Last updated: March 25, 2021
Place
Bunkhouse Dining Room
NPS/Grant-Kohrs Ranch
Quick Facts
Location:
Deer Lodge, MT
Significance:
Historical Structure
Designation:
National Historic Site
Amenities
6 listed
Accessible Sites, Cellular Signal, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Information, Restroom - Seasonal, Trash/Litter Receptacles
To make life simpler for hard working cowboys the heart of the bunkhouse easily connected the dining room, sitting room and bedrooms together.
The dining room is accessed through the left doorway in the sitting room. This space was added to the bunkhouse row sometime between 1884 and 1890. Cowboys gathered around the table and ate their meals together. The oval shaped table was originally used in the main ranch house before it was moved to the bunkhouse after 1890. The cook had easy access into the room through an adjacent doorway that connected the kitchen and the dining room together.
Hungry cowboys knew it was time for a meal when the cook loudly rang the dinner bell or hit the metal gong that hangs outside of the kitchen. John Bielenberg and Conrad Kohrs Warren would often join the cowboys for a meal here in the dining room, especially for breakfast. The time spent together around the table created a unique opportunity for the ranchers and the cowboys to get to know each other, go over projects and discuss the work that was needed on the ranch for the day.
The rooms in the bunkhouse were occasionally reorganized to hold modern equipment or house extra cowboys when needed. An electric freezer was added to the dining room in the early 1950s due to the limited space in the kitchen and there is evidence from marks in the floorboards that a bunk bed was once placed in the dining room near the stove.
The dining room is accessed through the left doorway in the sitting room. This space was added to the bunkhouse row sometime between 1884 and 1890. Cowboys gathered around the table and ate their meals together. The oval shaped table was originally used in the main ranch house before it was moved to the bunkhouse after 1890. The cook had easy access into the room through an adjacent doorway that connected the kitchen and the dining room together.
Hungry cowboys knew it was time for a meal when the cook loudly rang the dinner bell or hit the metal gong that hangs outside of the kitchen. John Bielenberg and Conrad Kohrs Warren would often join the cowboys for a meal here in the dining room, especially for breakfast. The time spent together around the table created a unique opportunity for the ranchers and the cowboys to get to know each other, go over projects and discuss the work that was needed on the ranch for the day.
The rooms in the bunkhouse were occasionally reorganized to hold modern equipment or house extra cowboys when needed. An electric freezer was added to the dining room in the early 1950s due to the limited space in the kitchen and there is evidence from marks in the floorboards that a bunk bed was once placed in the dining room near the stove.