Touring the Chateau de Mores Tuesday June 27 2017

Today started out with a walk to the Little Missouri River - next to our campground. Then we had trip planning to do--figuring out this upcoming week-end and how fast we want to move across Montana to Washington. Finally got it set up: Billings KOA - 2 nights, Deer Lodge KOA - 1 night, Missoula KOA - 1 night. Then the state of Washington - Newport from July 2, to July 6. We purchased a Thousand Trails Zone Pass which is paid for and should save us money. These campground in Montana are expensive! All the state parks in Montana do not have water or electric hook-ups - so we are staying in KOA because I purchased their savings card. The KOA savings card doesn't save much, but every little bit helps. Actually, all the tourist area can be expensive - campgrounds, food and gas are usually higher in these tourist areas. Next up was another walk to the river - it its very peaceful. We left the dogs resting in the RV and went to tour the Chateau de Mores a 25 room Chateau built by a French Marquis who settled this town. He married a rich banker's daughter from New York which is probably how many of his ventures were funded. He set up a beef packing plant, stagecoach line, ranch and other enterprises. He went broke in about 3 years and he and his wife moved to France. After moving to France he also tried to develop a train in Into-China and was killed in an expedition in Africa. This couple loved hunting and kept caretakers at the home until 1936 when it was sold to the state of North Dakota by their son. Most of the furnishings in this house are original and well preserved.

Dining Room; Kitchen & Wine & Ice Room

Two of the Ten Bedrooms on the 2nd Floor; Bathtub

Singer Sewing Machine; Carpet Sweeper, Bear Trap, Hunting Room, Baby Carriage

Marquis' Bathroom

Then we returned to Theodore Roosevelt National Park (TRNP) visitor's center and saw Roosevelt's simple cabin from his Malta Ranch(he had 2 ranches here).

Next we had a late lunch of Taco Salad at The Farmhouse - it was good. Also pretty hot here today (90 Degrees), so it tired us out and we went back to the RV. There are many things to do here that we will miss - The Medora Musical, North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame, Billings County museum, Von Hoffman House, Harold Schafer heritage Center and we also didn't go to the North unit of TRNP (54 miles away). Plenty of other things also - golf, swimming, tennis, shopping, etc. We just chilled out this evening. It looked stormy, so not great for taking pictures or star gazing. TRNP is an International Dark Sky area, but both nights were cloudy so we did not stargaze.