The Rainsbow Road: Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

The main ranch house from the front and the back

The ranch hands' quarters and the bath house

While staying in Anaconda we made a couple of trips to Deer Lodge. The first was to see the Grant-Kohrs Ranch, an old ranch that was sold to the National Park Service (NPS). The intent of the NPS was to preserve it as a late 19th, early 20th century living history museum and working ranch. The ranch was originally established in 1862 by Johnny Grant, a French speaking Canadian fur trader. He used free range grazing for his cattle, but his language barrier was a disadvantage with the English speaking miners so he sold his ranch to Conrad Kohrs in 1866.

Can't compete with gas engines

Conrad and his half-brother, John, were successful ranchers, building the ranch up to a 10 million acre cattle empire, despite the fact that free range cattle grazing ended by the end of the 1800s. Conrad’s grandson, Conrad Warren, bought the ranch from the Grant-Kohrs Trust but wasn’t very successful running the ranch. First he specialized in raising excellent draft horses, but this was just at the time when mechanized farm equipment hit the market. No matter how fine the animals were, horses just couldn't compete with internal combustion engines. Then he invested a small fortune on a on a prize English bull to improve his cattle herd but, unbeknownst to Conrad, it carried a genetic defect leading to dwarf cattle. Nobody wanted dwarf cattle. At least he was able to maintain much of the ranch and ranch house as they were in the previous century, so he decided to apply for the ranch to become a National Historic Site (NHS) and then sold it to the National Park Service for enough money to retire on.

Cook and chuck wagon

Our visit to the ranch included a tour of the ranch house, barns and a bit of a walk on the ranch lands. We spoke with the trail cook while we drank some of his cowboy coffee, which I thought was quite good. Roger disagreed. The trail cook turned out to be a teacher during the school year and applied to work at Grant-Kohrs for his summer break. He was quite enthusiastic about his opportunity to man the chuck wagon at the ranch. He read up on ranch history and made our visit that much more enjoyable and educational. Not sure how much cooking he did though.

Old Montana State Prison from the right side of the wall

Prison from the inside

Our second visit to Deer Lodge was to see the Montana Prison State Park and to tour the adjacent automobile museum. I had planned to see the prison, thinking it was somewhat like the Yuma Territorial Prison, which I had found quite interesting. However, I found it disconcerting to visit a facility that was in active service during my lifetime.

I finally left early to visit the automobile museum, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was a hoot to see cars similar to those my family had when I was growing up. I also liked all the old Mustangs, a 1930s travel trailer and the VWs. The cars, which were in excellent condition, started with early 20th century models and progressed to the 1960s styles. They were so numerous that a cursory tour took about 90 minutes, then it was back to our camping spot in Anaconda.