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You Had to Look Hard— The Marquis de Morès Did
True West
|April 2023
His wife's beautiful name graces the charming town he left behind.
"Little Misery" was about the only name you'd find in this part of the Dakota Badlands in the early 1880s. It sums up what life was like here for the few soldiers stationed to protect the railroad at the Little Missouri Cantonment Camp they nicknamed "Little Misery."
Yet, this is where a Frenchman with an impressive title decided to stake his claim.
The Marquis de Morès was an imaginative, ambitious man who once proclaimed, "I will be the richest financier in the world." He never made it, but he never had to worry about buying groceries, either.
This story is from the April 2023 edition of True West.
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