Northeast Route 2001

            Grant Kohrs Historical Ranch was sunny, warm, and attention grabbing because of all of the neat old farm equipment, the animals, the tour, and the old house with all of the antiques.  They built the ranch near the mountains and by hills so that it would be sheltered from some of the odd weather.  In 1860 the ranch was built, in 1866 there was reconstruction and in 1890 they added on to the ranch house.  Johnny Grant sold the ranch to Conrad Kohrs, therefore coming up with the name Grant Kohrs Ranch.  He started the ranch from being a fur trader to trading cattle with the people who traveled west.  He would trade new cattle for their worn out cattle. 

The cowboys that worked on the ranch were tough.  The house used to be a trading post, where cowboys would sit around and spit tobacco on the ground.  When Conrad Kohrs bought the ranch and went to live there, he decided he needed a wife, so he went to Davenport Iowa to court a girl named Augusta.  They married and moved out west onto the ranch.  Augusta was a large woman, 6 feet tall, who took charge of the ranch and the cowboys who lived in it.  She changed the house into her living quarters, added on to it, and kicked the cowboys out to go and live in smaller quarters next to the house. 

Our tour guide for the Grant Kohrs Ranch was named Ron, though there were two others, but they led different groups.  He took us to see Conrad Kohrs house, which before was Johnny Grants house.  Conrad Kohrs was very wealthy and their house was full of old and interesting things.  We couldn’t touch anything because the furniture and other things would deteriorate over time. The people that worked at the ranch had to put dark curtains because the sunlight would make the furniture fade.  They were very careful about how the house was preserved.

We also saw Texas Longhorn cattle.  The biggest one was approximately 1,700 pounds.  Some kids asked why they had cattle there, if they didn’t kill them or even ride them.  The rangers said that they had them because it would make the tour more interesting with live animals there, and also to show what animals were raised on the ranch over one hundred years ago. There were a few horses there, too. 

            Overall, the tour of the Grant Kohrs Ranch was fun.  We learned a lot of things about what happened earlier on the land we toured.

Check our link to the NPS Grant Kohrs Ranch Site