Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site Landscape: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Grant-Kohrs National Historic Site, National Park Service
Shapins Associates. 2007. Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site Landscape: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Grant-Kohrs National Historic Site, National Park Service. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 890194. NPS Intermountain Regional Office. Intermountain Regional Office/CLI Database
The Grant‑Kohrs Ranch NHS Landscape is located in Powell County, Montana. John Grant established the ranch in 1862 and Conrad Kohrs operated the ranch from 1866‑1920. Grant‑Kohrs Ranch is an outstanding representation of the days of the open range cattle industry in the American West during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Grant’s and Kohrs’ dominance of the regional beef market demonstrated the possibilities available to entrepreneurs on the developing frontier, and the ability to run cattle over a virtual empire of open and free grassland. While the current boundaries of the site encompass approximately 1,618 acres, this is only a fraction of what was once a much larger ranch. During the 1890s, the ranch extended over 27,000 acres, with feed, water, and grazing rights over ten million acres of public land that spanned across Montana, parts of Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and the Canadian province of Alberta, Saskatchewan. The Home Ranch, a term that historically defined the Grant‑Kohrs ranch home and building complex and its adjacent lands, extended beyond the current boundary to the east approximately 1.75 miles and west from one to five miles to reach grazing leases on state lands and the Deer Lodge National Forest. Other holdings in the Deer Lodge Valley included Dog Creek Pasture (9,129 acres) and Humber Ranch (1,160 acres) to the northeast, and the Upper Ranch (also known as Nick Bielenberg place, 4,800 acres) to the southeast. The Grant‑Kohrs Ranch NHS encompasses both the Grant‑Kohrs Ranch home and building complex as well as the Warren Hereford Ranch and residence. Operated by Conrad Warren from 1929‑1982, the Grant‑Kohrs Ranch/Warren Ranch represents the modernization of cattle ranching on the Great Plains of the American West, specifically in the era that began in the early 20th century and which marked the close of the open range. Conrad Warren, the grandson of Conrad Kohrs, moved to his grandfather’s former ranch in 1929. In 1932 Warren assumed management of the Conrad Kohrs Company Ranch, and transformed the relatively small financial and physical remnants of his grandfather’s once vast cattle empire into a modern cattle breeding and sales complex. Warren ran the ranch for over 50 years. Altogether, the Grant‑Kohrs Ranch NHS represents changes in agriculture, and the continuum of cattle ranching from the days of the open range into the modern era. Its landscape encompasses the cultural and physical resources that help interpret the story of continuity of ownership and the evolution of western cattle ranching operations throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The Grant‑Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site retains historic integrity and the condition is good.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Shapins Associates
- Date of Issue
- 2007-08-10
- Publisher
- NPS Intermountain Regional Office
- Units
- GRKO , IMR
- Keywords
- Agriculture, Architecture, Cattle Frontier, Conrad Kohrs Home Ranch, Creating Social Institutions and Movements, Developing the American Economy, Engineering, Exploration, Grant-Kohrs Ranch, Historic Designed Landscape, historic site, Historic Vernacular Landscape, Home Ranch Complex, Horses, Johnny Grant Ranch, Kohrs-Bielenberg Ranch, Livestock, Montana, pasture, Powell County, Railroad Corridor, ranches, Ranching Communities, Settlement, trade, Warren Hereford Ranch, Westward Expansion, Wetland