I'm a 24-year-old who lives in Medora, North Dakota, which has a population of less than 150 people. We don't have a grocery store in town but we do have the Northern Lights.

27.04.2024 - 18:23 / insider.com / Teddy Roosevelt

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Madi Lee, 24, about her experience living and working in Medora, North Dakota — a summer tourist town with a year-round population of less than 150 people. Lee said the remoteness of Medora can be challenging at times, especially during the winter, but she loves the tight-knit community and nearby nature.

Medora, North Dakota, has always been one of my favorite places. As a kid, I visited a few times on family trips and had such a good time. It's a unique place, located in the North Dakota Badlands at the entrance of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It's a historic little town with lots of Teddy Roosevelt history.

When I was in college at the University of Minnesota Duluth, I spent my summers working for the Theodore Roosevelt Foundation in Medora as a seasonal employee. After graduating in spring 2022, I came back to Medora for the summer and started inquiring about full-time positions.

The year-round population of Medora is somewhere between 100 and 150 people. It's really small. But in the summer, the town explodes. We have thousands and thousands of people come through Medora to get to the national park.

Our main business is tourism and hospitality. The town has a main attraction called the Medora Musical, which happens every night during the summer and has been going on since 1965. It's a good ole' American West-type show in an outdoor amphitheater built into the natural landscape, comparable to a smaller version of Red Rocks. I work as a ticketing and reservations manager for the foundation.

We have the best combination of natural beauty, history, and great people. Those three things make Medora a really special place.

We don't have a grocery store in town; we just have a small gas station. They have the basics, but I have to drive 35 minutes to Dickinson, which is the closest large town, every time I need groceries. That can be challenging in the winter, given the weather. You have to be prepared if they close the interstate because of snow.

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A year ago, we had a really intense, snowy winter. We were snowed in for a good portion of the season. The climate of Medora is nothing new to me, having come from Northern Minnesota, but what was new to me was being cut off from getting groceries or filling up my gas tank.

We definitely depend on each other in those times and help each other out. The fact that it's such a small town means it's a very tight-knit community.

The housing situation in Medora is another challenging aspect. There's pretty much no housing in town outside what my company owns. When I first became a full-time employee, there wasn't any housing available, so I ended up living in a dorm for a short period.