For thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, American Indians thrived in what is now the American West. Many tribes depended on bison (buffalo) for food, clothing, shelter, trade, and much more. When white settlers set their sights on this land, they slaughtered bison herds for sport, profit from the hides, and to weaken American Indian resistance. Before long the sight of cattle grazing on the plains replaced views of bison. American Indians adapted to life on the reservations and some tribes turned to raising cattle to feed their people.

Erected by National Parks Service.

The first prison building was constructed on this site in 1870 while Montana was still a territory of the United States. It served as a territorial prison and federal penitentiary. In 1889, when Montana attained statehood, it became the Montana State Prison.

The original three-story brick and granite structure had 14 cells. The building was demolished in 1931 and replaced a year later with the current administration building.

The prison “opened for reception of territorial and United States convicts on the second day of July , 1871, on which day I received nine convicts.” (William F. Wheeler, U.S. Marshal for Montana Territory)

Erected by Old Montana Prison Museum.

Overcrowding reached a critical point by the spring of 1896. The cell capacity of 182 was exceeded by 150 prisoners who were confined in a single log building without cells. The log building was deemed “insecure, unsafe and liable to destruction by fire” by the State Board of Prison Commissioners. On April 27, 1896, the Board authorized the construction of a new cell house.

Utilizing inmate labor under the supervision of the Board’s superintendent of construction, James MacCalman, the 1896 cell house was constructed in less than one year. Inmate crews quarried the stone for the foundation and quarried and cut the granite for construction. They quarried and fired their own lime and dug the sand for the mortar. They manufactured and fired some 1,200,463 bricks. They laid the brick and stone and even cut the lumber used in the building.

The building had four tiers of thirty-two cells each in the men’s quarters, with a capacity of 256 prisoners. The youths’ quarters contained two tiers of eight cells each with a capacity of 32 prisoners. All cells were six feet wide, eight feet long, and seven feet four inches high.

There was no plumbing in the cells.

The building was demolished after it received structural damage in an earthquake in 1959.

Erected by Old Montana Prison Museum.

The last spike of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad’s (better known as the Milwaukee Road) Puget Sound Extension connecting Chicago to Seattle was driven near Gold Creek, Montana some 17 miles west of here on May 19, 1909. This monument was erected near that site to celebrate the event.

The monument was re-erected and dedicated on this site August 2, 2003. Restoration efforts by Powell county Museum & Arts Foundation, Dick Bauman, George Hamblin and the Milwaukee Road Historical Association.

To ease increasing overcrowded conditions, the 1912 Cell House was constructed, adding two hundred cells to the prison complex. Erected in only eleven months using convict labor, the cell house was a model facility for its day. Each cell had running water, a flush toilet, and good ventilation.

During yard time, this corner of the cell house was popular with the inmates. Many immortalized their prison stay by carving their names on the cell house wall. A urinal and water fountain were added as yard time and recreation were increased. By design, most locations in the yard were visible from at least two guard towers. Since this semi-hidden nook was only visible from one tower and there were always several inmates congregating here, it provided a location for contraband and drug transactions.

Erected by Old Montana Prison Museum.

This administration building was the heart of security and prison operations. Here new prisoners were admitted, inmates received visitors, and departing prisoners were counseled about outside employment. The main floor contained the offices of the deputy warden, chaplain, teachers, social workers, and psychiatrists. It also housed essential services such as the infirmary, laundry room and mail room.

The basement originally held the dining room, kitchen, and bakery. In 1959, a new dining hall and kitchen were constructed and the basement of the administration building was remodeled to accommodate showers, a dormitory and a chapel.

Erected by Old Montana Prison Museum.

On the afternoon of April 16, Jerry Myles and Lee Smart led a band of inmates in a violent riot against prison authorities. Seizing a rifle from the catwalk guard, they took control of the 1912 cell house.

Forcing their way into the administration building, the rioting inmates shot and killed Deputy Warren Ted Rothe and then took 19 prison employees and 5 inmates (stool pigeons) as hostages. The inmates threatened to burn the hostages alive if any attempt was made to rescue them.

In a daring rescue plan formed by Warden Floyd Powell, National Guardsmen fired a bazooka at the northwest tower of the cell house headquartered. The blast stunned the inmates long enough for a rescue team to free the hostages. Myles and Smart were found dead in the third floor of the tower, apparently a double suicide.

Although the riot drew attention to the numerous problems within the prison, it would be another twenty years before the old prison was closed down.

