One Last Brief Stop in Montana

June 11,2015

Our drive today took us to Missoula- one last chance to spend a bit of time in this state.  We were near the headwaters of the Missouri but veered west away from it on our travels today.  But then that is what the Corps of Discovery had to do, too. once the river came to an end.

In fact, today we crossed McDonald Pass climbing to 6325 feet - the Continental Divide.  We are definitely getting into the Rockies - the massive barrier that Lewis and Clark faced without a river to travel.  It is in this area that they had to make contact with the Indians who could not only provide them with horses for the crossing but a guide. And we could see the same thing they did - snow. (however they saw far more and had to travel across in it)

The drive itself was beautiful with lots of views of the mountains ahead, Little Blackfoot River weaving along side us first on the right and then on the left and then back again on the right. Lots of trees filled the hills as we rolled up and down while following twisting turning road.

At this point our friends Bob and Glenda were in front of us and you can see by their size just how vast the area is around them.  We are so glad to have a Class A motorhome with its huge windshield that allows us to see all around us.  The last time we did this we were in a Class C with an overhang intruding on the windshield cutting off our views.

At lunch time we reached Deer Lodge and stopped for a visit at the Grant- Kohrs Ranch - once home of one of the largest landowners, a real cattle baron.  The home is as it was in 1901 when Kohrs owned 30 million acres of ranchland in several states as well as Canada.  The National Park Service now owns a much smaller area but many of the original buildings and continues to operate the ranch keeping a hundred head of cattle and maintaining a small vegetable garden and of course growing the necessary hay for the animals. This picture in the Visitor Center is of the area now owned by the NPS.

We were able to join a tour group headed out to the home right after we arrived.  What a treasure.  It had sat empty for many years after they died because the state did not allow daughters to inherit land and their son died while away at college.  Later one of the daughter's sons decided to take over and managed the ranch till the 60s when the Service bought it.  Over 30,000 artifacts belonging to the Kohrs were returned by various members of the family so they could put it back together as it looked in 1901 by using all photos available to them.

The home had originally been built by Josiah Grant to look like a wayside inn and was often a stopping place for those heading west.

Later he sold it to Conrad Kohrs whose wife made it into a beautiful home with a huge brick addition in which to raise their two daughters and a son.  She created many beautiful pieces of needlepoint to help decorate as well as pillows, and other decorative pieces.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside so it is impossible to see what a beautiful place it was inside considering how far out in the middle of "nowhere" they were.  They did travel as their wealth grew and many of the items were purchased from places all over the world.

More to come later..............




One observation our host/tailenders in-training, Steve and Connie Pacheco made about this state is: "Only in Montana. You can get bait and casino, gas and casino, restaurant and casino, just a casino. They seem to be on every street corner. But, both the number of machines and the payout are set very low by legislation. Keeps "big business" out."  We've been especially aware of all the casinos in the last couple of stops.  Even the tiny cafe in the tiny town of Fort Benton where we ate lunch the other day listed itself as a cafe and casino - it had eight machines inside.

More to come..............................