Relive the Old American West at Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site

 GRANT-KOHRS RANCH NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, Montana
This month's National Park Getaway
By Julie Croglio, Chief of Interpretation and Education, Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site

Wide open spaces, the hard-working cowboy, his spirited cow pony, and vast herds of cattle are among the strongest symbols of the American West. Once headquarters of a 10-million-acre cattle empire, Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site preserves these symbols and commemorates the role of cattlemen in American history.

Kohrs family ranch house - NPS

Today the main house and its original furnishings are preserved intact, along with the bunkhouse, blacksmith shop, horse barns, cattle sheds, and other outbuildings dating back to the 1860s. Cattle graze on the lush grasses of this working ranch, much as they have since the 1860s.

Kohrs dining room - NPS

Johnny Grant had the main house built in 1862 and used it as a trading post and headquarters for his ranching operations. In 1866, Grant sold the house to Conrad Kohrs, who was to become known as Montana's "cattle king." Guided house tours are offered year round. Filled with original furnishings, the house is a great example of one family's success in a business that was filled with uncertainties.

Warren blacksmith shop - NPS

If touring historic homes is not your thing, not to worry. Self-guided exhibits allow you to explore a number of historic buildings and trails at your own pace. The cowboy bunkhouse, blacksmith shop, and thoroughbred barn are just a few of the buildings where you can gain a greater appreciation for the open-range era and cowboy way of life. Seven miles of walking trails take visitors across the river through park pastures and fields.

Ranger-led activities such as chuck wagon programs, cowboy talks, blacksmith demonstrations, and wagon tours are offered seasonally. For kids, there are Junior Ranger booklets, roping lessons, cowboy clothing to try on, and visits with the horses, cows and chickens.

Mid-summer marks the start of haying season. Visitors have a unique opportunity to watch historic field demonstrations using draft horses and horse-drawn haying implements. Check the calendar for events that offer exceptional opportunities to experience the sights, sounds, and smells of an operating ranch.

There's always plenty to see and do at Grant-Kohrs Ranch. Open daily except for Thanksgiving Day, December 25, and January 1, the park charges no entrance fee. For directions and more information, visit the park website.

The fire breathing dragons of Hopewell Furnace NHS

Hopewell Village’s rolling hills, rows of apple trees, rustic barns and outbuildings, and meandering trails suggest a mood of pastoral peacefulness, offering only a clue to what life was like in this bustling 18th century community. The restless colonists of the period, filled with the fervor of a new land of freedom and commerce, were poised to charge into the new century with the bravery and confidence of medieval knights slaying fire-breathing dragons.

The dragons confronted by Hopewell’s residents, however, belched smoke and flames from tall, stone, charcoal-fueled furnace chimneys, that grew out of the ore-rich earth of eastern Pennsylvania in the late 1800s.

Sweat soaked “founders” fed the roaring, voraciously hungry monsters that demanded feeding day and night, seldom shutting down for fear of losing production. There was great demand for the products spit out by these dragons, not just the raw pig iron demanded by the mother country, but also cast iron stoves, plowshares, pots, sash and scale weights, and—when war broke out—cannon and shot.

Manufacturing anything—except for the production of pig iron--was strictly forbidden by England. But the colonists did not take kindly to these orders. Instead the independent entrepreneurs defied England’s proclamation, and when relations exploded into revolution in 1775, the colonies’ forges were producing enough finished goods to rate them as the seventh largest producer of iron products in the world.

Fortunately for these revolutionaries, when war broke out Colonial ironmasters were poised and ready to turn out the weapons, cannon, and shot needed by the Continental Army and Navy to wrest independence from Britain. Established in 1771, the iron-producing Hopewell Village forges operated successfully for 112 years until 1883, when new processes and production methods ushered in an era of efficient, low cost iron production, forcing the furnace to shut down. The roar of the beast would be heard no more.

Today you can tour the grounds and ten restored buildings including the ironmaster’s mansion, cast house and furnace stack, smokehouse, and springhouse as they appeared in the 1820-1840 period, when the furnace produced its most successful product--the cast iron Hopewell Stove.
Exhibits and audio programs show and explain the operation of the furnace and the village. During special event days, the village comes alive with living history programs and demonstrations conducted by characters in period dress.

Hopewell Furnace National Historic site is southeast of Reading, five miles south of Birdsboro, on PA-345