If you look at the cell house tower, you can still see the damage caused by the bazooka shell fired during the rescue attempt.

Erected by

Old Prison Museums.

Only the jail, the county courthouse, the Episcopal Church, and a few Main Street businesses boasted two stories when this frame building joined their ranks, sometime before 1884. That year the false-front building served as a combination residence and carpentry shop; carpenters often constructed particularly elaborate dwellings to demonstrate their skill. Beginning in the 1880s, several additions expanded the building. A carpentry shop remained on the first floor in 1888, by which time the International Order of Odd Fellows had moved its lodge rooms to the second story. Like many fraternal organizations, the Odd Fellows preferred second-story meeting rooms to maintain privacy during secret rites. The fraternal organization continued to meet here into the 1940s. According to local legend, bootleggers operated a still here during Prohibition. At various times, the building also served as a Wells Fargo office, a saloon, an apartment, and a cold storage facility. In the 1970s and 1980s, it became home to the Powell County Museum, which added the two-story porch and balcony.

Erected by Montana Historical

Society.

The fields around you provide hay for the herd through the winter when grasses are dormant and covered with snow. With the transition from open range to modern ranching, growing hay became a necessity.

Loose hay stacks were the first method of preserving hay. The Beaverslide you can see in the field (not this day) is still used throughout southwest Montana, It was patented in 1910 by ranchers in the Big Hole Valley.

Hay in loose stacks is less processed than baled hay. With the rounded top, only a small amount of hay is exposed to the elements, protecting the inside from moisture. There are approximately 20 tons of hay in a stack, which is equivalent to 20 large round or large square bales.

Erected by National Parks Service.

Surveyor and Constructor of The Military Road from Fort Benton, Montana to Walla Walla, Wash completed 1862

Erected under the Auspices of

Montana Society of Pioneers

Contributed by The son and daughters of

Captain James H. Mills of Deer Lodge City b in honor of Their Father's intimacy and

Friendship with and for Captain John Mullan Road Builder and Frontiersman

Deerlodge City -- (missing) 1916

Erected by Montana Society of Pioneers.

Bounded Cottonwood Avenue to north, Montana Avenue to south, 2nd Street to west and 4th Street to east, Deer Lodge, Montana Situated on a key gold rush trail, Deer Lodge grew into an important ranching and retail center during the 1860s. By 1869, the thriving village boasted grocery stores, harness and saddle shops, barber shops, photography galleries, blacksmiths, breweries, furniture and drug stores, a hospital, and even a bowling alley. An 1872 fire destroyed over twenty buildings in the commercial center. Today, only a few wooden false-front buildings, of the type that originally lined Main Street, still stand. Deer Lodge’s economy received a boost with construction of the territorial prison in 1870, the opening of Montana’s first college in 1878, and, particularly, the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1883. The railroad made it easy to import large architectural elements, and soon flamboyant brick business blocks displaying pressed metal cornices, iron pilasters, decorative stone accents, and large plate glass windows lined Main Street. Deer Lodge boomed during the homesteading era, especially after 1908, when the Chicago,

Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway made Deer Lodge a division point on its transcontinental line. Population increased by a third between 1910 and 1920. The downtown grew in kind with such important buildings as the Hotel Deer Lodge and the Larabie Brothers Bank. Despite an agricultural depression, new landmarks joined the streetscape in the 1920s, including the Beaux Arts Rialto Theater. Today the business district’s architectural mosaic testifies to a long line of foresighted developers, committed to making Deer Lodge the “the prettiest and most healthful little city in the West.”

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

The first post office in Deer Lodge was established on May 21, 1866. It was one of the earliest post offices in Montana. Mail service to the early settlers of the Deer Lodge Valley was very expensive and very slow. Letters and parcels were either delivered by steamboat up the Missouri River or by pony express through Wyoming. Pony express trips took seven days, and a letter cost fifty cents to mail.

Long distance service was provided by private stage line from Kansas, taking 22 days to cover the 1900 mile route. Eventually, the steamboat and stage were replaced by trains, trucks, and planes.

In 1938, this building was dedicated as the new Deer Lodge Post Office. As part of the New Deal program, Verona Burkhard was commissioned by the federal Public Works of Art Project to paint a mural inside the post office. The painting depicts early prospectors and Deer Lodge pioneers Granville Stuart and his brother James. Mount Powell dominates the background.

