Originally researched, authored and posted by Patricia Nell Warren on June 2, 2014

Conrad Kohrs’s saddle bags, also called cantinas or pommel bags. Through the 1860s, they carried his gold dust on cattle-buying trips around the territory. Gold dust was the preferred currency in Montana, with government “greenbacks” being traded at half the value of gold.

These were the cantinas stuffed with $5000 in gold dust that Kohrs was packing in 1863, when he narrowly escaped being robbed and killed by outlaws George Ives and Dutch John, on the road between Virginia City and Deer Lodge. Notice the hidden holster for a sidearm.

(GRKO photo)

Researched, authored and posted by Patricia Nell Warren in 2013.

This rosewood chair was sat on by Quarra Grant, Bannack/Shoshoni wife of Johnny Grant. I let the chair stand for her. No photograph of Quarra is currently available, though I've seen a studio “cabinet photo” that's in a private collection of a former Deer Lodge resident.

Quarra was a handsome woman with chiseled features and wide cheekbones – very like her brother, Tendoy, who was much photographed. Imagine her standing posed beside this chair, wearing a richly tailored Victorian gown, with her dark hair in a period coif. That’s how she was portrayed by the photographer. While many Indians were fighting to preserve their own spirituality and traditions, Quarra made the choice – out of love for her husband, perhaps – to convert to Catholicism and try transitioning into the “white” culture flooding her Rockies homeland.

In his memoirs, Grant describes her spirited outgoing personality. She evidently lit up the house. And she could speak several languages. So she helped make the ranch into the center of hospitality that it was during the Grant era. She was not only a loving mother and good cook, but an intrepid horsewoman.

Many traders took care to marry into influential native families, to proect their business relationship with that tribe. Quarra came from such a family, as Metis genealogists have discovered. Her uncle Snag was Lemhi Shoshoni chief. He succeeded Cameahwait, chief before him, and was a nephew of Cameahwait and his sister Sacajawea. So Quarra was a grand-niece of Sacajawea. Her brother Tendoy succeeded Snag as chief.

Quarra lived in the ranch house only 4 years. When her husband decided to return to Canada, she would have gone with him, putting herself at a vast distance from her Shoshoni family -- a heartbreaking decision. But she died in early 1867, while Grant was making arrangements for the move. She was buried there in Deer Lodge.

The rosewood chair is one of several dining chairs that belonged to her and Johnny, along with a round dining table, a rosewood sofa and a pie-safe. These items are still in the Grant-Kohrs collection.

Originally researched, authored and posted by Patricia Nell Warren on January 24, 2014

This old lariat has a story. One winter in the late 1800s, some men from the Grant-Kohrs Ranch ran across an old Mexican sheepherder who had taken sick on the road and was freezing to death. They took him back to the ranch, where Kohrs & Bielenberg nursed him back to health. Out of gratitude, the old man wanted to make a gift to the ranch, and asked for an untanned hide. Treating it to remove the hair, he took a sharp knife and cut round and round its edge, working his way to the center, until he had several long strings. Then he braided them into this magnificent lariat.

The story was passed down from John Bielenberg to Con Warren and his children.

The art of rawhide braiding for fine lariats and horse gear is an ancient one, that is still preserved and practiced by skilled Western artisans. Go here to learn more: http://www.westernfolklife.org/batr/tools_braided_rawhide.php

(National Park Service photo)

Originally researched, authored and posted by Patricia Nell Warren on February 14, 2014 

The GRKO's own Facebook page is running a new series called "Artifact of the Month." They're kicking it off with this fascinating item, which they describe thusly: "DAUGHERTY WAGON (also can be spelled DOUGHERTY) Sold to Johnny Grant by James Harkness, of Labarge, Harkness and Company of St. Louis, MO, this wagon was shipped up the Missouri River on the steamboat Emilie to Fort Benton, MT in 1862.

"As the Missouri River was a natural “highway” to the West, steamboat traffic into Montana reached enormous proportions during the early 1860s bringing both passengers and merchandise. Conrad Kohrs later acquired the wagon with the purchase of the ranch from Johnny Grant.

"Daugherty wagons were originally designed as passenger wagons. They typically had side doors, two to three rows of seats, and canvas or leather sides that could be rolled up. Another feature that made them very functional was that the seats could be folded down to create a flat surface or a bed. These wagons were made for long distance travel and during the Civil War they were adapted for use as an ambulance. The park Daugherty wagon served in both capacities. Following the battle of the Big Hole in 1877, it was used as an ambulance to carry injured soldiers to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Deer Lodge. It was also the wagon the Kohrs family used during their seven week tour of Yellowstone National Park in 1883."

In a word, the Daugherty wagon was the SUV of the day. Surprisingly, though countless thousands of these vehicles were manufactured in the 19th century, only a few of them survive today. This wagon at the GRKO is one of the rare survivors.

(GRKO photo) 

 Originally researched, authored and posted by Patricia Nell Warren  on December 21, 2016

KEEPING WARM. This buffalo blanket in the Grant-Kohrs museum collection, with its dense wooly hair, was part of Conrad Kohrs's bedroll. As the bottom layer of a bed put together outdoors, it was a barrier against cold from the earth, especially during cold-weather travel. Pioneers like Kohrs adopted buffalo-pelt use from the tribes and the Métis, who relied for personal warmth on the buffalo's massively thick coat of hair, giving the animal an ability to survive the severest cold weather.

We know from Kohrs's autobiography how he didn't shrink from cold-weather travel to get his mining and cattle business done, before the advent of stagecoach and railroad lines made it possible for him to get around the West in greater comfort. As a result of exposure to extreme cold, Kohrs was often afflicted with painful attacks of rheumatism for much of his life. Indeed, rheumatism was a common complaint in the open-range cattle business, with the boss as well as the cowboys sometimes having to sleep on the cold ground. (National Park Service photo)

 

Originally researched, authored and posted by Patricia Nell Warren on January 17, 2017


This wolf-fur blanket dates to the John Grant era on the ranch -- Grant's brand is inked on one of the hides. Possibly crafted by his wife Quarra, who was an excellent seamstress, it was put together from a dozen pelts, sewn together neatly with sinew thread. Left behind by Grant, it was used for many years by the Kohrses and Bielenbergs for keeping warm during winter travel in the sleigh or buggies. (National Park Service photo)