Grant-Kohrs Ranch Administrative History

The area has been plagued with meager visitation throughout its short history. Given that the Site lies along Interstate 90, directly between Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, it was not unreasonable to expect moderately high visitation. However, they failed to consider was that most people do not travel to both of these large parks on a single trip. Some in the community anticipated that great numbers of visitors would pour into the ranch, and into Deer Lodge businesses coincidentally, but these wildly speculative predictions, some as high as 240,000 per year, failed to materialize. [57]

In 1978 Lyndel Meikle suggested that the park develop a special event to garner regional attention and increase visitation. The event, which she later described as "pretty much homemade at first," was scheduled in July to commemorate the establishment of the park. Initially dubbed "The Birthday," the name has given way more recently to "Western Heritage Days" as a more descriptive title, suggested by Con Warren. That first celebration attracted only about 400 people, but it was deemed a success nonetheless. Each year has witnessed the repetition of certain programs that have enjoyed popularity, while some new activities accompany what has become an annual event. By 1983 visitation increased to 1,000 and the following year it was made a two-day event. Some 2,000 visitors attended the 1995 program, drawing more people in those two days than during the entire three-month winter season. [58]

Visitation, which has consistently averaged only about 25,000 per annum, has at once been an advantage and disadvantage to Grant-Kohrs Ranch. Modest visitor use has probably worked against the various managers' best efforts to obtain funding for a new visitor center. Low visitation equates to a low priority need, some would say. Conversely, the temporary contact station could not have accommodated a higher volume of traffic had visitation been greater. To some degree, perhaps, the intermittent flow of small numbers of people through the area has dictated the types of programs that might be feasible. This also reduced the level of human impacts on cultural resources. Small groups have lended well to the house tours, to roving contacts, and to fixed stations such as the chuck wagon and blacksmith shop where the opportunity for informal discussion is an advantage.

Aside from the success of Western Heritage Days, Chief Interpreter Cheryl Clemmensen reported in 1982 that, "The Site is still not well known within the state of Montana." [59] The next year, however, Montana sponsored a one-time celebration to commemorate the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad across the state. Since Grant-Kohrs Ranch lay only fifteen miles from the site of the historic juncture, and the site included a section of usable track, Superintendent Jim Taylor agreed to co-host what became known as, "The Last Spike Centennial." It was scheduled for August 24-28, 1983.

It turned out to be a gala event, complete with a steam locomotive and tender car trucked all the way from California and placed on the rails at Grant-Kohrs. The program of speakers and music was conducted in front of the ranch house (HS-1). The site's public image was enhanced by the presence of additional NPS personnel from other parks and special living history presentations. Nearly 8,000 people attended the centennial celebration, yet Taylor was disappointed to find that it had no lasting effect on visitation at the ranch. [60]

Last Spike Centennial celebration, 1983.
(Courtesy of Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS)

In 1992 the park interpretive staff began a cooperative project with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks to provide the public an opportunity to learn about natural history aspect of Grant-Kohrs Ranch. This resulted in a successful application to the National Park Foundation for a $15,000.00 grant. The park resource management staff collaborated with the Youth Conservation Corps, U. S. Forest Service, as well as the Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks people to develop what became known as the "Cottonwood Nature Trail," which was completed the next year. The interpreters prepared a brochure for use on the self-guiding tour and by 1994 the new interpretive feature was in full operation. [61]

The stated interpretive objective for the area remained virtually the same until 1993, when a new General Management Plan took a somewhat different approach. The GMP's stated themes suggested a holistic approach presenting "the evolving American cattle industry," recognizing the inherent diversity of the historic resources. For many years, the chief interpreter repeated her plea for a new interpretive prospectus, stressing that "the plan is obsolete and rarely referred to by our staff" She considered a prospectus as "critical to the interpretive operations at Grant-Kohrs ranch." [62] Despite an attempt to develop a new Interpretive Prospectus in 1991, the effort floundered and was not revived, although revised interpretive themes did appear in the 1993 General Management Plan. Scott Eckberg, the presiding chief of interpretation since 1995, was of the opinion in 1996 that an interpretive Prospectus would serve no particular purpose, in light of the GMP, since that document addressed the questions of needed interpretive facilities and non-personal services media. Meantime, he, like some of his predecessors, remained distressed that the primary focus of interpretation has continued on the buildings, especially the ranch house (HS-1), rather than "on the greater story." The program, in his opinion, was still a pawn of the resource, but that it would be largely corrected whenever a formal visitor center is developed in the red barn (HS-64). Much of the story still will be told out on the ranch grounds, however. He and others on the staff felt that the interpreters need to be more familiar with animals, especially cattle, and not so reliant on the familiar and relatively easy house tour. "The tools are all here," Eckberg acknowledged, "it's the knowledge and ability that we need to cultivate among our own staff." That is the challenge.