Woman suffrage was at the political forefront when Edward Gardner Lewis, a St. Louis promoter and publisher of women’s magazines, founded the American Women’s League in 1908. Lewis saw the League as the perfect means to promote American womanhood and among several League institutions he founded was a correspondence school called the People’s University. Chapter houses across the country served as University branches. League membership was achieved through magazine subscription sales or pledges of $52 worth of Lewis’ publications. In exchange, the League constructed 39 local chapter houses in 16 states including two in Montana at Avon and Deer Lodge. Deer Lodge women’s groups banded together to collect the requisite subscriptions and C. D. Terret donated the lot. This Prairie style bungalow, designed by St. Louis architects, was built according to one of five standardized chapter house plans. Wide bracketed eaves, heavy piers, and low side planters emphasize the horizontal orientation typical of the Prairie style, while exposed beams, dark moldings, and original stenciling highlight the Arts and Crafts interior. Financial reversals sent Lewis into bankruptcy as this house reached completion. Founding League member Alma Bielenberg Higgins appealed to her father, Nicholas J. Bielenberg, who purchased the mortgage. He donated the building to the women of Deer Lodge in memory of his daughter, Augusta, who died in 1901. The Deer Lodge Woman’s Club has since maintained the facility, which has always served its intended function as a women’s cultural, literary, and social center.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

The Anaconda Company’s Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railway converted from steam to electric locomotives in 1914. Aware of Anaconda’s success, Milwaukee electrified its Rocky Mountain division between Harlowton through Deer Lodge to Avery, Idaho in 1917.

3,000 volts of direct current electricity powered the locomotive from a copper catenary line hung over the track.

Milwaukee locomotives used their electric motors as generators to slow the train going downhill. The regenerated power was returned to the catenary system.

Milwaukee’s management pushed to replace the electrics with diesels in the late 1960’s. They discovered that diesels did not perform as well and cost more to operate. Electric operation along the Rocky Mountain division ended in 1974 and the Milwaukee Road went out of business forever in 1985.

The ranch's cowboys used to live in the bunkhouse in front of you. At the end of a long day, you might have heard them talking in many languages.

Cowboys were a diverse group. Along with Americans and Europeans of Dutch, English, German, Scottish, and other backgrounds, about one-quarter were African-American and many were Hispanic of American Indian.

"Mexican vaqueros...talked to the horses and dogs in Spanish and Menard...in French and Johnnie...in German and everybody else...in English/ They seemed to understand everybody." Conrad Warren, 1980

Erected by National Parks Service.

On this site in 1908, George Rock was executed by hanging. A year later, William Hayes met a similar fate. Rock and Hayes killed Deputy Warden John Robinson and severely wounded Warden Frank Conley in an escape attempt.

Conley surprised the inmates after they had murdered Robinson and fired on them with his .41 caliber revolver. Both inmates were hit, but the ammunition was defective and Conley was obliged to subdue the murderous men by clubbing them with the revolver. As both Rock and Hayes were armed with knives, Conley suffered numerous knife wounds which required 103 stitches.

Rock and Hayes were executed by an unusual “jerk-up scaffold” utilizing the drop of a 300-pound weight which was supposed to break their necks. But the device failed to break their necks and death was by strangulation. Rock and Hayes were the only inmates executed at this prison.

Erected by Old Montana Prison Museum.

In the mid-1860s the land around you was part of a vast open range where cattle grazed freely. Unfenced public land allowed ranges to extend from Mexico to Canada.

Beef from open range cattle fueled a growing population. It fed factory workers back east and miners to the west. Open range ranching boomed until the 1890s.

By then, homesteads and barbed wire were carving out pieces of the open range. A few years of drought, overgrazing, the Hard Winter of 1886-87 devastated herds. As ranchers realized the need to change to modern ranching practices, such as irrigating and haying, open range ranching began to fade away. Fenced ranching took its place and continued to feed America and shape its culture.

Erected by National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

The open range cattle industry boomed by feeding the expanding urban population in the East. Cowboys herded cattle to rail heads where they were transported to those markets in cattle cars, like the ones you see down the track to you left. Those tracks were part of the Old Milwaukee Railroad that was laid in 1907.

The first railroad through the valley was the Northern Pacific. The tracks were laid through the Kohrs property in 1883. Despited their apparent convenience to Kohrs, neither of these tracks was used to ship cattle.

Most of Kohrs' cattle were shipped by rail from eastern Montana to the Chicago stockyards. He also supplied beef to mining camps to the west.

