Son of the Fur Trade: The Memoirs of Johnny Grant Review

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(More customer reviews)For many years, those who know Montana history have been hoping that the unabridged version of Johnny Grant's memoirs would finally see print. (An abridged edition was published some years ago by the University of Washington Press.) Finally, finally we can now read the entire story in this book. As a greatgranddaughter of pioneer cattleman Conrad Kohrs, who did business with Grant while he was still in Montana, and eventually bought his ranch at Deer Lodge, I am delighted to read this title.
Grant was born in Canada, and settled in Montana Territory as a young man who established himself as a free trader (his Scottish father worked for the Hudson's Bay Company). He was also one of the first stock-raisers in Montana, becoming known for his good cattle (probably Shorthorn X Spanish crosses) and his fine Indian-bred horses. His narrative is amazingly modern in feel -- colorful, on-scene, up-front-and-personal, honest -- and entirely lacking in that fustiness that often characterizes memoirs of the Victorian period.
Grant's account also reflects a great deal of the personal influence that he felt from the native American side of his family ancestry. Memoirs like this, that give us an in-depth look at the mixed-blood side of Western American and Canadian history, are rare and needed for a complete perspective of what "life on the frontier" was really like. Grant's Deer Lodge home, which he built and where he lived with his Bannack wife Quarra in the early 1860s, can still be seen at Deer Lodge, as part of the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site. After selling the ranch to my greatgrandfather, Grant moved back to Canada, where he wrote this memoir in his later years.
Kudos to everyone involved in publication of "Son of the Fur Trade."

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Born in 1833 at Fort Edmonton, Johnny Grant experienced and wrote about many historical events in the Canada-US northwest, and died within sight of the same fort in 1907. Grant was not only a fur trader; he was instrumental in early ranching efforts in Montana and played a pivotal role in the Riel Resistance of 1869-70. Published in its entirety for the first time, Grant's memoir-with a perceptive introduction by Gerhard Ens-is an indispensable primary source for the shelves of fur trade and Métis historians.

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