Chateau de Mores

The Chateau de Mores is a 26-room two-story frame house built in 1883 by the Marquis de Mores as a summer home and hunting lodge. It is preserved as a state historic site, complete with the family's original furnishings, glassware, china, and personal effects — including the Marquis' rifles and Medora's silver toiletries. Costumed guides take you through room by room.

The hilltop setting gives a long view back over the town and the De Mores Packing Plant ruins below. The interpretive centre at the base of the hill explains the rise and fall of the Marquis' beef-packing scheme and the larger story of the open-range cattle era that the harsh winter of 1886–87 brought to an end. Open mid-May to mid-September daily; a modest admission fee. Allow about 90 minutes.

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A story
The Marquis de Mores arrived in 1883 with a fortune from his American wife's family and a plan to corner the beef market by slaughtering cattle on the plains and shipping refrigerated meat east. The venture collapsed within three years. He was assassinated in Tunisia in 1896, and his widow Medora — for whom the town is named — never returned to North Dakota.

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