Three generations. One sign.
How the place came to be, who runs it now, and what we still believe in.
Built in 1964 at the crossroads of Highway 200 and Highway 281, the Chieftain has been welcoming travelers, ranchers, and prairie wanderers for sixty-plus years. Three generations of innkeepers. One stubborn neon sign.
Our name comes from the J.A. Kirkpatrick painting of a Native American chieftain that hangs in our lobby — the iconic image guests have walked past for sixty-plus years, and the namesake of the property and conference center.
James "Kirk" Kirkpatrick (1898–1984)
James "Kirk" Kirkpatrick was a North Dakota artist whose Western paintings hang in collections from the Smithsonian Institution to the U.S. Senate. Born near Detroit Lakes, Minnesota and raised on a ranch outside Beach, ND, he settled in Jamestown after returning from World War I and called it home for sixty-five years.
By trade a commercial sign painter — his Kirkpatrick Sign Company painted advertising high on the Stutsman County Fairgrounds buildings — he painted oils on the side, and ended up producing more than 3,000 original works. His subjects were cowboys, ranchers, American Indians, bison hunts, stagecoach robberies, and wagon trains, rendered with obsessive period accuracy from a studio packed with antique saddles, hats, chaps, and tools he kept on hand to reference while painting.
A charter member of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, Kirkpatrick's painting of the chieftain whose image gives our property its name has welcomed travelers through our lobby for the better part of a lifetime.
Milestones.
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1964
Doors open
The Chieftain Motel opens at the crossroads of Highway 200 and 281.
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Conference Hall added
Five named meeting rooms — Apache, Cheyenne, Buffalo, Navajo, Tepee — making the property a full conference center serving Foster County.
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Big Chief Café opens
Classic American breakfast + North Dakota homemade favorites, seven days a week.
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Sports Bar & Grill
Wood-paneled bar adds pub fare, craft beers, billiards and darts in the evenings.
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Today
Newly renovated
Modern rooms, refreshed event space, hosting weddings, conferences, harvest dinners, and 4-H banquets.