Western Montana

Have you every wanted to step back in history and see what it might be like to live or work on a old western ranch? Well your opportunity is located on the edge of town in Deer Lodge at the Grant-Kohrs Ranch. Johnny Grant homesteaded in the Deer Lodge valley in 1862, only to 4 years later sell the home and ranch for $19,200 to Conrad Kohrs. We learned as the years progressed there were new developments in the cattle industry, like between 1860s to 1870s the idea for barbed wire was patented. The years continued and had some rough patches through late 1880’s with hard winters and war times in the 1920’s and 40’s where little beef was being eaten. The ranch was later donated by the Kohrs’ family to the national park service and became a national historic site in 1977.

The Grant-Kohrs Ranch is a self-guided tour for the most part. When we pulled into the parking lot we grabbed a free pamphlet with historical information and a map of the sites we should stop at. As we approached the main house we were greeted by a group of national park service rangers. They were offering guided tours around the ranch house and we joined the tour. We later found that tours around the house had to be guided for security reasons and no photos were allowed inside the house. In the house we learned about the different families who lived there. The Grant family with his many wives and adopted children. Most of the stories were about the second family who owned the ranch, the Kohrs family. Conrad Kohrs married Augusta after a short courtship. They lived together with their children, but it was Augusta who I found very interesting. She was German born and was a little over 6 feet tall, very tall for that time period. Unlike some people of their time who were affluent, there was only one house servant, the cook. Augusta cleaned the entire house and cared for the gardens in her green house and outside. The outside garden was quite impressive and the guide told us a few years ago they moved some rocks and Augusta’s rose bushes appeared and began to grow again.

Once our tour of the house was over we were left to explore the rest of the ranch on our own. We continued on to the blacksmith shop where we watched the blacksmith make a hook for cleaning out horseshoes. We moved on to the thoroughbred barn, although there were no horses in the barn at this time we found carriages and wagons on display. We stepped outside and saw a haying demonstration going on in the field so we walked over to the field and watched a few men on horse drawn tractors collecting the hay. We later watched them stack the hay in front of the hay slide and another set of horses pulled the slide up into the air, carrying the hay and dumping it into a hay stack. I have always seen these hay slides in fields and wondered how they worked, since they look kind of like a catapult to me. Although they are not quite like a catapult they kind of work in the same way. We walked back to the bunkhouses and looked inside finding inside several rooms showing us what the building was used for, a shed at one end, a room for the ranch hand, a kitchen and office space.

The tour was very informative and gave a lot of interesting history about the ranch and area. We also learned that the ranch has about 80 cattle still on it and is a functioning farm. To get to Grant-Kohrs Ranch, traveling on I-90 to Deer Lodge take exit 184 or 187 to Warren street. The entrance to the parking lot is across the street from the fairgrounds. Admission is free and hours are 9am to 5:30 pm.