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Historic Medora home gets restoration

MEDORA (AP) — A historic home in a North Dakota tourist town has been restored to former glory.

The Schafer Cabin was built in 1967 as a small-one-bedroom cabin for the curator of Medora’s museum, the Bismarck Tribune reported.

The cabin later served as an art gallery for Medora and finally was expanded to be a home for longtime town boosters Harold and Sheila Schafer.

After Sheila Schafer died in 2016, the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation wanted to restore the cabin but lacked money in the budget to do the work, said Ed Schafer, Harold’s son and the foundation’s chairman.

Ed Schafer said a “friend of Medora” volunteered to restore the house, and two companies donated windows that needed replacing. The home’s flooring and kitchen cabinets have been replaced, and the walls have been painted.

“It’s a really important place, because it’s where the people who restored the town lived,” said Randy Hatzenbuhler, the foundation’s president who currently lives in the cabin.

The restoration began in April and finished in August. Hatzenbuhler said he’s grateful for the companies and people who donated materials and labor for the restoration.

Minnesota-based Renewal By Andersen recognized the importance of the Medora cabin and donated 20 double-hung windows for the project, said spokesman Adam May.

“When we learned about Medora and the significance of the cabin and what it means to that area and what it means to the entire state of North Dakota, it just seemed like a great opportunity to go ahead and put our products in there,” May said.

Ed Schafer said that the cabin is “a friendly, happy corner in Medora.”

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