Medora
Heritage District · Medora, North Dakota
A town of about 160 people at the mouth of a badlands valley, founded in 1883 by the Marquis de Mores, a French aristocrat who meant to make a fortune shipping chilled beef east and lost one instead. He named it for his wife. The town is now the gateway to the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the busiest tourist address in North Dakota - a boardwalked western main street that swells to thousands of visitors a night in July and empties completely by November.
Pacific Avenue, Medora, North Dakota, 58645, United States
The town is open all year but ⚠ IT IS EFFECTIVELY A SEASONAL PLACE: the shops, restaurants, hotels, the Medora Musical, the pitchfork steak fondue and the shuttles run from roughly late May to mid-September, with a short shoulder either side, and from late October to May most of Medora is shut and the permanent population is about 160. Theodore Roosevelt National Park at the end of the street stays open 24 hours year round. Lodging in July and August sells out months in advance.