May 1, 2013
Photo Credit: National Park Service
Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site
America’s Ranch
It is not only
the Clark Fork River that weaves through the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National
Historic Site in Deer Lodge, Montana but an incredible tapestry of
history of the peoples of the Americas that weaves itself there. This
tapestry begins with John Francis (“Johnny”) Grant, born to a Canadian
Métis mother (the Métis trace their descent to mixed First Nations and
European heritage) and a father of Scottish and French descent, who
established the ranch in Deer Lodge Montana in 1861. From 1861 through
1866, Johnny Grant lived there on the ranch with his Native American
wife of the Bannack tribe, named Quarra, and their children. Quarra
Grant, whose father was Bannack and mother was Shoshoni, was a grand
niece of Sacajawea, of Lewis and Clark expedition fame, and a sister of
Tendoy, later to be chief of the Lemhi Shoshoni.
At this time in
American history, the community of the Deer Lodge Valley was a mixed
community, as the gold rush era had brought a rush of opportunists to
the Valley. In fact, during the later half of the 1800s, much of Montana
saw a steady stream of people of different nationalities and
ethnicities pouring into the territory. In addition to Native American
tribes, there were American, Canadian, Metis, Spanish, and Mexican
people working the fur trade; British, Chinese, Dutch, German and Irish
people working the gold-mining camps; andAfrican Americans, those from
the northern states and other recently freed slaves, who had come west
in search of opportunities. As was the case for much of the West, the
Montana territory was quickly becoming a land of mutli-ethnicity.
Grant’s own life
was just as colorful – he married three more times, and had a great
many children. At last, Grant decided to return to Canada, as did most
of the other French-Canadians in the valley. He sold his ranch to
Conrad Kohrs in l866. Conrad Kohrs, and his three Bielenberg
half-brothers (Johnny, Charlie and Nick) would be among those German
immigrants who would settle in the Deer Lodge Valley and become a part
of the cattle-ranching story of the American West.
Aimed
at over 151 years, the efforts associated with the Grant-Kohrs Ranch --
from its beginning with Johnny Grant, followed by Conrad Kohrs and his
business partner Johnny Bielenberg, as well as Conrad Kohrs’ grandson,
Conrad Kohrs Warren, and today with the United States National Park
Service -- have depended on the skills and labor of people of many
cultures and ethnicities. Over the decades, the ranch has seen German
and English housekeepers and nannies, a Chinese bunkhouse cook, an
Irish ranch foreman and a French ranch foreman, a Greek irrigator, a
Yugoslavian fence-builder, a Swedish dairyman, a Mexican cowboy artisan
who made the beautiful horsehair bridles still preserved in the
collection -- and native American and Métis range riders hired for the
ranch’s turn-of-the-century roundups in eastern Montana. And since the
time that the Department of the Interior began to manage the National
Historic Site, there has been a National Parks Superintendent of
Norwegian, German and French ancestry with a skosh (1/32) of a Jewish
ancestry from Poland; a National Parks Chief of Interpretation &
Education of Italian ancestry; an Integrated Resource Program Manager of
German, English and French ancestry, and a Park Ranger of German and
Scottish ancestry, to name a few.
As such, the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site represents – on
one level – a history of cattle ranching in the American West that
reaches beyond the borders of the United States. It relates to, and
is part of, the history of cattle ranching in both North America and
Latin America. On a second level, the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National
Historic Site represents a history of the peoples of the Americas -- the
indigenous First Nation tribes, the immigrants from our northern and
southern neighbors of Canada and Mexico, and the immigrants from Europe,
Asia and other corners of the world who came to the United States of
America and became citizens. All their descendants remain.
So, as a place to talk about the history of cattle ranching in the
Americas, the Grant-Kohrs Ranch provides us with a rich tapestry of
stories -- not just stories of the cattle and horses, but of the peoples
of the Americas who played a role in the shaping of the West.
Recognizing the history of ranching families, and the ranch hands they
employed, begins to weave together, and allows us to recognize, the
shared legacy of ranching in the Americas. And this is why, during a
meeting in Deer Lodge, Montana in May 2012, members of the Grant-Kohrs
Ranch Foundation christened the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site
as “America’s Ranch.”
