Medora was founded in 1883 along the transcontinental rail line of the Northern Pacific Railway by French nobleman Marquis de Mores, who named the city after his wife Medora von Hoffman. Marquis de Mores wanted to ship refrigerated meat to Chicago via the railroad. He built a meat packing plant for this purpose and a house named the Chateau de Mores, which is now a museum.
April 7, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt, who had visited and invested in ranches in the area in the 1880s, visited Medora on a presidential tour of the Western United States. Most of the Badlands' residents turned out to greet him on his whistle stop. Roosevelt later recalled that "The entire population of the Badlands, down to the smallest baby, had gathered to meet me… They all felt I was their man". The Theodore Roosevelt National Park is located all around Medora and is spectacular.
A local hotel changed its name that same year to the Rough Riders Hotel. In 1986 the hotel was purchased and operated by the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation.
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