More than Meat -- Cattle parts are used to make many things:

Bones: jewelry, utensils, cups

Hooves: dog treats, keratin, film

Fat: soap, dynamite, rubber tires

Hide: leather products

Hair: paintbrushes

Lungs: heparin (an anticoagulant):

Adrenal glands: steroids Pancreas: insulin

Gallstones: aphrodisiacs

Intestines: surgical suture

Erected by

National Parks Service.

The Homestead Act of 1862 and the Desert Land Act of 1877 allowed private land ownership. Homesteaders had to build fences to keep out the open range cattle. Their work became easier when the 1874 Glidden patent lead to the large-scale production of barbed wire.

Cattlemen had been using the open range for many years and needed the land for grazing. In some areas of the West, range wars erupted and cattlemen would cut the fences homesteader built.

The increased number of settlers and the building of fences contributed to the end of the open range.

The fence in front of you is a traditional jackleg fence. How many other types of fencing can you find on the ranch today?

Erected by National Parks Service.

For cowboys on the open range, chuckwagons like this one were the closest they got to home for weeks at a time. They gathered here for food, companionship, and sleep.

The cook served up coffee, beans, rice, sourdough breads and occasional desserts. He also acted as referee, barber, doctor, and repairman.

His wagon carried enough food and water for 10 to 15 cowboys to live on the trail for a month.

Erected by National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Wide cement pilasters, a gabled pediment above the entrance, large plate-glass windows, and a roofline balustrade distinguish the Larabie Bros. Bank. The building’s solid construction, dignified façade, and luxurious interior—finished in marble and mahogany—assert stability, respectability, and permanence. Designed by Seattle architect Michael Beezer, the 1912 structure combined modern materials with neoclassical elements, presenting customers visual assurance that their money was safe. This was no small matter in the days before Federal Deposit Insurance. The reputation of the firm’s owners offered additional security. The bank grew from a Virginia City mercantile business, whose principals included S. E. Larabie and W. A. Clark, later better known as one of the Butte copper kings. In 1869, the partners operated from an adobe building on Main and Cottonwood. The firm dissolved in the 1880s, with Larabie continuing to run the Deer Lodge bank from a brick building on this corner. Half of Montana’s banks failed in 1923, but through prudent management, Larabie Bros. Bank survived the 1920s agricultural depression. Unable to comply with New Deal banking regulations, it closed in 1933. Wide cement pilasters, a gabled pediment above the entrance, large plate-glass windows, and a roofline balustrade distinguish the Larabie Bros. Bank. The building’s solid construction, dignified façade, and luxurious interior—finished in marble and mahogany—assert stability, respectability, and permanence. Designed by Seattle architect Michael Beezer, the 1912 structure combined modern materials with neoclassical elements, presenting customers visual assurance that their money was safe. This was no small matter in the days before Federal Deposit Insurance. The reputation of the firm’s owners offered additional security. The bank grew from a Virginia City mercantile business, whose principals included S. E. Larabie and W. A. Clark, later better known as one of the Butte copper kings. In 1869, the partners operated from an adobe building on Main and Cottonwood. The firm dissolved in the 1880s, with Larabie continuing to run the Deer Lodge bank from a brick building on this corner. Half of Montana’s banks failed in 1923, but through prudent management, Larabie Bros. Bank survived the 1920s agricultural depression. Unable to comply with New Deal banking regulations, it closed in 1933.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

The Ancient Free and Accepted Masons offered its members support, camaraderie, connections, and community. To the geographically mobile men of the Montana frontier, nothing was more valuable. In 1870, Deer Lodge became home to the fourteenth Masonic lodge chartered in the territory, and on February 22, 1870, some fifty Masons came together to dedicate its new hall. Lauded by the Deer Lodge newspaper as “the second best building on the west side of Montana,” the two-story frame structure cost approximately $6,000 to complete. Fifty years later, Masons replaced that early hall with this brick edifice. The three-story business block incorporates Renaissance Revival features, including an ornate cornice and recessed arched brickwork above the third-floor windows. A variety store, barbershop, telephone company, and other offices rented space on this prime downtown corner. To assure privacy during secret Masonic rituals, no windows look into the lodge’s third-floor ceremonial rooms. Nearly 175 members attended the first meeting held here on March 16, 1920; weather and bad roads caused the Masons to delay the for

Erected by

Montana Historical Society.

