THEY’RE STILL RIDIN’ AND ROPIN’ IN MONTANA, especially at Deer Lodge. We just happened upon a calf branding at the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, a short walk from our campground. The Ranch was owned by Conrad Kohrs, one of the famous “Cattle Kings” of Montana, part of his million acre holding in Montana, Wyoming and Alberta.
Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site
Fifty or so calfs had already been separated from their mothers when we arrived and the air was filled complaining cows. Three cowboys, the real deal, took turns cutting a calf from the herd and roping it by the hind legs and dragging it to the branding area. With a billow of smoke, another wrangler wielding a red-hot branding iron scorched a “GK” brand onto its side. For nearly two hours, one calf after another, was culled from the herd like a game of bovine dodgeball, until only one was left.
The real deal Gotcha
A puff of smoke Branded
We wandered around the ranch and discovered a team from the University banding birds. The entire valley is part of a superfund site polluted with heavy metals and the team is compiling base line numbers to see how the clean-up will affect the bird population. We watched as they collected data on a house wren and a black-capped chickadee and Michael let Connie release one of the birds.
Fly away for another day
The pollution is due to contamination from the Anaconda copper smelting operation in nearby Anaconda. When copper was discovered in Butte in the early 1800s, Deer Lodge was selected as the best place for a smelting plant, having ample water and a rail line. Except for a giant black slag pile, the Anaconda Smelter Stack, standing 585 feet, is the only reminder of the copper boom today. That and the toxic contamination.
Anaconda Smelter Stack and slag pile
THE COWS HAD THEIR REVENGE ON FRIDAY NIGHT. Or their male counterparts did when Deer Lodge held its BullRama. How could we possibly pass it up? If nothing else we wanted to see what kind of young man would willingly climb aboard 1800 pounds of testosterone charged bovine and try to hang on for eight seconds.
The brave and the crazy
As it turns out there were about twenty of them, a few who entered to ride two bulls. And there were extra bulls, too, in case one was disqualified.
Hangin' on
I won’t try to explain the rules because 8 seconds is the only one I remember. Only a handful of riders managed to hang on long enough to advance to the finals. One woman told me you can make a lot of money in 8 seconds. It must be a l-o-n-g eight seconds when you are strapped to a bucking bull.
That's a lot of bull
