Grant-Kohrs Ranch Administrative History

Superintendent Jimmy D. Taylor speaking at Last Spike Centennial program, August 28, 1983. (Courtesy Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS)

His replacement, Jim Taylor, arrived just after Christmas 1980, just in time to witness the testing of the new water main. The line leaked in several places where it had been pulled apart during construction, but those breaks were located and repaired rather easily. However, a particularly stubborn leak occurred somewhere between the stream crossing and the ranch house (HS-1). NPS staff advised the contractor to isolate portions of the line until the leak could be found, but he chose not to, unless a costly change-order were approved. That was declined, of course, because it was the contractor's responsibility to complete the line in a fully functional condition. This prompted the contractor to walk off the job, whereupon his lawyers took up the matter with NPS regional contracting officials. They made it clear that the contractor could either fix the line, or NPS would do so at his expense. The Early Times Company conceded defeat and a crew from Yellowstone Park was called in to assist Grant-Kohrs personnel in finding a solution to the problem. The leak was eventually attributed. to a mechanical connection, in which the Early Times workers had used incorrect bolts, near the ranch house. [32]

If that were not enough, Superintendent Taylor cited Early Times for failing to back-fill some of the excavated areas, failing to grade up around the hydrants, and failing to construct five hose boxes. Additionally, he discovered that fences had not been repaired and a final surprise disclosed that the line did not tie in to the plumbing at the ranch house. Early Times was not released until February 1981, yet two years later rocks were discovered in hydrant valves that had failed to function properly. [33]

In 1982 the entire National Park System benefited from a windfall in the form of the Park Restoration and Improvement Program (PRIP). Not for many years, since Mission 66 in fact, had the Park Service been blessed with so much funding to rehabilitate deteriorating park facilities, as well as to build new ones. Grant-Kohrs Ranch garnered money for two important projects: replacing the old coal furnace in the ranch house and installing a fire detection and intrusion alarm system. Also approved was a request for replacing the temporary electrical system that had been installed by the NPS years earlier. [34]

The first General Management Plan (GMP), which Tom Vaughan successfully shepherded to completion in 1980, envisioned the day when the Warren structures might be available for park use, though it left detailed planning to the future. Four years later, with the acquisition of the Warren property seemingly no closer than before, Superintendent Taylor submitted a revised request for a large, multi-purpose headquarters building containing visitor center, theater, administrative offices, museum laboratory, cooperating association, and public rest rooms -- virtually all of the park functions, except for maintenance. However, the regional office took a dim view of this grandiose proposal, advising Taylor that the central staff felt it was important to have agreement between the General Management Plan and the proposed facilities. "Your proposal goes beyond what could be conceived as a normal request in meeting your most urgent needs," wrote Associate Regional Director Richard Strait. He suggested that Taylor revise his request with minimum space requirements and, at the same time, pursue the purchase of the Warren buildings in the hope that a revised GMP would not be necessary. [35]

The eventual acquisition of the remainder of the Warren property, along with many additional buildings, in 1988 created new alternatives for the park. In the early 1990s, Superintendent Eddie Lopez recognized that the time was right to revisit those plans. His efforts resulted in a new, comprehensive document that envisioned the adaptive use of the Warren buildings. The main proposals of this still-current plan called for extensive modifications of the large red barn (HS-64) to house a spacious visitor center on the ground floor and park administrative offices on the second. Visitor parking was planned in a lot to be constructed nearby. The plan recommended that the "temporary" visitor contact station and rest rooms, still in use after more than two decades, be removed. A 12,000-square-foot curatorial facility is scheduled for construction on the same parcel. The main entrance to park would be moved farther north along the highway to the access road leading past the red barn, thus recreating an historic approach to the ranch house (HS-1). At the time of this writing, funding for the curatorial facility has been approved, but it remains to be seen whether the conversion of the barn will come to fruition.

Meantime, the Site has continued to cope with its principal operations widely scattered among several interim locations. The maintenance shop, for example, was moved from its first location in the dairy barn (HS-9) to the all-metal Warren sale barn (HS-65) in 1991. Administrative offices were moved in December 1991 from 314 Main Street in Deer Lodge to another and larger leased storefront at 210 Missouri Avenue, where they remain today. [36] And, the curatorial office, first located in the second floor apartment in the ranch house (HS-1), has resided in the Warren house (HS-58) since the winter of 1994-95, along with archival storage and the maintenance chiefs office. [37] Visitor reception, of course, is still conducted in the 1975 contact station, although the rest rooms in the adjacent log cabin were supplemented by the installation of another set installed in the 1930s blacksmith shop/garage (HS-3). This same structure has become the scene of multiple activities, including an audio-visual orientation program and blacksmithing demonstrations. [38] The continued dispersal of staff and functions, in the words of Jim Taylor, "continues to be a serious problem and a source of frustration for the staff." [39]

Park headquarters at 210 Missouri Street, Deer Lodge.
(Photo by D. McChristian)

Neither has the issue of housing employees on-site been resolved. In 1975 the park maintenance staff rehabilitated the apartment in the ranch house (HS-1) so that it could be occupied by Park Technicians Ed and Jean Griggs during the following year. The mobile home they had been residing in was returned to Yellowstone Park in 1976. The one occupied initially by Historian Paul Gordon, and for many year since then by Park Ranger Lyndel Meikle, remains alongside the thoroughbred barn (HS-15). The ranch-house apartment was used as quarters for seasonal protection rangers into the early 1980s, when it was adapted for a time as curatorial offices, but it has not served in that capacity for many years. [40]

While the roads and utilities development at Grant-Kohrs Ranch have proceeded at what might be termed a normal pace, the visitor and staff facilities have not. This is not uncommon in historic areas where major line-item funding often lags far behind the opening of the park. The ranch in some ways has become a victim of its own enthusiasm through a quirk frequently witnessed in smaller park areas, especially those lacking a champion in Congress. Temporary facilities installed in the zeal to get a park moving all too frequently become long-term fixtures. Illogically, these minimal facilities tend to dilute the urgency of a site's need, thereby counteracting justifications for permanent replacements. Despite the best efforts of virtually every area manager at Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS, the funding has not been made available to provide permanent visitor facilities. Consequently, the ranch has yet to experience its day in the sun whereby it will realize its full operational potential.