Deer Lodge flourished after its designation in 1908 as a division point for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. Housing, dining, and entertainment were then at a premium. The Mitchell Block opened in 1913 to help fill these niches, offering a saloon, grill room, dining rooms, and private card rooms in its two storefronts. Nineteen “large and airy” second-floor sleeping rooms featured hot and cold running water while two shared bathrooms encouraged Saturday-night baths. H. B. Grant drew the plans for this handsome example of the Western Commercial style. The façade features inlaid squares of contrasting decorative brick, dentils and brackets at the cornice line, and cement coping. A central molded wood panel proclaims the date, 1913, and the name “Mitchell.” Dr. Armistead H. Mitchell was a civic leader in the Deer Lodge community and co-founder of what became the state hospital at nearby Warm Springs. Dr. Mitchell died in 1898; his estate financed the Mitchell Block. By 1920, Kate McGillis, who later owned the building, lived upstairs with her two young sons and ran the lodging house.

Erected by

Montana Historical Society.

Pioneer stockman, financier, and mining investor Nick Bielenberg came to Montana via Fort Benton in 1865. He, his brothers John and Charles, and half-brother Conrad Kohrs were all butchers by trade. They eventually settled in Deer Lodge. During the era of the Montana cattle barons, the brothers were involved in large-scale cattle operations. Among many business ventures, Nick Bielenberg established a wholesale meat business in Butte that became famous throughout the Northwest for pioneering cold storage methods. A prominent, progressive member of the Deer Lodge community, Bielenberg was one of the first members of the Montana Stockgrowers Association, brought some of the first livestock into the Deer Lodge Valley, and pioneered Montana’s sheep industry. Bielenberg built this outstanding Craftsman style home in 1910, exchanging his elegant Victorian mansion for the less pretentious comfort of a “modern” bungalow. Its brick came by rail from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and a contractor brought in from St. Paul, Minnesota, supervised the masons and carpenters. Broad sweeping eaves with projecting rafters, bands of windows, and the use of natural materials speak to the Craftsman style. Bielenberg’s trophies, placed in the glassed-in gable upon completion of the home, add a personal footnote. Oak-framed arched doorways, handsome oak finishing, and original brass fixtures grace the interior where the Bielenbergs entertained such famous guests as artist Edgar S. Paxson, Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin, actor Gary Cooper, and pioneer minister Reverend William Wesley Van Orsdel.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

The December 1910 issue of Moody’s Magazine: The International Investors’ Monthly predicted a strong future for Deer Lodge’s new U.S. National Bank. The community only had one other bank, and the local economic forecast was bright, especially since the Milwaukee Railroad had recently situated its repair shops in Deer Lodge. With $50,000 in capital and a brand new building, the bank confidently opened for business on December 7, 1910, offering “a complimentary remembrance to … lady callers.” “A first class barber shop with modern bath rooms” occupied the daylight basement, while the bank took up the first floor. Butte architect Herman Kemna designed the brick and concrete building, which was constructed at a cost of approximately $12,000 and featured Greek Revival elements. Massive pilasters and a gabled pediment accent the cutaway corner entrance. A dropped wooden cornice wraps around the roofline on two sides. Asserting stability and permanence, the solid construction and dignified façade assured customers that their money was safe from both theft and bank failure—a tenuous assumption in the days before federal deposit insurance.

Erected by

Montana Historical Society.

Long hours of summer sunshine and warm temperatures allow the vegetation to actively grow this time of year. The fields have been fertilized with manure and the hay crops have been planted and are actively growing.

Irrigation is the very important step in the haying process since the average precipitation is 10-12 inches per year. Without the extra water, the crop plants would not produce enough to feed the herd through the winter.

Flood irrigation is the historic method of irrigating, where water is carried in a series of ditches and then damned up to flow over an area of the fields. The extra water flows downhill to another catch ditch, which carries it on across the field. These "sets", or where the dams are placed and therefore, which areas are flooded, need to be changed daily.

There are four historic ditches still in use, maintaining the historic landscape and historic water rights. The oldest of these and closest to the ranch buildings, is the Kohrs-Manning Ditch, dug in 1870. The Kohrs Big Ditch and the Taylor Ditch have been in use since 1885 and Westside Ditch since 1887. These historic main ditches total 9 miles in length. This network of ditches allows for the correct amount of water to be delivered throughout the growing season. How the grasses are irrigated influences how much hay is available to harvest for winter feed.

Erected by National Parks Service.

Kohr's grandson, Conrad Kohrs Warren, spent many summers with his grandparents, He gained a passion for ranching from watching and helping his great-uncle, John Bielenberg, on the ranch. In 1932 he took over ranch management.

