September 1

Grant-Kohrs Ranch is in Deer Lodge, on Interstate 90, just north of Butte, MT. This is Deer Lodge Valley country, with great grazing lands. This is what drew John Grant to the area in 1859. He married multiple wives from the native Indian tribes. This helped him work peacefully with the Indians. Grant was a shrewd businessman. The Oregon Trail had emigrants flooding across the west. But cattle tire after a couple thousand miles of travel. Grant would trade one fresh cow for two worn out cows. He would then let the weary bovine recover over the winter, eating the lush grass in the valley. The next year he would repeat the process. Before long he had many thousand head of cattle. With a growing empire he needed a better place to do his wheeling and dealing. The white house which visitors can tour today was built in 1862. It was 4,000 square feet. When gold was discovered in some mountains north of his home, he made more money by selling beef to miners. He decided in 1866 to take his family to Canada, selling the enterprise to Carsted Conrad Kohrs. Kohrs quickly became one of the prominent ranchers in the state, helping him become a territorial senator. He played a hand in writing Montana’s new constitution for acceptance into the United States, in 1889. He then became a state senator. Half the year he and his wife Augusta would stay in Helena, the other half on his ranch. A large special desk was built so Kohrs could move it between Helena and the ranch. It had wheels and opened into two sections. All his correspondence and business papers were kept here. When the NPS opened the desk in 1970, they found a letter from Teddy Roosevelt to Kohrs. What a time capsule that was. Kohrs died in 1920. Augusta in 1945. Shrubs and garden items she planted in the late 1800s still grow today around the house. Thanks to a couple of ancestors, the home and all its furnishings remain intact. The tour guide reminded us not to touch anything since practically everything is original to the Kohrs family. The addition he added in 1890 included running cold and hot water in the master bathroom (toilet, tub, and sink). This was beyond extravagance for Montana dwellers. A new kitchen had a state-of-the-art stove installed. The NPS bought the entire estate in 1970, with the provision that Con Warren, Kohrs’ grandson, be allowed to remain in a small house on the ranch for the rest of his life. He passed in 1993.

To get from Grant-Kohrs to Big Hole NB one should consider using route 569 out of Anaconda. Take I-90 down to route 1, go west, and in a few miles you will see a sign for route 569. This gets you back into the heart of Montana sky country, without anyone to bother you. When 569 ends, you get onto route 43 for more scenery, all the way to the battlefield. The battle at Big Hole is another example of the tragedies that befell native peoples by white men. The Nez Perce had been on a 1,170-mile trek to escape from the reach of the U.S. Army, after having refused to sign the Treaty of 1863 (since the U.S. Government had reneged on a 1855 Treaty, and this new treaty would take away 90% of the Nez Perce land as well as forcing them to relocate to a reservation in Idaho). They camped in this valley on August 8, thinking they had time to rest. The morning of August 9 saw members of the 7th Infantry attacking across the Big Hole River, killing men, women, and children, then burning tepees. The sight of this horror energized warriors to regroup and push the soldiers back across the river and into a pine forest. A siege lasted until the next day. This gave the survivors of the Nez Perce time to escape. Eventually, the Nez Perce who remained in the United States surrendered and were forced to live away from their ancestral lands. The Federal Government finally allowed the Chief Joseph and his surviving tribe members to return to the Pacific Northwest, in 1885. But it was not to the Nez Perce homeland or the 1863 Treaty reservation. Not until 2021 did the Nez Perce get title to land in their original homeland in Oregon. I will be stopping at the Nez Perce National Historical Park in Idaho/Washington later this month. My mother’s father was born on the Nez Perce reservation, so the area has meaning for me.