Nevertheless, Geis said that since reopening, he has felt the park getting back into the swing of things.

“A normal weekend in Medora is what things kind of look like right now,” he said.

However, data from the National Park Service shows overall recreational visits are substantially down.

The park saw 60,544 recreational visitors in July 2020, compared to 149,425 in July 2019, a 60% drop. The park saw 93,365 visitors in June 2020, compared to 134,590 in June 2019, a 31% drop.

Geis said some visitors have told him they had planned to visit a different park but came to Theodore Roosevelt when their intended destination was no longer an option.

Though most national parks have now reopened in some capacity, many closed in mid- to late March, earlier than Theodore Roosevelt, and some took longer to reopen in May and June.

Out-of-staters

From what he’s seen, Ellison estimates that the ratio of North Dakotans to out-of-staters this year in his businesses is about 50-50, or “very similar to other years.”

Fisk said the foundation’s statistics from previous years show that on average, about 60% of visitors to the Medora Musical are from North Dakota. The foundation does not have data yet on the geographical breakdown of this year’s tourists.

Killian, who works full time at the Chateau de Mores State Historic Site, said she has seen a big change in the demographics of visitors this summer.

“Our own data at the Chateau, we had expected to have mostly in-state visitors this year and it is exactly the opposite,” she said. “We’ve gotten a lot of out-of-staters. Now, North Dakotans are coming to see us, but it’s that Minnesota and Montana crowd that particularly keep coming through our doors.”