drier weather. The day was bright and sunny and the roads were good with almost no traffic. It was a long day, 540 miles, but with good weather and good roads, it wasn't a bad drive. We arrived in Medora in time to attend the Pitchfork Steak Fondue. We stopped here last year and put it on our list of things to do again.The nationally acclaimed Pitchfork Steak Fondue is a traveler's delight. Every evening the chefs load steaks (rib eye or NY strip)
onto pitchforks and fondue then western style. You savor your steak as you overlook the picturesque badlands from atop a bluff at the Tjaden Terrace
. The steak comes with all the fixin's. Plus you are serenaded with western melodies performed live by the cast members of the Medora Musical. This unique dining experience was featured on the national television show, BEST OF, on the Food Network!The town of Medora was founded in April 1883 by a 24 year old French nobleman, the Marquis de Mores. He named the town for his bride, the former Medore von Hoffman, daughter of a wealthy New York City banker.
The valley of the Little Missouri had been the scene of varied activity long before the arrival of the Marquis. Native Americans had hunted the area for many generations, an example later followed by early white explorers and frontiersmen. General Alfred Sully fought the Sioux in 1864 a few miles southwest of the present site of Medora in what became known as"The Battle of the Badlands." Lieutenant-Colonel George Custer passed through in 1876 on his fatal march west to the Little Bighorn.
The Marquis and Marquise returned to France in the fall of 1886, with the financial failure of the area
, with their son and daughter. The Marquis continued his visionary and adventurous lifestyle around the world until being killed by native tribesmen on the Sahara Desert in Africa in June 1896. His widow Medora never remarried, and died in France in 1921.Another colorful individual drawn to this area was a young New York politician named Theodore Roosevelt. He first arrived to hunt Buffalo in September 1883, immediately fell in love with the land, and invested in cattle raising. He would eventually own two large ranches. In 1901 Roosevelt, at age 42, became the youngest president in the U.S. history, serving until 1909. He called his years in the Badlands "the romance of my life," and often credited his Dakota experiences with enabling him to become president.
When you travel the U.S. in an RV and talk to people many of them will tell you to make sure that you go to Medora for the Pitchfork Fondue. I have to agree with them!!!!
That is all for now.....
Until later, Candy and Johnny
