blackfoot-valley

Though Deer Lodge didn’t become the state capital, other factors gave it permanence as a regional trade center, albeit not on the scale of Helena. The 50-mile-long Deer Lodge Valley portion of Clark Fork’s course was the choice of John Grant, son of a former Hudson Bay Company fur trader, who for years had been a cattle buyer and judged the valley a good place to raise and breed his own beef cattle for sale. Settling there in 1859, Grant built the first cabin and trading post in the area near the present Garrison, dealing with prospectors and travelers passing through as well as Indians. He established his herd by buying emaciated trail-worn stock from Oregon-bound migrants, then fattening the animals in the area’s lush meadows and selling beef to the gold camps that were sprouting up in the region. Three years later, in 1862, he moved his ranch headquarters to the area of Deer Lodge where he built a fine, sizeable house. But after less than five more years, in 1867, he decided to sell out and move to Manitoba in Canada. Grant was the quintessential rugged individualist. As reported in Pow- ell County: Where it All Began: “It was said of him that he married a woman from each of seven Indian tribes that came through the valley to be in a good bargaining position with all the tribes.” Upon leaving Montana, he stopped “Blackfoot Indian Women and Children” 1890 Wikimedia Commons at Deer Lodge, the town he practically founded, on his way to the Washington Cascades where he intended to find a new place to settle. During his visit, he told friends that he owned 35,000 acres in Manitoba, and explained his rea- sons for leaving Montana, which are worthy of being quoted: 107