Medora is here because of Teddy Roosevelt and the Marquis de Mores and Harold Schafer and the many volunteers that keep the town’s tourists happy. We did a little sightseeing this morning, and one volunteer explained how the town with a population of 121 can host the summer influx of visitors that makes it North Dakota’s #1 tourist destination. They have volunteers come spend a week or so doing all kinds of jobs while the town provides housing and a mess hall. The south entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park is here and a T. Roosevelt Presidential Library is currently being built. The Marquis de Mores built a big meat packing plant that brought prosperity back in the day – it’s just protected ruins now. His wife was named Medora:). Harold Schafer started the Gold Star company to market products he liked and he invented Mr. Bubbles bubble bath—that pink box people my age used as children. He invested lots of money in this town.

We went back into the park in the afternoon to finish up a couple of hikes we had missed and wanted to do. We picked up the Coal Vein hike and the Buck Hill hike. The park road shortly after the Coal Vein dirt road is closed. It was and will be a loop when re-opened, but for now, you have to backtrack out.

After supper, we tackled a hike we noticed upon driving into Medora. There is a cable ladder up the hill on the east side of the town and this is part of the Point to Point trail. President T. Roosevelt was fond of challenging friends to a point to point hike where you walked in a straight line dealing with any obstacles in your way until you could go no further. This cable ladder is a “cheat” that allows one to go straight up the hill; there is another path with switch-backs, which would be an easier cheat. We took the ladder coming up and going down. Going down was scarier. The ladder had three sections with a very small platform between each and then steep steps up at the top. Some steps of the ladder were supported by dirt but others were more open with the dirt eroded away.