A National Historic Site In Montana Dedicated To Preserving The Cowboy Traditions That Once Dominated The Country
As the sun sinks behind Deer Lodge Mountain, a cowboy reins his horse in a circle around a cluster of cattle. Urged on by the slap of leather on leather and a quiet “Woop!” the steers begin to move off to better grazing. Another day comes to an end on Montana’s High Plains.
This simple ritual has entered the imagination of the world, and is one that repeats daily at Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, in southwestern Montana. “You don’t have to be from the west to relate to cowboy ideals,” Julie Croglio, Chief of Interpretation & Education at Grant-Kohrs Ranch, tells The Buzz. “The cowboy riding into the sunset speaks about freedom, independence and the sense of adventure. Those are really the values that America is built on.”
Croglio says that the Grant-Kohrs site was established to preserve the cowboy culture in American folklore and to tell the story of the open range cattle era. During this brief period, just three decades beginning in the 1860s, huge herds of cattle roamed freely over the open plains. Ownership was determined by distinctive brands. Cowboys embarked on months-long cattle drives that stretched from Texas to Canada, St. Louis to California.
The era of open pastures and free range came to an end after the winter of 1886, when overgrazing and ferocious storms combined to decimate the herds on the High Plains. Many cattlemen lost 60 to 95 percent of their herds. Conrad Kohrs, based at his ranch in the sheltered Deer Lodge Valley, was one of the few to bring most of his cattle through to spring, but the era of open range cattle was over.
Increasingly the range was fenced, and ranchers grew hay to get their herds through the winter. Cowboys, who once drove cattle thousands of miles, now mended fences and rounded up strays. It’s this transition from the open range to a ranch-based cattle industry that the living history reenactors at Grant-Kohrs bring to life.
According to Croglio, the Grant-Kohrs Ranch was selected by the National Park Service to tell the story of the birth of the cattle industry from a number of other possible sites. “One reason we were chosen was that most of our original structures were still standing,” she says. “Another is the collections preserved by Conrad Warren, the grandson of Conrad Kohrs, who sold us the ranch.” These include 35,000 original artifacts preserved in climate controlled storage and archival records that provide a nearly unbroken 120-year record of the ranch beginning with its founding by Johnny Grant, son of a Canadian fur trader. Grant started his cattle business by trading with travelers along the Oregon Trail in the 1850s.
“We are always looking for better ways to bring the ranch life experience to our visitors,” Croglio says, adding that visitors come from around the world. Rangers offer talks on aspects of cowboy life including chuckwagons and blacksmithing, as well as tours of the elegant ranch house and the huge collection of artifacts. Self-guided tours and trails lead to the barn full of horse-drawn buggies and wagons, the draft horse barn, the bunkhouse, and other historic outbuildings, as well as out into the surrounding area where wildlife and birds are often spotted.
“Our Cowboy Experience is new this year,” Croglio says. “It’s a three-hour long program where we take people out in a horse-drawn wagon, with interactive stops along the way where they can find out what skills it takes to be a cowboy. Visitors can learn how to saddle a horse, brand a piece of leather to take home, find out how to fix a barbwire fence and try pitching hay. It’s been very popular.”
The ranch’s most popular ambassadors are the horses and cattle that make the historic reenactments possible. Visitors can watch new calves being born every spring. The resident quarter horses are used to herd a group of steers to the front pastures, where they can easily be seen by guests, and back to quieter fields every day at sunset. During July, cowboys round up the ranch’s 100 head of cattle and brand the new calves, just as was done on the open range.
The real stars of the show, however, are Mark and Spike, a team of black Percheron horses, who, along with their Belgian draft horse counterparts, provide the muscle that makes life possible on the ranch. “Our draft horses work all year,” Jason , a natural resource specialist at Grant-Kohrs, says. “In mid-July, they pull the horse-drawn mowers that cut the hay. After it dries, the teams pull hay rakes that move the hay into long rows. Then, the buckrakes are used to gather up the rows and bring them to the beaverslide rack, where another team pulls the hay up a long incline to make a stack.” The horse-powered beaverslide hay stacker, able to create a windproof haystack up to 30 feet high, was invented in the nearby Big Hole Valley of Montana in the early twentieth century.
All these processes, performed with reproductions of antique equipment, are open for visitors to watch. “In the winter, the draft horses pull a wagon or sleigh full of hay out into the fields to feed the cows,” Jason adds. “People are always surprised by how much hay it takes to feed each head of cattle. We put up a lot of hay.”
The Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Park is located directly off I-90, about halfway between Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. Although more activities are planned for the summer months, visitors are welcome to drop by anytime for a visit with Mark and Spike or to tour the homestead. Even in the depths of winter, life on the ranch goes on as it has for generations, a tribute to American ingenuity and perseverance.
Renee Wright
A graduate of Franconia College in Social Psychology, Renee has worked as Travel Editor for Charlotte Magazine and has written three travel guidebooks for Countryman Press among other writing assignments. She enjoys food and sports.
Make Sure To Stay At:
Fairmont RV Park, just a few minutes from the continental divide. The Property consists of 133 R.V. parking spaces, 3 cabins, 3 teepees, a 900 square foot general store/office, and a 1,500 square foot recreation center on 15.635 acres.