FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Delores Linn
August 26, 2009
(701) 623-4355
MEDORA – Beginning Wednesday, September 16, visitor hours will change at the Chateau de Mores State Historic Site Interpretive Center in Medora. At that time, the interpretive center’s winter schedule will take effect.
The rest of the Chateau de Mores site, including the 26-room, two-story Chateau facility, will be closed from September 16 through May 15. The site, including the interpretive center, is managed by the state’s history agency, the State Historical Society of North Dakota.
The new interpretive center, which opened in April 2008, is open year-round. It is currently operating on its summer schedule, which remains in effect through September 15. Summer schedule hours are daily from 8:30 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. Mountain Time. Winter hours, in place from September 16 through May 15, will be Wednesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mountain Time.
The interpretive center is part of the 128-acre state historic site that interprets the enterprises of the Marquis de Mores, the French nobleman and entrepreneur who in the 1880s ran a cutting-edge meatpacking plant in Medora, the town he founded and named after his wife.
Visitors to the interpretive center will see the permanent exhibit, Rails, Ranching and Riches: The Marquis de Mores in Dakota, which tells the story of the Marquis de Mores (1858-96). His family’s 26-room summer home includes thousands of original artifacts. Featured is a smaller-scale refrigerator car, along with the Deadwood, an original stagecoach from the Marquis’s Deadwood and Medora Stage and Forwarding Company.
Also available for viewing is The Photographs of Frank B. Fiske. Born at Fort Bennett, Dakota Territory, Fiske (1883-1952) spent most of his life in the Fort Yates area. Fiske learned the photography trade at the post studio and took it over in 1900. He was best known for documenting everyday life at Fort Yates and Standing Rock Agency during the early part of the 20th Century. This exhibit, a representative collection of the 7,000 images in the State Historical Society of North Dakota’s Frank B. Fiske Collection, will be at the interpretive center through October 17, 2010.
Another exhibit is The Art of Einar Olstad. Inspired by the people, scenery and ranch life of the Dakota Badlands, rancher artist Einar Olstad (1878-1955) captured the essence of the American West in his whimsical and often humorous portrayals of the Dakota cowboy. In addition to a wide selection of his evocative paintings, objects relating to ranching life in the 1930s are featured in this exhibit, which will be at the interpretive center through October 17, 2010.
The Chateau de Mores State Historic Site Interpretive Center is closed only on New Year’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Admission is $7 per adult, $3 per child ages 6-15, and children 5 and under are admitted free.
Free admission to all sites administered by the State Historical Society of North Dakota (SHSND) is one of the many benefits for members of the SHSND Foundation. Others include a 15 percent discount on museum store purchases, and the quarterly publications North Dakota History and Plains Talk. To become a member, call the Foundation at (701) 222-1966 or visit the website at www.statehistoricalfoundation.com.
- 30 -
Address:
612 East Boulevard Ave.
Bismarck, North Dakota 58505
Get Directions
Hours:
Exhibit galleries and Museum Store: 8am - 5pm M-F; Sat. & Sun. 10am - 5pm.
State Archives: 8am - 4:30pm., M-F, except legal holidays, and 2nd Sat. of each month, 10am - 4:30 pm.
State Historical Society offices: 8am - 5pm M-F, except legal holidays.
Contact Us:
phone: (701) 328-2666
fax: (701) 328-3710
email: histsoc@nd.gov
