Very Close to Trouble: The Johnny Grant Memoir

by Lyndel Meikle (Editor)

Trader, wrangler, and raconteur, Johnny Grant (1831-1907) lived "very close to trouble" on the wide open Montana/Idaho frontier of the mid-nineteenth century. A key pioneer of western Montana, Grant is memorialized today by the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, operated by the National Park Service at Deer Lodge, Montana. The son of a Hudson's Bay Company official, he was a young man caught in the cross-currents of Indian, Canadian, and American cultures. In his entertaining reminiscences, Grant delineates the differences as well as the frequent interaction and cooperation of these frontier peoples. As such, Very Close to Trouble brings to life the chiefs, warriors, traders, and ranchmen of the 1840s-1850s, and the miners, merchants, entrepreneurs, settlers, soldiers, and road agents who surged into the Bitterroots and northern Rockies with the gold strikes of the 1860s. In 1867, he relocated to Canada's Great Plains, witnessing the famous Riel Rebellion. Grant's description of the landscape and population of the early interior Northwest is a much anticipated addition to the meager historical writings of this pioneer era. His exciting observations of Montana's famous vigilante movement, for example, provide valuable new testimony to the Montana gold rush literature of the early 1860s. Grant himself barely escaped robbery and probable death at the hands of highwaymen. He never doubted that Sheriff Henry Plummer's extensive network of criminals were guilty as charged by the vigilance forces and deserved summary punishment. This and other valuable first-hand observations appear in this rare, long overdue addition to early Montana and Idaho history.

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beauty of this memoir is the straight forward, down to earth narrative. Several years ago my husband and I stopped at the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site near Deer Lodge, Montana. Although I knew nothing about the ranch a brochure and the fact it was a National Historic Site was enough to put it on our itinerary. It was a sunny, warm July Saturday and as luck would have it one of their annual special events - Cattle Branding.

Our visit started with a tour of the ranch house and hearing an overview of Montana cattle ranching in the mid-19th century, the fascinating life of Johnny Grant (who built the house in 1862), and Conrad Kohrs who purchased the ranch in 1866, enlarged his cattle empire to 10 million acres and became known as Montana's Cattle King. After hearing of the many exploits, adventures, wives and children of Johnny Grant I purchased this memoir. It has resided on a "To Read" shelf until now.

Grant's remembrances cover the period between 1847 and 1867 as an early pioneer of western Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. He tells of trading along the immigrant trails, buffalo hunts, prospectors, vigilantes, hangings, cattle ranching, horse thieves, friendships with Indians, months-long purchasing trips to St. Louis, riches and poverty, elation and heartbreak - a look back into real Western history.

[Kathleen Callum · Rating 5 out of 5]

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