Hamilton Ranch
Hamilton Ranch
Carroll Hill, between Jackson and Dillon, Montana
Owner: Alan Hamilton
Manager: George Trischmann
An Undaunted Stewardship® historical exhibit, sited at one of
the highest elevations on the national Lewis and Clark Trail, now
overlooks the Hamilton Ranch headquarters -- once the Carroll Ranch,
established here in the late 1800s by a family that operated it
for four generations.
Captain William Clark and his crew rode horses through this area
on their return trip East in 1806; they followed an aboriginal trail
that eventually became today’s rural highway, and camped very
near the crest of Carroll Hill on July 8th. Earlier that afternoon,
while riding through today’s Big Hole Valley, they had stopped
at present-day Jackson Hot Springs -- once within the ranchlands
the Carroll family later acquired -- to experiment with cooking
meat in its hot “blubbering” waters.
The vast rangelands here, which Clark called “extreemly fertile,”
would become home to more cattle than virtually any other place
in America. Ranching first began in this area in the mid-1800s,
in support of wagon trains on the Oregon Trail. For years thereafter,
ranchers who lived elsewhere turned their cattle loose to graze
these lands -- and when the first person intending to live here
arrived, he found some 27,000 cattle already feeding in the Big
Hole Valley. Ranchers quickly learned that natural rangelands here
offer superb nutrition -- grass-fed animals from this valley fetched
the same high prices in Midwestern markets as did grain-fed cattle
from other parts of the country. Short, brutal winters made farming
difficult at best in this area, and ranching has remained the predominant
land use ever since.
Located at the base of a high mountain pass that separates two giant
valleys in the heart of Montana’s “cattle country,”
the Carroll Ranch was a stopping point for nearly every traveler,
stagecoach and cattle drive that passed by over the course of generations.
Today, the lands of the Hamilton Ranch remain much as they were
when Clark’s crew camped here. The sweeping view from the
Undaunted Stewardship® historical exhibit takes in more than
400 square miles, and much of it still looks as it has for centuries.
The Hamilton Ranch preserves its historic sites and manages cattle
grazing to ensure naturally sustained, long-term productivity. Cattle
are periodically allowed to graze along waterways like Bull Creek,
and the grazing is carefully monitored so that it doesn’t
damage the environment but rather serves to invigorate stream-bank
grasses that help control erosion and protect water quality.
Directions to this ranch:
Take State Highway 278 North, from its intersection with Interstate
15 just south of Dillon. The display area is next to the highway
on Carroll Hill, on the left side of the road just past the top
of Big Hole Pass, several miles north of the turnoff to Bannack.
When traveling on Highway 278 in the opposite direction, coming
from Jackson, Montana, the display site is on the right side of
the road, just before the crest of the hill.
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.
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