Billings County Courthouse

The Billings County Courthouse symbolizes the orderly administration of justice in a county which is one of the least populated in North Dakota. The structure is also a physical link with the first years of settlement in the region, its core being formed from a building believed to date from the 1880s.

Created by the legislature of Dakota Territory on February 10, 1879, Billings County was named for Frederick Billings, president of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company and holder of extensive land interests in Burleigh and other western North Dakota counties. On October 25, 1883, Governor Nehemiah G. Ordway designated a board of commissioners for the purpose of organizing the county, which during the ensuing 32 years would undergo frequent changes in its boundaries: in 1883, 1885, 1887, 1891, 1895, 1912, and 1915. Medora, chosen the county seat, was located on the Little Missouri River, which traverses the county north to south, and the main line of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Named for his wife, New York heiress Medora Von Hoffman, the town of Medora was founded in 1883 by a visionary French nobleman, the Marquis de Mores (1858-1896), as headquarters for his commercial scheme of slaughtering range-fed cattle and shipping the meat to Eastern consumers by railroad. The growth of Medora was generated by the meat-packing plant built by the Marquis in 1883 at a cost of $250,000 (the plant burned in 1907 and the site, marked by a tall brick chimney and masonry foundations, is entered on the National Register of Historic Places). After the failure of the Marquis' enterprise in 1886, Medora entered a period of decline which lasted until the 1960s. At that time the local economy was rejuvenated by the restoration and promotional activities of the Gold Seal Company of Bismarck, which capitalized on the associations of the town not only with the Marquis de Mores, but also with another short term and even more famous area resident of the 1880s, Theodore Roosevelt.

The first courthouse in Medora was a 2-story frame structure, the second floor of which was used as a dance hall. Destroyed by fire at an undetermined date, the building was located about two blocks west of the present courthouse. The latter was originally a dwelling, and during the winter of 1903-04, it was occupied by a current Medora resident, Mrs. Viola Ray, then a small child, and her mother and two brothers. Mrs. Ray recollects that there were two apartments in the building, one on the north and another on the south, with a common storage area between them. After becoming the courthouse, the original central unit was enlarged by the addition of annexes on each side, with the south wing used as a jail.