Like his ancestors, Con Warren continued to improve ranching operations. He built the red barn you see ahead of you in 1952. Warren also built other structures such as the granary, blacksmith shop, and feedlots.

The Warren house was a wedding gift ordered from the Sears catalog by his grandmother, Augusta Kohrs. Con Warren and his wife Nell made it a home for their son and daughter.

Warren continued to live their until he passed away in 1993.

Erected by National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

“What you hear and what you will see will linger in your memory like a beautiful dream,” proclaimed the Powell County Press when the Rialto Theatre opened with a glittering production of the opera Robin Hood in May of 1921. The Butte architectural firm of Arnold and Van Hausen designed the theater for Jens Hansen, Sr., and Peter Pauty’s partnership, the “Rialto Theatre Corporation.” The theater is a classic example of Beaux Arts inspired American “movie palace” architecture. Light-colored walls of glazed brick and rich decorations including ornate Corinthian columns, terra cotta garlands, and a mansard roof with wrought iron balustrade are elements frequently incorporated into this eclectic genre. Exotic, romantic movie palaces like the Rialto were designed to enhance the magical spell of motion pictures. Inside are marble wainscoting in the foyer, intricate gilt moldings, silk tapestries, elegant lighting, and air-cushioned leather seats outfitted underneath with wire hat racks. Equipped with state-of-the art projection equipment and a custom-built Cremona Theater organ for silent movies, the Rialto also possessed an ample stage, orchestra pit, and dressing rooms. The beautiful scenery backdrops made by the esteemed Twin Cities Scenic Studio of Minneapolis still grace the stage. The first “talking” picture was shown in 1929, and the stage has hosted countless high school plays, concerts, and other events. The partnership was dissolved in the 1950s but the Hansen family continued to operate this entertainment showpiece until 1995 when it was purchased by the non-profit Rialto Community Theatre, Inc.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Before 1910, grocery store customers typically purchased food on credit. They relied on clerks to fill their orders and delivery boys to carry their packages home. By 1915, “groceterias” began experimenting with a new model that offered lower prices and wider selection to customers willing to serve themselves, pay cash, and forgo home delivery. Among the new stores was Safeway, whose name promoted the idea that paying cash was the “safe way to shop” because it kept families from going into debt. Safeway expanded rapidly, merging with several other chains in the 1920s. These included O. P. Skaggs Food Stores, which had introduced its “efficient service system” and “cash and carry” policy to Deer Lodge by 1928. Known variously as Skaggs, Skaggs-Safeway, and finally just Safeway, the chain served customers from this brick storefront into the 1940s. The long narrow building with centered recessed entry included a rear warehouse that reached to the alley. Built between 1912 and 1928, the storefront was remodeled after World War II when owners sought a sleek, modern look, characterized by aluminum framing and minimal ornamentation.

Erected by

Montana Historical Society.

So called for their isolation, the cells located in the towers of this cell house were used to remove troublesome inmates from the rest of the prison population. Inmates assigned to the Siberia cells had committed major rule infractions, or in rare cases, had requested such extreme isolation.

Erected by Old Montana Prison Museum.

The ranch herd today consists of many breeds raised during the open range era.

Hardy and adaptable, the Texas Longhorn breed was well suited to live on the open range. Evolved from Spanish cattle, the Texas Longhorn is the only breed which traces its beginning to America, and is able to survive without human help.

Shorthorn cattle were shipped over from England and brought West by settlers. They were easier to handle, were able to pull wagons, and could be used for beef or dairy.

Kohrs was one of the first ranchers to bring Hereford cattle to Montana in 1868. They not only were able to survive the rough ranching of the West, but also offered improved beef quality. Herefords are a muscular breed that is heavier, making them more profitable.

How Big is an Acre?

The fenced pasture in from of you is about two-thirds of an acre. Try walking around it to the a sense of scale. The parking lot where you arrived is about one acre.

In this region, each animal needs more than one acre of pasture per month to survive.

Erected by

National Park Service.

Gold was discovered near Deer Lodge in 1862. Subsequent discoveries in Bannack and Virginia City prompted a gold rush that attracted men and women of both good and bad character. Thievery, lawlessness, and murder prevailed until vigilante groups organized and hung or banished many of the worst criminals. In the winter of 1866-67, the Territorial Legislature requested funds for a prison. The United States Congress quickly approved the request, but the funding was inadequate.

