A Glimpse into Montana's Ranching Past
Part of the National Park System, Grant-Kohrs National Historic Site is a real working ranch where visitors can see and hear about Montana's ranching heritage. Established in the 1850's, this ranch was once the headquarters of a 10-million acre cattle empire. It is located on the outskirts of Deer Lodge, Montana.
As we approached the ranch buildings, I was fairly trembling with anticipation. I love to visit old houses, and if I can see the inside, I am ecstatic. The brochure in my hand stated that there were guided tours of the house interior (and that was the only way to see inside), so I asked a ranger when the next tour was to be.
" Didn't they tell you?" she asked sympathetically. "There are no tours of the house just now." In my disappointment, I listened to her explain that the powers that be had declared that the structures must have a sprinkler system installed, which necessitated removing the contents of the buildings and closing the structures to the public while the work was done. It should be finished sometime in November. No, they hadn't explained, and I hadn't noticed any such information when looking at the Ranch website a couple days earlier. So this is as close as I came to seeing the inside.
As I inwardly resolved that I would visit again, we toured the rest of the ranch. My husband, being a friendly sort of guy, struck up conversation with every park guide we encountered. Being a more reserved type, I took pictures. Behind the house was a chuck wagon, complete with campfire and campfire coffee, should we care to sample some.
As a veteran of home cooking and a culinary school graduate, I inspected the food preparation facilities the chuck wagon offered and imagined preparing 3 squares over an open fire for a crew of hungry cowboys.
I will leave you today with some more scenes from the Grant-Kohrs Ranch. I'm thinking spring would be a lovely time to return to this gem of western history.
Happy trails from The Accidental Trailerist!
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