Grant-Kohrs Ranch Historic Resource Study/Historic Structures Report/Cultural Resources Statement

I. ADDITIONAL STUDIES

The initial association with Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site can be somewhat overwhelming. The magnificence of the furnishings in the ranch house, the wealth of ranch artifacts in the barns, and the myriad documents carefully preserved by Con and Nell Warren impress the casual visitor as well as the researcher. This is inevitable, for the site is a rich one, and the demands it puts on those who will interpret and manage it, and on those who must act to physically preserve it, are equally weighty. For these reasons a relatively large number of studies will be required for the ranch in the near and distant future. No doubt they will be costly, but they are demanded by the resource, and are outlined below.

A. Historical Base Map and Ground Cover Study (Type 33)

The historical base map included in this study is based on research conducted to date, and can serve as a starting point for a more exhaustive and much more complete base map and ground cover study in the future. This report should include an examination of the native grasses, trees, and shrubs and how they have been altered by agricultural uses of the land. Changes in types of vegetation resulting from ranching should form much of this data. The outlines of pastures and attendant fence lines, and the purposes of the various irrigation ditches, diversion dams, and water and drainage systems should be included. The relationship of structures to one another, and to ancillary fences, lands, feedlots, and corrals should be examined in greater detail than has been possible in this report. The types of crops grown during the years the ranch operated, and the types of animals in each of the pastures would be included. This will require considerable research into daily ranch activities and methods. If necessary, archeological excavations might be recommended prior to the completion of this study. The uses of the land by the American Indians prior to its use by John Grant and Con Kohrs should also be included in this study.

B. Biographical Study: Conrad and Augusta Kohrs and John Bielenberg (No National Park Service standards apply)

This study should be accomplished by a scholar familiar with Montana and Northwestern United States history. Obviously it is beyond the normal scope of the National Park Service's historical research operations, and might have to be executed under contract with a non-Park Service scholar. An understanding of the daily lives and activities of the three people who determined so much of the history of the ranch is vitally needed for accurate interpretation. The study should include general data on all three individuals, and define the place of Conrad Kohrs in Montana politics, real estate, mining, and agriculture. It should begin as soon as possible.

C. Furnishings Study (Type 34)

While the park is blessed with an abundance of original furnishings, a furnishings study is still very much in order. This study should undertake to determine the provenience of the furnishings throughout the ranch. By understanding the styles of furniture, not only is interpretation of the furnishings facilitated, but decisions concerning restoration and interpretative dating are eased. This study should be executed separately from, but in recognition of, any curatorial studies undertaken in regards to furnishings care and routine maintenance.

D. Archeology (Types 31, 42, and 43 as required)

Archeological survey work has been accomplished on a limited basis on two occasions at this park, but it is quite possible that additional work and excavations might be necessary. The drainage system cannot be known in its entirety without limited archeological investigations, and the wisdom of reactivating the drainage systems that once kept the grounds from being as boggy as they are now is an obvious choice facing management at the park. Accordingly, archeology should be considered when formulating procedures for planning, potential development, research, or custodial maintenance of the buildings and site. Formalization of archeological studies, however, must await determinations specific need.

E. Ranch Operations (Type 33)

This study is a most necessary one. The daily operations of the home ranch of Kohrs and Bielenberg should be focused on. Other topics should include: economic aspects of the home ranch in the 19th and 20th centuries, cattle trails to and from the ranch, cattle transportation and marketing and changes in the system over the years, daily ranch and range life, and horse and cattle breeding. Additionally, the daily operations of ranches in the Deer Lodge Valley at the present time should be examined and explained in detail. While the current park staff can benefit from a close association with Con Warren, who lives nearby, future staffs will not have that opportunity. Yet the park will continue to demand from its staff an understanding of ranching skills and stock growing. Without an understanding of why Warren ran things the way he did, and how to care for the animals, equipment, and structures in the daily operations of what might become a "living ranch," future park staffs will be severely handicapped.

