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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings

	GRANT-KOHRS RANCH NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE Montana
Location: Powell County, adjoining the town of Deer Lodge on the north. Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site

Significance. This ranch is highly significant in the history of the range cattle industry. John Grant, the original owner, was the son of a Scottish employee of the Hudson's Bay Company, and is sometimes credited with being the founder of the cattle industry in Montana. In 1853 he began his career in Deer Lodge Valley. Acquiring rundown cattle in the vicinity of Fort Hall, about 240 miles to the south, he fattened them on his ranch and sold them at a good profit. By 1863 the ranch was running 4,000 head of cattle and nearly as many horses, and was providing most of the beef for the miners at Bannack and Virginia City.

Modern view of the Grant-Kohrs Ranch headquarters, Deer Lodge, Montana. One of the earliest ranches in the State, it pioneered in selective breeding.

In 1866 Conrad Kohrs purchased the ranch. He had been employed in a butcher shop in Bannack, had borrowed money to go into the cattle business, and had risen quickly. As soon as he purchased the ranch, he stocked it with Shorthorn bulls to improve the blood of his stock—the first constructive cattle-breeding effort in Montana. Becoming one of the foremost cattle kings of his era, he figured prominently in the organization of the Montana Stockgrowers Association. In 1883, with Granville Stuart and another associate, he bought out the interests of the Davis brothers and Hauser in the DHS (Davis, Hauser, and Stuart Company) Ranch, a $400,000 transaction that involved 12,000 cattle, and launched the Pioneer Cattle Company. The disastrous winter of 1886-87 reduced his herd from 35,000 to 3,000, but he borrowed heavily and recovered. Until his death in this century he remained a leading Montana cattleman.

The Grant-Kohrs Ranch was subsequently owned and operated by Conrad Warren, a grandson of Kohrs, and became known as the Warren Ranch. In the tradition of his grandfather, Warren raised purebred cattle. The original frame ranchhouse, erected by Grant in 1862, is still standing, though in the 1890's Kohrs built a large brick addition on the west side. Other old structures include several log cabins, probably built in the 1850's and 1860's, and old corrals. [20]

The ranch was acquired by the federal government and was established as Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site in 1972.

NHL Designation: 12/19/60