John Francis Grant chose this ranch site for its rich grasslands, abundance of water, and sheltered valley, completing the house in 1862 as a trading post and family home. He first built up a large herd by trading cattle with emigrants on the Oregon Trail, then made a hefty profit selling meat to miners during the Gold Rush. As new settlers brought racial discrimination and shady business practices, Grant became discouraged, sold the ranch to Conrad Kohrs in 1866, and moved his family back to Canada. Conrad Kohrs left Germany at 15 to work at sea as a cabin boy and, after being lured west by gold, found his biggest profit in selling beef to miners. He later built a business that shipped 10,000 head of cattle a year to the Chicago stockyards, with herds grazing over 10 million acres now part of four states and two Canadian provinces. Two years after buying the ranch, he married Augusta Kruse, who made the house a home. Kohrs also served as a territorial and state senator and as a founding member of the Montana Stockgrowers Association, and he lived here until his death in 1920.