Deer Lodge was picked for the site of the new Territorial Prison. Funding problems caused many delays and revisions in the plans, but construction finally began in the spring of 1870 and the first wing was completed by fall of the same year. The first convict was received on July 2, 1871. On November 8, 1889, Montana became the 41st state and the burden of operating this prison fell on the shoulders of the new state government. Inadequate funding and overcrowded conditions have plagued this facility for over 100 years. In 1979, this prison was abandoned in favor of a new facility, five miles west of Deer Lodge.

Today, the Old Montana Prison is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is preserved and operated as a museum by the Powell County Museum and Arts Foundation under a lease agreement with the State of Montana.

Erected by Old Montana Prison Museum.

Hiding behind its brick façade is one of the oldest standing buildings in the business district. Before the Northern Pacific arrived in 1883, Deer Lodge builders relied on locally available materials. They constructed walls from wood or rubble stone and roofs from sapling poles and sod or dirt. The owner of this early single-story building modernized it once the railroad made commercially manufactured materials widely available. By 1884, he had covered the dirt roof with shingles and the original stone walls and roof gable with a brick false front (still visible from the alley). More often constructed of wood than of brick, false fronts added style to essentially utilitarian structures. By 1889, the Deer Lodge Drug Company occupied the building, selling “pure drugs, paints, oils, medicines, blank books, school books, cutlery, etc.” Later owners expanded with rear additions and, sometime before the mid-1940s, once again updated the façade, installing new display windows. The building housed the post office in 1908, a grocery store between 1912 and 1929, and, after 1944, the Thompson Photo Shop.

Erected by

Montana Historical Society.

Eleven years before statehood, Deer Lodge became home to Montana’s first postsecondary school: the Montana Collegiate Institute. The nonsectarian, coeducational college offered both high school classes and a classical graduating course “as comprehensive and thorough as that of most seminaries and female colleges.” Architects H. DeWitt and Henry L. Gay of Chicago designed the institute’s first building. However, the building committee stripped the design of much of its ornamentation after it received the initial construction bids. The simplified hipped-roof, two-story Trask Hall was constructed in 1878 for approximately $13,000, using locally quarried granite and bricks imported from Helena. The school folded under financial strain after only a year. Three years later, the Presbyterian Church acquired the institute and changed its name to the College of Montana. Nationally, Presbyterians saw the college as part of their campaign to civilize and Christianize the West, and a generous East Coast donor, Alanson Trask, paid the school’s remaining $6,000 debt. Trask Hall was renamed in his honor. At its peak, the college boasted 15 faculty and 160 students, housed in two dormitories. Among the faculty was Theodore Brantly, who became chief justice of the Montana Supreme Court upon statehood. The school closed in 1900, unable to compete with the new, state-funded university system. It reopened under different management in 1906 only to close for good in 1917. In 1921, School District One purchased the campus, including Trask Hall. Nevertheless, Montana’s Presbyterians continued to support higher education, ultimately uniting with other denominations to found Rocky Mountain College in Billings.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

John Francis Grant

Grant chose this ranch site for its rich grasslands, abundance of water, and the sheltered valley. He completed this house in 1862 as a trading post and family home. He first traded cattle with emigrants on the Oregon Trail to build up a large herd. He later made a hefty profit by selling meat to miners during the Gold Rush.

New settlers brought racial discrimination and shady business practices. Discouraged by these changes, Grant sold the ranch to Conrad Kohrs in 1866 and moved his family back to Canada.

Carsted (sic) Conrad Kohrs

Kohrs left Germany at 15 to work at sea as a cabin boy. Lured west by gold, his biggest profit came from selling beef to miners. In time, he built a business that shipped 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 this ranch, he married Augusta Kruse, who made the house a home. Kohrs served as a territorial and state senator and a founding member of the Montana Stockgrowers Association.

He lived here until his death in 1920.

Erected by National Parks Service.

Banker S. E. Larabie financed the construction of this one-story brick post office in 1911. The Silver State pronounced it “the finest post office of any city of its size in Montana.” The interior featured finished oak, while protective wire screening from floor to ceiling separated the public from official business. Postmaster Ithel S. Eldred’s private office was at the front. Next were the money order, registered mail, and general delivery windows, separated by wire screen partitions. Receptacles for letters and large packages and a second private office were at the back. Three wired glass skylights and tall windows at the front and rear brought in plenty of natural light. An entry on the right provided access to the postmaster’s office; an identical door at the left served as the public entrance. Decorative brickwork, dentils, and a wooden cornice at the roofline preserve the original Western commercial style details. A small ancillary brick structure at the rear originally functioned as a bake house with a built-in oven. By the 1920s it served as a furnished room.

