Rough Riders Hotel

Rough Riders Hotel. . , George Fitzgerald’s success operating the Hotel de Mores was such that in November 1884 he began work on his own 35-feet by 80 feet two-story hotel. Brick veneer was planned but was never added., The Bad Lands Cow Boy described its interior as follows: “On the first flor are a bar room, office and dining room as well as small rooms for wash and baggage. Above are sixteen sleeping rooms and a parlor.”, Fitzgerald opened the Metropolitan Hotel in February 1885. In October, he leased the place to J.B. Walker but within months it was back in its builder’s hands. Fitzgerald saw Medora’s decline and approached the Marquis for a $3,000 loan for improvements on the building, which served as security., The money in hand, Fitzgerald took the first train west to Seattle, and left de Mores with a second hotel. When de Mores was forced to curtail his business activities in 1886, the Metropolitan Hotel closed., In 1901, J.J. Rozell reopened the hotel under its original name. Soon after, he renamed it the Rough Riders Hotel, a tribute to former Medora ranchers and the men President Theodore Roosevelt led in the Spanish-American War. It continued in operation under a succession of owners until 1961, closing only briefly during World War II., Harold Schafer purchased the building, which was disassembled. In 1963 it was replaced with a replica. In 2008, a renovation included the addition of a conference center and 68 additional guest rooms. ,