Grant-Kohrs Ranch Foundation

Mount Powell, Deer Lodge, Montana... The town's iconic mountain was named after Welsh mountain man John Powell, one of the valley's earliest white pioneers. He arrived there around 1856. In 1864 he built a little ranch at the foot of the mountain, and became the first white man to climb the peak. Later, working as a lawman, he was killed in a gunfight in 1879. Powell's half-Shoshoni widow Marceline lived on in Deer Lodge with her parents, rancher Thomas and Aslake LaVatta. (Information from Anita Grant Steele, Grant family genealogist)