This blog post concludes the 2026 summer trip! It was 107 days of exploring, discovering, laughing, driving, setting up and tearing down...We loved every minute...well maybe not the smoke out west. We may try going back to Glacier National Park again on a clear day!
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8.22.26 What a stop this was! We visited Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, The Chateau de Mores, and walked around downtown Medora.
The Medora Campground was one of the worst we stayed at on this trip but it was worth it to see the Library!
The Maltese Cross Cabin
“I never would have been President if it had not been
for my experiences in North Dakota.” Theodore Roosevelt, 1918
The Maltese Cross Cabin was a temporary home for Theodore Roosevelt during his mid-twenties. The steeply pitched roof was an oddity in the northern plains at the time. It created a sleeping loft for Roosevelt’s ranch hands accessed by ladder from the kitchen.
The cabin was built from pine logs intended for railroad construction making them a very sturdy choice! The cabin had wooden floors, a root cellar, three rooms, a sleeping loft, and two coal burning stoves that set it apart from most frontier homes of the time.
Empty rifle casings were used to make the shape of the
Maltese Cross on the end of a log in the cabin’s right front corner. Only one
partial casing remains as the rest were taken as souvenirs long ago.
Buttes
Landforms in the badlands are buttes. Mountains
form when land is thrust upwards. This process has not taken place in the
badlands. Buttes form as erosion removes surrounding material. Rainwater,
creeks, and the river are constantly eroding the badlands, leaving buttes.
Peaceful Valley Trail
. Seasonal Pools are low spots that formed when the
ground collapsed during the fire.
Burn Out- During the burn, visitors could see smoke, glowing coals, and sometimes flames.
The red rock is clinker or scoria and is created when
a burning coals seam bakes the rock later above it. Baking rock is like putting
clay into a kiln to make pottery. The rock hardens as it bakes.
Fire needs oxygen to burn. As the coal fire burned, cracks in the rock layers allowed air to be sucked down into the fire. The fire burned up into the cracks and baked the rocks nearby, creating chimneys. This chimney was exposed when softer sediments around it eroded away.
The walls were designed to look like the layers in the badlands.
We had to sign in with a token we were given. We gave our name and email address and had our picture taken. The token was used at all the activities throughout the library. It tracked our progress through the library and then emailed all the photos and posters, etc. to our email after we left.
This long timeline gallery of Theodore Roosevelt's life was very interesting. At the ends of the rows where fun interactive activities like the photos, trivia games, etc.
Theodore Roosevelt
October 27, 1858: Born in New York City.
1876–1880: Attended and graduated from Harvard College.
1882: Elected to the New York State Assembly.
1884: Suffered a double tragedy when both his mother
and his wife Alice died on Valentine's Day.
Theodore Roosevelt's mother, Martha "Mittie"
Bulloch Roosevelt, died of typhoid fever (or typhus), while his wife, Alice
Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, died of Bright's disease (kidney failure) exacerbated
by childbirth.
On February 14, 1884, both women passed away within
hours of each other inside the Roosevelt family home at 6 West 57th Street in
New York City:
Roosevelt was at his job in the New York State
Legislature when he received urgent messages calling him home, where he arrived
to face the catastrophic double loss.
He retreated to the Dakota Territory to work as a
rancher.
After finishing his New York legislative duties and
leaving his newborn daughter Alice in his sister's care, Roosevelt took the
train west via the Northern Pacific Railroad, which ran directly through the
newly established frontier town of Medora.
He arrived in the evening to seek refuge and heal from
the profound grief of losing both his wife, Alice, and his mother on the same
day just four months prior.
From Medora, he ventured further into the remote
Badlands along the Little Missouri River to establish his more isolated Elkhorn
Ranch.
1886: Returned to New York and married his childhood
friend, Edith Kermit Carow on December 2, 1886. Theodore and Edith grew up
together in New York City and knew each other well from a young age. Together,
they raised Theodore's first daughter, Alice, along with five children of their
own: Theodore Jr., Kermit, Ethel, Archibald, and Quentin.
1889-1895 Served as U.S. Civil Service Commissioner.
1895–1897: Served as President of the New York City
Police Board.
Al as a police office in New York.
1897–1898: Theodore served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
1898: Roosevelt resigned to lead the "Rough Riders"
volunteer cavalry regiment during the Spanish-American War, achieving fame at
San Juan Hill.
Al as a Rough Rider (I think he looks pretty handsome!)
1899–1900: Theodore Roosevelt served as Governor of New York.
September 2, 1901: Vice President Roosevelt used the following quote publicly in an address titled "National Duties" at the Minnesota State Fair.
“Speak softly and carry a big stick; you’ll go far.”
September 14, 1901: Sworn in as the 26th President of
the United States at age 42 (the youngest in U.S. history) following the
assassination of William McKinley.
1906: Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating an
end to the Russo-Japanese War.
1909-1910: Left office and went on a massive hunting
safari in Africa.
1912: Ran for president again under the Progressive
("Bull Moose") Party after splitting from the Republicans, losing to
Woodrow Wilson.
"Ladies and gentleman, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."
January 6, 1919: Died in his sleep at his home from a pulmonary embolism, on Sagamore Hill, in Oyster Bay, New York, at age 60.
We immensely enjoyed our visit to the
Chateau de Morès
The Chateau de Mores is a historic 26-room summer home
built in 1883 in Medora, North Dakota, by the French aristocrat Antoine de
Vallombrosa, the Marquis de Morès.
The Marquis arrived in the Dakota Badlands in 1883
with immense family wealth and a grand vision to revolutionize the American
meat industry. He named the newly founded town of Medora after his wife, Medora
von Hoffman.
Instead of shipping live cattle east by train—which
caused weight loss and bruising—the Marquis planned to slaughter cattle locally
at his own large abattoir (beef-packing plant) and ship the dressed meat in
refrigerated railway cars.
Though locals dubbed the sprawling, two-story frame
structure a "chateau," the family affectionately viewed it as their
rustic hunting lodge. Filled with fine European furnishings, oriental carpets,
and personal effects, it hosted wealthy guests—including future president Theodore
Roosevelt, who was a local rancher and neighbor.
Despite bold ambitions, the ambitious cold-storage
beef enterprise struggled against high shipping costs, industry opposition, and
financial losses. By 1886, the family abandoned seasonal operations in Medora,
and the packing plant eventually burned down in 1907, leaving only its tall
brick chimney.
The Marquis's son, Louis, later worked to preserve the
property and gifted it to the state. Today, it operates as the Chateau de Mores
State Historic Site, managed by the State Historical Society of North Dakota.
The Monkey Room
Located in a small hallway serving as a private
entrance near the Secretary of State's office.
Walls are constructed of California walnut and the
"Monkeys" are the distinct knots, swirls, and wavy markings in the
wood grain that resemble the shapes of eyes, faces, and animals, giving the
room its famous nickname.
The most famous prominent statue outside the North
Dakota State Capitol in Bismarck is the bronze Sakakawea Statue honoring the
Shoshone woman who guided the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The statue was sculpted
in 1910 and depicts Sakakawea carrying her infant son, Jean Baptiste
Charbonneau, on her back. A replica of this statue also stands in the U.S.
Capitol.
Click my video below to see our tour of Roosevelt National Park and a couple walk-a-bouts with Al.