While this study should be a history study in format and overall organization, it should contain detailed ranching instructions when appropriate. This study can best be accomplished by the park staff on a "time-available" basis. Furthermore it need not be cast into narrative form by any set date. The research can be conducted and filed in a useable manner, so that interpretive and operational guides can be written from the data base as required. Likewise, there need not be one single author. The park historian can conduct research and the seasonal staff and maintenance staff can add material in their particular areas of responsibility. The product can be a flexible one, and tuned to the specific needs of Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site. But serious consideration should be given to initiating the program as soon as possible, with assistance as needed from the Historic Preservation Division, Denver Service Center, and Professional Services Branch, Rocky Mountain Regional Office.

F. Historic Resource Maintenance Guide (No single National Park Service type description applies. Includes Types 32 and 35.)

This study needs to combine the daily maintenance instructions for the park staff expected in a furnishing plan, the preservation data expected in a historic structure preservation guide, and the day-to-day guidance available in a historic resource maintenance plan. The care of furnishings in the house and in the utility buildings should be addressed, as should security procedures, fire prevention and control, building maintenance, painting of structures, road maintenance, and operation of water drainage systems. Like the historic structure preservation guide and historic resource management plans, this guide should be so arranged that it can be added to and updated when necessary. It should be a general guide to the whole of the many-faceted historical resources at the park, however, and view them as a unit. Because of this, it might prove necessary for one individual to control the initial compilation of the data and its preparation into daily guidelines. This individual should be either a curator or a historical architect familiar with the technical demands of building and furnishings conservation.

G. Historical Data Compilation (No single National Park Service type description applies.)

With the Kohrs papers on file at the park, including many materials from the Montana Historical Society and all of the papers kept intact over the years by Con Warren, the park staff should begin systematic exploitation of the data contained therein. The creation of files of data available in the papers and photographs will facilitate research in the future and enrich the interpretation program at the park. The microfilmed series of The New Northwest available at the Montana Historical Society should also be purchased and added to the park's collections On a "time available" basis, The New Northwest should be examined issue by issue for data concerning the ranch. (This work requires additional equipment, such as microfilm readers.)

II. INTERPRETATION

Consideration might be given at this time to a comprehensive interpretive historical approach to the numerous National Park Service areas in the West concerned either primarily or secondarily with cattle ranching. Grant-Kohrs Ranch represents both the day-to-day ranching business as well as the life-style of the cattle barons. Other such sites include Theodore Roosevelt National Monument, Lyndon Johnson Birthplace, Dinosaur, and Bighorn Canyon. Taken as a whole, the various sites seem to include virtually every level and every major era of cattle ranching in the American West. A unified theme of interpretation, buttressed by accurate and dispassionate historical research, might be in order.

III. MICROFILM READERS

There is little escaping the fact that this park creates as strong demands for research as at any historical site managed by the National Park Service. It will be a real benefit, then, to prepare research facilities to exploit the rich collections gathered at the park in 1974 and 1975. A microfilm reader (preferably with a printer attached) and a worktable for researchers will repay the monetary investment time and time again and enrich the interpretive program at the park by facilitating the routine research executed by the park staff. Purchase of a microfilm reader should have a high priority at the park, ranking above additional library acquisitions, as necessary as they are.

IV. STAFF

The present park staff does not include a curator, and one is needed as soon as possible. The park collections include art and ceramics, furniture and rugs, guns and leather horse furniture, wagons and sleighs, wallpaper and linoleum, and dishes and silverware. These artifacts are scattered throughout the buildings and exist within vastly different environments. The ranch house is relatively dry, compared to the humidity in Historic Structure 15 where the wagons are kept. The problems are so varied and numerous that only a fully qualified curator, familiar with historic sites, could assess the needs adequately. This is the primary staff need at this time. It is not often that a park comes under the management of the National Park Service in as complete a condition in terms of furnishings, documents, site integrity, and building relationships, and all measures necessary to protect this unusually complete unit should be taken. Indeed, National Park Service policy seems to demand it.

Introduction
Historic Resource Study | Cultural Resources Statement | Historic Structure Report