May 20, 2006—Of Prisoners and Ranchers, Deer Lodge, Montana
 

Once we arrived and parked the rig at a truck stop in Deer Lodge, we proceed in the Dodge to the Old Montana Prison at the far end of this small town. We are greeted and pay $5 each to wander at will with our small guidebook and also have the added benefit that there is a gun show being held this weekend which we will be permitted to attend. The prison was established in 1871 using mainly convict labor to build and was in use until 1979.

The locally quarried wall surrounds it all: at twenty four feet high and three feet thick and extending underground four feet, it was never breached by an escaping prisoner, although many tried. Though incarcerated, 50% of the inmates worked and lived outside the prison walls by 1916 when they were used to build many roads and state institutions such as the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs.

We are left with many impressions as we wander about. In one maximum security area, without windows in sight to the incarcerated, we close the door on ourselves in a cell to get the feeling of how claustrophobic this small cell would have been and make a promise never to be a bad person. It is dank, most of it is dark, and it is in sad disrepair. It is depressing beyond belief and it must have driven men mad. Outside on the grounds, Marc stops to read a sign signifying the hanging of a prisoner on this spot who was an instigator of a riot where he killed a guard.

The prison actually had quite a few social practices which seemed humane for the time. Inmates were allowed hobbies and work, which included everything from making license plates, to upholstery, blacksmithery, plus there was a medical facility which provided surgical procedures, dental and psychiatric care. There was an outside yard which allowed athletic pursuits and team sports. By 1919, the son of the great copper magnate of Butte, W.A. Clark, had donated money for construction of a theater, which served as the incentive for the prison discipline system. The 600 seat theater saw events such as boxing, traveling troupes, movies, plays, concerts, and prison band performances and a library was located in the basement. The theater was gutted by a fire started in the library in 1975 but no suspect was ever charged. Today, as we look into its cavernous interior, it seems almost a Grecian ruin, furnished only with a stairway to a missing second floor and the ghostly “Galloping Gallows”, Montana’s last actual portable hanging gallows in use through the ‘70’s and the death trap for 20 men as they fell through its floor with the noose around their necks.

We finish up our tour of the prison and the gun show (where one vendor sells Buffalo cowboy hats) and move along back through historic downtown to the our next stop, the nationally registered monument Grant-Kohrs Ranch. To our delight, run by the National Park Service, it is free. We saunter down the paved pathway to the ranch grounds, which currently encompass approximately 1500 acres of the original nearly 30,000. The Park Service bought the ranch and additional land in two stages for a total nearing a million dollars. When Johnny Grant originally sold the ranch, all the buildings and 250 head of cattle to Conrad Kohrs, the price was $19,200.

    The story behind the ranch is extensive and it would behoove anyone passing through the area to take the time to stop and tour. I won’t go into it here; it would take pages! On this cloudy, blustery day we step back into cattle baron history in many of the ranch outbuildings as we await our guided tour of the home with its original furnishings; the only way to see it. They do not allow photos of the interior of the home, but it was well furnished, was an informative tour led by a jovial guide and included only the downstairs of this 5000 sq feet home on the range, originally built in 1862 and added on to in 1890.

The Park Service maintains this ranch as a working ranch, building in a small way on its past glory as cattle ranch, and thoroughbred and Belgium draft horse farm, with its own rail line for shipping beef. You are free to wander about the grounds and 15 buildings in a self-guided tour at your leisure; allow at least two hours if you also tour the home. The visitor parking lot is fairly small with no designated RV parking spaces but there is a large truck stop at exit 184 less than a mile away with a large parking lot where you can drop the RV. This day everything is lightly attended (less than 10 cars) so I suspect large crowds would only be a parking problem in the height of the summer tourist season.