Western Entertainment

Western Entertainment. . , The picturesque Little Missouri badlands are a unique landscape. The arrival of the railroad in 1880 opened the area to tourists who wanted to experience the western lifestyle., The first dude ranch in America opened in 1882, four miles south of Medora. Here Howard, Willis, and Alden Eaton started the Custer Trail Ranch, entertained visitors until 1904 when they moved to Wyoming., Other dude ranches followed: Buddy Ranch and Peaceful Valley Ranch. Peaceful Valley Ranch, located inside Theodore Roosevelt National Park, is on the National Register of Historic Places., Medora cowboys George Gardner, Bill McCarthy and Pete Pelissier provided local entertainment and traveled throughout the United States, wooing crowds with flashy antics from the cowboy culture. Gardner and McCarty rode with the Buffalo Bill Cody Wild West Show., Tom Mix and Miss Olive Stokes, both of Oklahoma, came to the badlands to buy horses. They were married in Medora on January 10, 1909. Later that year, Mix appeared in a western movie and was on the fast track to superstardom as Hollywood’s King of the Cowboys. A newspaper account in 1920 stated Mix was returning to the Medora badlands to make a movie, but the project never materialized., Roping entertainer Monty Montana, champagne music maker Lawrence Welk and world boxing champion Virgil Hill made stops in Medora. Hill even trained in Medora., In the autumn of 2000, a major movie, Wooly Boys, was filmed in the badlands. ,