Grant Creek Ranch History
The Grant Creek area is unique to the greater Missoula valley. It is highly rural in nature and is split between city and county residents. It is home to a large working cattle ranch, the National Wildlife Federation nature wildlife reserve, and the headquarters of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. It is bordered to the north by national forest land and by the Rattlesnake Wilderness.
The first homestead in the Valley is said to have been occupied by Civil War veteran, Captain John Grant. This homestead was centered where the Grant Creek Ranch headquarters was later located. As the original homesteads grew in number, they were purchased by a Charlie Quast.
Under Quast management, the Grant Creek Ranch was primarily a dairy operation, supplying much of the milk for Missoula. Two of the three barns at the Ranch headquarters were designed as milking barns. During this dairy heyday, horse-drawn utility wagons would traverse the one-lane, dirt, Grant Creek Road every day hauling Ranch milk into Missoula to distributors there. Over the years, as the Ranch changed ownership, the primary product shifted from milk to Aberdeen Angus beef cattle.
Improvements
The Ranch had been using the same worn and sun-bleached map for years. Grant Creek Ranch contracted with GCS in the Spring of 2023 for an update to their existing map. The update to their existing map included the following:
- New imagery – latest NAIP (National Agriculture Imagery Program) from the state or county
- Property boundary
- Points of interest
- A large format paper copy for ‘white board’ operations
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