TR’s Cabin

Cowboy Lyle

After breakfasting at the Chuckwagon cafeteria just down the block from the hotel, we left on our coach tour of the south unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Our guide with us on the bus this morning was Cowboy Lyle Glass, the laconic cowboy in the Medora Musical that we saw the night before. Cowboy Lyle said that he had been with the musical for 38 years.

As we traveled through the park, Cowboy Lyle explained that the Badlands were created by erosion due mostly to rain, wind and the flowing waters of the Little Missouri River. He pointed out the different geologic layers including scoria, lignite coal, and grey bentonite clay. Also, as we drove though this remarkable park, we saw lots of bison, wild (feral) horses, turkeys, magpies, a couple of pronghorns, and lots and lots of prairie dogs. Lyle explained that we should avoid walking through prairie dog towns because of rattlesnakes, black widow spiders, and fleas that may carry bubonic plague.

Bad Lands

Wild Horses

Chateau de Mores

We had lunch back at the Chuckwagon and then visited the Chateau de Mores Interpretive Center. The Marquis de Mores essentially created Medora, building a large meat packing factory to process beef locally and ship it back east in rail cars cooled with ice. His wife was named Medora and he named the town after her. In 1883 he built a 26-room house now referred to as the Chateau de Mores, and we took a tour of the house.

Next we attended "A Theodore Roosevelt Salute to Medora", an excellent one-man show starring Joe Wiegand as Teddy Roosevelt. For over an hour, Wiegand told many of TR's most famous stories and gave us a great deal of information on Roosevelt's personal and political life. This show was another big surprise for most of us, a completely unexpected and high quality performance.

Evacuation

After our dinner meal, again at the Chuckwagon, many of us were packing for our departure in the morning when the hotel fire alarm sounded. Since we also began smelling smoke, we decided that it may not be a false alarm. Sure enough the smell of smoke soon became very strong and the hotel was evacuated. The fire department showed up and eventually everything was taken care of. Apparently it was a fire in a dryer in the laundry room. After about an hour we were allowed to return to our rooms. We were also told there would be no additional charge for the adventure.