Erected by Montana Historical

Society.

North American cowboys can trace their roots back to the Spanish conquistadors, who brought cattle and horses to the New World. Mexican cowboys, known as vaqueros, developed methods on horsemanship and working cattle in the rugged terrain that is now part of the United States.

When new cowboys arrived in the arid West, they learned the skills needed on the vast open range from the vaqueros.

Over time, the look and language of American cowboys took a separate path. Cowboy culture even varied from state to state, Yet traces of the vaqueros can still be seen and heard in American cowboys.

Can you spot what is similar and what is different in these two illustrations?

Erected by National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Seventeen-year-old William Coleman joined the Union ranks of Ohio’s volunteer infantry during the Civil War and then, drawn by tales of gold, came west with his brother Lewis in 1866. Although trained as a carriage blacksmith, Coleman preferred prospecting and mining until injury from a falling timber ended that career. Coleman came to Deer Lodge where he opened a general merchandise business in October of 1871. The store long prospered and Coleman became a vital community leader. He was instrumental in organizing the city water system and helped found the electric company, serving as its vice president. He and his wife Lucy constructed this Victorian-era showplace in 1891-1892. Designed by architects Ameryre and Thori of Superior, Wisconsin, and St. Paul, Minnesota, the magnificent home illustrates the Victorian passion for eclectic details. A wraparound veranda enhanced with spindlework, soaring paneled chimneys, decorative brickwork, and more than a dozen exquisite stained glass windows highlight the Queen Anne style mansion. Exceptional interior features include golden oak woodwork milled in Wisconsin, fireplaces with ornately carved mantles and imported tile, and an elegant paneled stairway richly embellished with spindles and coffering. A hand-carved pineapple newel post, the symbol of hospitality, welcomes guests. As the only well-preserved Victorian-era home in Deer Lodge, the Coleman House is a visual cornerstone of the community and a testament to the importance of its original owner.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Pioneer cattle baron Conrad Kohrs and his wife, Augusta, gave Powell County’s first public library building to the community of Deer Lodge in memory of their son, William, in 1902. William had gone to Columbia University in New York to study electrical engineering and died suddenly following an appendectomy in 1901. Conrad and Augusta Kohrs decided that a library would be a fitting tribute to him, since academic pursuits were integral to the community. A circulating library was established in Deer Lodge in 1869, and Montana Territory’s first institute of higher learning, the College of Montana, was founded at Deer Lodge in 1878. Using the libraries donated by entrepreneur Andrew Carnegie as a model, the family spent $30,000 constructing and furnishing the facility. Architects Link and Carter of Butte designed the building, drawing upon Classical Revival and Beaux Arts traditions. The use of the Beaux Arts style clearly points to the career directions of J. G. Link, later associated with the highly acclaimed Montana firm of Link and Haire. The design emphasizes contrasting textures of granite and Columbus sandstone, which conceal a superior inner brick, structural steel, and concrete framework. Dentils at the cornice line, a terra cotta tile roof, pedimented portico, and Ionic columns richly enhance the façade. The sumptuous interior features a central dome of colored glass, oak woodwork, and an exquisite memorial window titled “A Reading from Homer” given by William’s uncle, John Bielenberg. The library symbolizes the intellectual aspirations of Deer Lodge in 1902 and the significance of the Kohrs family to western Montana.

Erected by Montana Society of Pioneers.

This area’s climate includes dramatic fluctuations. As you imagine yourself ranching here, consider the effects of one winter during the heydays of the open ranch.

The snowy winter of 1886-87 devastated the cattle ranches of Montana. Cattle already lean from a dry summer faced a November and December of continuous snow. A midwinter thaw caused by a warm wind, or “Chinook,” allowed the grass to surface for a few weeks. Then a deadly freeze locked the range in ice, leaving little for the cattle to eat. Thousands died.

Spring saw the range dotted with carcasses. Swollen bodies floated in the rivers. Half the Kohrs-Bielenberg cattle were lost, but Conrad Kohrs borrowed $100,000 from a banker in Butte and replenished his herds from sources in Idaho and Texas. He recovered his losses in three years. The young cowboy-artist Charlie Russell sketched this famous and tragic scene.

Erected by National Park Service.