Chateau de Mores

The Chateau de Mores is significant to the history of North Dakota and perhaps to that of the United States both for what it was and for what it represents.

The Chateau's imposing size, for a frontier setting where construction materials were scarce at best and had to be freighted considerable distances to be had at all, and its position atop the bench terraces overlooking the river bottom land, established the Chateau as an area landmark.

Socially, the chateau and its residents presented a sharp contrast to the mostly austere way of life common to the region by introducing a touch of elegance to the still raw and unpretentious region. The Marquis de Mores had the chateau built in 1883 to serve as the summer residence of his family. His wife, Medora (Hoffman), was an heiress from New York, and together, they lived in regal style at the twenty six room house, staffed with French servants and decorated and furnished in a manner appropriate to the heritages of the two families. There, in a nearly ideal setting for the aristocratic interests of the couple, they engaged in hunting, riding, dancing, and, there they entertained some of the tired nobility of Europe as well as socially prominent friends from the East. Theodore Roosevelt, then a contemporary Badlands rancher, was also on occasional guest.

Probably the primary significance of this property, however, lies in its status as a memorial to the man who built it, because therein is related a remarkable story of the development of the West and the diversity of the people who settled it, and tamed it and made it a productive part of this nation.

Antoine Amedee Marie Vincent de Vallombrosa, the Marquis de Mores, a pretender to the French throne, determined and resourceful, arrived at the tiny settlement of Little Missouri, Dakota Territory, in April of 1883 for the purpose of establishing a meat packing enterprise utilizing some innovative ideas that he was convinced could revolutionize the meat producing industry. Mores believed that by slaughtering and processing meat animals close to the producing range and shipping the carcasses by refrigerated railroad car (thereby eliminating the costs of feeding and caring for live animals and reducing weight loss or volume shrinkage) economies could be obtained that would permit successful competition both economically and qualitatively with the operations of the eastern packers.

The Badlands of the Little Missouri provided everything Mores needed: a railroad, a producing range, a cattle raising industry, and lots of open space in which to operate. He selected the vicinity of the Northern Pacific Railway's crossing of the Little Missouri River, just east of the town of Little Missouri, to be the seat of his operations. East of the river, he built the huge abattoir that would, he hoped, turn 150 beeves a day into food for the nation's consumers. He built cold storage facilities at Helena, Billings, Miles City, Medora, Bismarck, Fargo, Brainard, Duluth, Minneapolis, St. Paul and Chicago to facilitate the shipment of his products; and he purchased 15,000 acres of land (another innovation for the previously "free" range area) to use as grazing and pasture land.

Also east of the Little Missouri and next to his packing plant, the ever optimistic Mores platted a new town which, in his gallant manner, he named Medora after his recent bride. Intended and designed to better serve his needs than could its rough, west river neighbor, Little Missouri, Medora prospered and grew as rapidly as the ambitions of its founder. It soon boasted a brick yard, church, newspaper, three hotels, several stores and saloons, and by the end of 1884, boasted of a permanent population of 251. Recognizing a need, Mores next started a stage coach line from Medora to Deadwood, center of the gold mining region in the Black Hills.

Unfortunately, the packing venture failed, Eastern housewives seemed to prefer "corn fed' to the tougher "range fed" beef and the competitive packers of the east met the challenge with a price war that reduced prices to as little as 3¢ a pound. With the closing of the packing plant, the other Mores enterprises also declined and before the disastrous winter of 1886-87, which nearly put an end to the area's cattle business, the Marquis and his family had returned to the East and Europe, leaving the Chateau de Mores to memory and the care of a small staff.

But that the imprint of the man was left on the country is beyond question. The town of Medora flourishes and the tales about the near legendary "Frenchman" still abound. Interestingly enough, before North Dakota statehood in 1889, beef packing plants based on the Mores premise were operating successfully in Fargo and Grand Forks. The cattle industry continues to thrive and thousands of persons each year visit the home of a vindicated visionary.