Deer Lodge, Montana: Grant-Kohrs Ranch

July 30, 2021

The Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site is an operating cattle ranch that demonstrates and preserves the heritage of ranching. It’s located about 80 miles southeast of Missoula and includes buildings, furnishings, decor, operations, skills and records.

The first owner of the ranch was Johnny Grant who recognized that horses and cattle could graze all winter in the valley that became Deer Lodge. Grant’s father was a Canadian fur trader and his mother was of Indigenous and Euro-American ancestry. Grant was married to a woman who was Lemhi Shoshone. Between 1862 and 1866 he built a house which also served as a trading post.

Grant traded cattle with emigrants on the Oregon Trail: He would exchange one fit animal for two that were weary and depleted from travel. In this way he quickly built his herd. New settlers moved to Deer Lodge and Grant became discouraged by their racial discrimination and shady business practices. In 1866 he sold the house and ranch to Conrad Kohrs for $19,200 and returned to Canada.

Kohrs presided over the ranch at a time when the open range was ending. Barbed wire had reduced the available range and it became necessary to produce and harvest quality hay. He lost 60% of his valley herd in the hard winter of 1886-87. He added a brick wing behind the Grant house in 1890.

Kohrs sold the ranch to his nephew Conrad Warren in 1940. Warren raised prize-winning Hereford cattle and Belgian horses. The National Park Service began acquisition of the site from Warren in 1970, agreeing to continue ranching operations.