For the price of admission there is a museum explaining the history of the area and the Marquis family including a short film.  By the time we arrived, we only had time to run through the museum quickly to catch the highlights and then tour the house.  We never had time to see the movie.  

The chateau is a hunting lodge and summer home for the Marquis de Mores family and guests.  It was built in 1883 and is a 26 room, two story frame building.

Today the home is now part of the 128 acre Chateau de Mores State Historic Site which also includes Chimney Park and de Mores Memorial Park.

The house contains many of the original furnishings and personal effects of the de Mores family.

The Marquis de Mores was a man of immense wealth so it was a surprise to me how simple the chateau was in both design and furnishings.  After I spoke to one of the tour guides she reminded me that this was the Marquis "cabin" where he came for a rustic getaway to hunt.  When I think of "cabins" most American's have today, I guess this "chateau" was pretty large and luxurious in comparison, especially for the time period.

When the Marquis arrived in the area and built the chateau he named the town "Medora" after his wife.  Isn't that the romantic act ever?  Can you imagine your husband naming a town after you?

The Marquis was a French aristocrat and entrepreneur.  He arrived in the area to establish a new kind of cattle operation.  He planned to slaughter and cold pack his cattle to ship it out east in refrigerated cars.  He built a slaughter house in town which could be seen from the chateau.  It burnt to the ground in 1907 but the chimney still remains to this day, and is now known as Chimney Park.

For three years, the town of Medora did very well.  His family occupied the chateau seasonally from 1883 to 1886.  During the winter months they would go back to their home in France.

In 1886 the slaughter house collapsed due to a drought, competition from other meat packers, and the Marquis lack of business experience.  The Marquis family returned to France when the slaughter house closed.  The Marquis visited the chateau twice more once in 1887 and again in 1889, but Medora and the children only returned after the Marquis death in 1903 and spent six weeks here.

Although there are tour guides in the building to answer any of your questions, it is a self guided tour with plenty of signs to read explaining what room you are viewing, and notes on personal effects within the room.

The bedrooms on the second floor were all very simple and were used for the children, their nurses, and guests.

The front of the house was an enclosed porch.  This space was used for guests to drop off their large trunks and hunting equipment.

The chateau did not have indoor plumbing as you could probably have guessed by all the pitchers and wash basins in the bedrooms above.  The Marquis however did have a make-shift indoor toilet (or shall I say an indoor outhouse if that makes sense).  You can read more about how it operated in the second picture below this one.

Like most wealthy couples of that time period the Marquis and his wife had separate bedrooms.  They were both located on the lower level of the house.  This is the Marquis' bedroom.

And this was Medora's bedroom.

This is Medora's study.  The fireplace in the corner is very unique for it is the same fireplace in four different rooms of the house.  Each room has the fireplace in the same corner and occupies one chimney.

On the other side, is a living space, and you can see the fireplace in the corner.

The home has a beautiful wrap around porch with gorgeous views of the buttes and the town of Medora below.

And finally, see the chimney in the low-mid section of the photo below?  That is what remains of the slaughter house after the fire in 1907.  The Marquis could see his plant from his office window in the chateau.

The Chateau de Mores is open for tours May through October 8:30 am to 5:00 pm.

Admission is $10.00 per person, $3.00 for children ages 6-15, and Free for kids under 6.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Our Smokey Mountains Vacation - Day Three, Part One: Cades Cove Loop Road

This post is part of a travel series of our vacation in the Smokey Mountains.  To start at the beginning, go HERE!  The rest of the post in chronological order are HERE!

After a very rigorous hike to Rainbow Falls the day before,  our aching bodies were ready for a more relaxing day so my husband and I decided to drive the Cades Cove Loop Road.

