Originally researched, authored and posted by Patricia Nell Warren on December 20, 2016.
The bunkhouse row is probably the oldest structure on the ranch. It was put together around 1861 or 1862 by John Grant's crew of Métis carpenters so the Grant family would have a snug place to live and store their trading goods while the big ranchhouse was being built. It was active for almost a whole century, being finally closed around 1958 by Con Warren -- partly because of rising costs, partly because the ranch's downsized modern crew tended to prefer living independently in town. Visitors can see it today with original furnishings and atmosphere still in place. I remember it fondly from my childhood -- the food was so good that the Warren family often trooped down the road to eat there. What a good place it was to step into on a winter day -- warm with wood stoves going full blast, and the wonderful mingled smells pouring out of the kitchen, and the crowded table with hungry men digging into a bumper meal. (National Park Service photo)
Photo of Bunkhouse Row
Originally researched, authored and posted by Patricia Nell Warren on April 22, 2016.
Shortly after the Park Service took possession of the Grant-Kohrs Ranch's complex of historic structures in 1972, noted government photographer Jack Boucher arrived to document every plank of the site. The bunkhouse, built as early as 1861 by John Grant, sits at the heart of the ranch's history. It was home to the cooks, foremen, cowboys, chore men, irrigators, carpenters, blacksmiths, hay crew and other employees, all from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Without their labor and skills, the owner families wouldn't have been able to run a ranch.
The bunkhouse was a bustling place till 1958, when it was finally closed down, a casualty of mechanization. Fortunately its contents -- like those of the ranch house -- were preserved, and its rooms have been restored to life. Today visitors can see the washroom, kitchen, dining room and bunk rooms looking exactly as they once did, with their original furnishings, cookware, dishes, etc. Some of the men who worked here at the mid-20th century have donated cherished personal items to the ranch's museum collection.
Photo of Bunkhouse Row
(Photos by Jack E. Boucher for the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), now in the Library of Congress photo collection)
Originally researched, authored and posted by Patricia Nell Warren on December 6, 2015.
When year-round-permanent white-man dwellings came to the valley, the old native idea of winter camps in the windbreaks of riverine tree groves was abandoned. Spring flooding, of the kind that Cottonwood Creek still inflicts on Deer Lodge now and then, was a major threat to a permanent cabin or frame house. In late 1861 or early 1862, John Grant had his Metis workers build the cabin row later used as the Grant-Kohrs bunkhouse. His family would live there until he could build the grand house of his dreams.
Grant chose a level site on a higher elevation east of the river. No cottonwood groves there -- the cabin (and the grand house) would be exposed to beating winter winds. But the new structures would be high and dry at flood time, and the spring at the foot of that little bench solved the problem of handy water supply.
In short, the Grant cabin/bunkhouse is the oldest structure at the ranch, and tells us a lot about the thought that went into selecting the site. The two-story horse barn and carriage shed on its east end were added later by Kohrs and Bielenberg, who also planted a windbreak of trees around the ranch house. (GRKO photo)