Beaverhead Ranch

Beaverhead Gateway Ranch
North of Dillon, Montana
Owner/Manager: Bob Peccia & Family

At the edge of this ranch stands the natural limestone formation -- Beaverhead Rock -- that in August 1805 confirmed to Sacagawea that she (and the rest of the Lewis and Clark Expedition) had finally entered her tribe’s Summer homeland. From that point the explorers knew that they would soon encounter the Lemhi Shoshones -- an anxiously awaited moment, since obtaining horses from Sacagawea’s tribe was critical to their hopes of crossing the Rockies before the onslaught of Winter.

Barely 60 years later, the lands of the pathway here had become part of the well-traveled Montana-Utah Road, a primary shipping route once gold was discovered nearby in the early 1860s. For a 22-year period ending in 1885, the present-day ranchlands contained a hotel, saloon, post office and stage coach stop -- and nearly everyone traveling to or from Helena, Virginia City or Bannack stopped here at the Point of Rocks Stage Station. For most of the last 200 years, these landscapes have sustained wildlife and livestock, both coexisting much as prehistoric animals did when grazing here millions of years ago. Some of the prehistoric species discovered here by paleontologists have been found nowhere else on the planet.

The Beaverhead Gateway Ranch borders federal land and Beaverhead State Park. Today the ranch features a 118-acre wetland, teeming with birds and wildlife year-round, developed by the Montana Department of Transportation in 1997. With the help of Undaunted Stewardship®, the private ranch property is managed so that livestock grazing will sustain historic vegetative patterns and enhance this remarkable wildlife and waterfowl habitat.

Directions to this ranch:
The display area is just south of Beaverhead Rock, on the west side of State Highway 141, about 15 miles north of Dillon.

Undaunted Stewardship® is a cooperative and multi-faceted program led by federal, state and private sector agencies, seeking to ensure the long-term maintenance of the environmental quality and economic productivity of privately-owned agricultural landscapes, especially in areas rich in history along the Lewis & Clark Trail in Montana.