When I was planning our trip to the Smokies, the Cades Cove Loop Road constantly came up in my Pinterest feed.  It is one of the most popular scenic roads in the park.  When I looked at other people's pictures, I will be honest, I was not impressed.  I couldn't understand why this road was so popular.  Nevertheless, I had to see it for myself to find out why this place was so well-loved, and once I did, I understood why!  Driving the Cades Cove Loop Road was one of the biggest highlights of my time in the Smokies!  The landscape was so serene and peaceful.  The prairie land looked so beautiful with the scenic mountain back drop.

When preparing for our trip I read a lot of blogs where they talked about how busy this road was and how you could be stuck in traffic for hours, but that was not our experience.  We arrived at the entrance to the loop before the gate was open and waited in line.  We had to ride in a caravan of cars for a little while, but once we pulled over to the first stop all the cars went past us and we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  

It takes over an hour just to get from Gatlinburg to Cades Cove, but the road just to get to the gate was part of the adventure.  We drove through tunnels, saw rivers and waterfalls, and a turkey!

Cades Cove is an 11 mile, one way loop.  Allow two to four hours to tour Cades Cove, longer if you plan on doing any of the trails.

There are many, many stops along Cades Cove Road.  There are hiking trails (we didn't take any this day as we were spent from yesterday's hike), churches, scenic views, and many homesteads.  So many people just drive the loop and never stop, but I think we stopped at almost all of them.  We especially loved the churches.  

There is supposed to be a guide that you can buy for $1.00 at the start of the loop, but all the boxes were empty when we were there.  The guide apparently tells you the history of all the stops along the road.

There are three churches in Cades Cove.  We missed the first church but thankfully caught the next two.

This church had a cemetery right outside its windows.  It seems kind of eerie to have a cemetery so close to a church (although I know that was common back in the day) but I can't help to wonder as people sat in church and saw the gravestones right out the church window if perhaps they paid better attention to the sermons 😀

Cades Cove is so rich in history.  If you're a history buff, you will love Cades Cove. Cherokee Indians hunted this land for hundreds of years.  The first European settlers arrived in 1818.

Here are pictures of the insides of two of the churches we stopped at.  They are very plain and simple.

Deer, black bears, coyotes, and turkeys are frequently spotted in Cades Cove.  When we were there we saw deer, a coyote, and lots of turkeys, and one bear so far in the distance I couldn't even make him out.

I could not get over the beauty of the landscape. Pictures do not do it justice.  No wonder I was unimpressed with the photos I saw on Pinterest.

We finally spotted some deer!

About half way through the loop you come to the Cades Cove Visitor Center.  Here are restrooms and a small gift shop.  On the grounds is the Cable Mills Historic Area.

There is a beautiful old farm along a river on the grounds.

Cable Mill

I was so happy that we were able to go inside all these old farmhouses and cabins.  It was so interesting to see how the settlers lived back then.

Every barn we saw in the park had this same shape.  They are very different from Wisconsin barns!

Can you see the turkey walking in the field below?

After our tour of the Cable Mills Historic Area it was back in the car again, but we stopped many more times to tour all the log cabins and farms along the road.

I think I fell in love with every cabin and said to my husband "I'll live here".  I imagined myself sitting on the front porch every morning with a coffee and Bible in hand looking at this gorgeous Mountain View.

This is the backyard of the house whose front porch I was standing on.

Then I arrived at the next cabin and I wanted to live there!  I loved how this one was nestled up against the woods.

Another funky looking barn.  How do those overhangs not collapse?

This cabin looked so similar to the one above that I had to recheck the pictures to make sure it wasn't the same one.  Just like the suburbs today where all the houses seem to look alike, so did the cabins of Cades Cove!  😀.  Each one though had a very unique property, it was so hard to decide which one I would rather live on.  They were all so beautiful in their own way.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Cades Cove.  I feel it really symbolizes the history and the serene beauty of the area.

Oh, I loved Cades Cove.  It was such a beautiful, relaxing morning.  But our day wasn't over yet, we were up so early that we had plenty of time to explore more!  So come back next week for Part Two!

Finally, here are two very short videos to give you a sense of the peaceful beauty of Cades Cove.

Have a Great Day! Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!