Good Morning to all of you.
We are now in Deer Lodge, Montana and we are about 35 miles from Butte, Montana. Butte is a pretty large town and we have been going there to get our medicine refilled since they have a Walmart. We have done so much since we got here. The first week it rained everyday so we just hung out in the camper and took a few day trips. I never get tired of looking at these beautiful mountains.
On July 3rd, we decided to drive to Butte, Montana to see the fireworks display. Locals told us to go early because it was hard to find a good spot to park. We got there around 6:30 and we found a really good spot at the Montana Tech College parking lot. We waited till 10:30 pm before it started. The display is done from a single family that owns all the Town Pumps in Montana which are truck stops gas stations that are also convenience stores. They shot off all these fireworks off of the ridge of Big Butte Mountain. They have done this for 108 years. This year the display lasted 45 minutes solid and it cost them around $50,000.00. Yes you read that right. Curt and I have never in our lives have seen such a display. It was Phenonminal. When we were sitting there waiting, there were amazing fireworks that individuals were shooting off right beside us and they were fantastic. We really had a great time and we met some really nice people.
On the 5th of July we decided to go tour the Grant-Kohrs Ranch.
John Grant was from Canada and he married several different women from different American Indian Tribes of the Northwest. These bonds helped to forge alliances with each tribe. He chose this ranch site for its rich grassland, abundance of water and its sheltered valley. He finished building the house in 1862. He made his money by trading cattle on the Oregon Trail and built up a large herd. He later made his riches by selling meat to miners during the Gold Rush.
After racial discrimination and shady business practices he got discouraged and sold the ranch to Conrad Kohrs in 1866 and moved his family back to Canada.
Conrad left Germany at 15 to work at sea as as cabin boy. He was lured west by gold but his biggest profit was selling beef to the miners. He built a business by shipping 10,000 head of cattle a year to the Chicago stockyards. His herds grazed over 10 million acres, which are now part of four states and two Canadian provinces.
Two years after Kohrs bought the ranch he married Augusta Kruse. He lived here until his death in 1920.
This is the back of the home.
Parts of this ranch is still a working ranch. Due to Covid we couldn’t tour the inside of the home but we got to walk around and see everything I am going post. This was such an interesting self tour.
These type of buggies sleighs were also pulled by horses in the winter time due to all the snow they would get.
The chuck wagon
This wagon below was displayed to show how many Belgium horses were hitched up to it.
This blacksmith shop is still in use as this is still a working ranch.
I thought the buggie below was a pretty fancy one with the top the way it was.
I loved the stalls and the tack room. I have always loved the smell of a barn.
I know this is picture overload but this truly is only a few of what I took. This really threw us back in time. I remember stories from Mama how they bucked hay when she was a little girl and she actually helped with the hay crop at age five. She told stories of how her and her brother, Jack, would milk 20 cows before they rode an old blind horse to school everyday. She said her sister, Helen, Jack and herself would all get on the blind horse and take it to school which was 5 miles. I know they worked hard on the farm when she was little and clear up through high school, but when we hear the stories, even though they had really hard times, they are such happy memories for my Mom. I guess that is where sister and I got our work ethics. We have always worked hard because that is what Daddy and Mama did all their lives and we have such fun memories that we will treasure all of our lives.
I hope you have enjoyed the tour as much as we did. Until the next blog which will be right after this one, I hope some of you will remember some of your childhood memories and I hope it warms your heart and makes you smile.
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