100 YEAR OLD Barn Tour including MONTANA History of LEGEND!

well today this is a definitely a special treat it's incredible to stand here with a hundred and five year old building that is this well built the the finest herd in the world it was called at the time so we're gonna get to see a little bit of this this is life in the West [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] I'm up at the castle mountain ranch near White Sulphur Springs Montana just getting ready to go up to one of the original barns that a B cook built I'm not sure when but had to be right around 1915 because that's when he bought what's called the Sheep branch up here and it's some of the most beautiful country there ever was the capsule mountain ranch is actually one of the only ranches that I know of that still uses all the old original horses for further teams they feed with teams do a lot of the ranch work on horseback it's really going back into that same time period that we all think of as the cowboy time [Music] well I'm up in the office here with David fryer this is the manager of the ranch and we are gonna go take a look at the Sheep branch and some of the barns that a be cook built on the Sheep branch should drink Sheep Creek rancher is a sheep sheep creek yeah when his notes he called the sheep brain okay yeah rooster run sheep yeah probably a side note from my future self they do call it the Sheep Creek branch even in all their notes so I was completely wrong any sheep know those smelly things he doesn't run those smelly things that want to die all with that right yeah so David where are we headed and what what's the size of this place that we're headed to so we're right now we're down down here and this is we're just a little bit north and the east to White Sulphur Springs so we'll go north here about 15 miles and we'll go up to what we call the Sheep Creek Ranch and there's about oh there's roughly 5,000 acres of ground up there that we we own that we purchased from from cooked her be cookin enough auction estate auction early 70s oh really mm-hmm so was that was that one Hervey died yeah okay when when everything was getting settled that's that that place up there was sold at an auction there yeah little Ward he bought it and I think 1973 okay cool that's good to know yeah so you guys bought directly from the cook yeah it was an auction estate Hervey cook was murdered in 1971 and I I'm thinking about doing a video on actually the downfall of a B cook and I'm kind of including her V in there but her V is is the adopted stepson of a B cook and if you don't know who a B cook is then you might want to watch the other two parts of this series baby cook was a legend of Montana he was one of the men who actually built Montana as far as business politics go and he lived from 1964 up to 1928 now he left his property to her V cook and in 1971 when Herbie was murdered all of his property was auctioned off now here is an article stating that this property would be sold at auction in 1971 and this is when the castle Mountain Ranch purchased it at this auction in early Montana ranching was one of the largest industries but it still was something that a lot of the big-time ranchers they owned a lot of land because they made money elsewhere the reason it's interesting to see something like the cook barns is this is this was really a B cooks dream as I'm sure a lot of people had this dream but because of the financial success that he achieved in mining and construction and railroad building he was actually able to to fulfill his dream basically do what he wanted to do which was achieve greatness in business and in ranch it his idea of ranching was not to have a herd of cattle his idea of branching was have the best herd of cattle [Music] this is this is a sports bar this is the Horse Park [Music] okay is definitely he raised Belgian workhorses - yeah show Shores yeah again courtesy of the Montana Historical Society there is a record of the inventory at the Sheep Creek Ranch in 1923 so that would have been from a be cook himself and it says a sheep Creek Ranch and enlists what you hat what he has there in Belgian horses to something stallion one two year old stallion 24 mares three years old and over for two year old mares two yearling mares eight Colts five gelding workhorses one two year old gelding and one yearling guilty and this is what the inventory look like at the Sheep Creek Ranch under a be cook in 1923 that's that's a little extra work yeah when you're when you're building something you obviously want it to look nice yeah it doesn't have to look like that you can just take a board and slap it up there but this is pretty amazing yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] you remember those long summers we paid what if I'd stayed up at night and dream the ways through the world I still remember [Music] the first time I kissed you the look on your face as I grazed your lips with my layers our worlds collide [Music] it was possible over here on the end you have two huge doors that would open to swing the hay in and then you would have to there's no there's no pulley system in this one so you'd have to stack it down this whole aisle but every stall has its own pitch down hole so all you had to do is just pitch it right down into the stall of every single horse if you can see here's one every every stall I've had its own hole to pitch the hay down into now this this is all vented these are all wouldn't vents to allow air to come in and drive the hay out otherwise the hay would go bad if it couldn't breathe [Music] love you go we'll get something is just me humans still so much - I mean your dad obviously managed this place before you right yeah he was here for 20 years retired in 2018 and then I took over do you ever want to do anything else not really like psych for another of it some form or another of it yeah I always thought you know when you're to be a rancher you got to have that it's your life you're gonna want to do that life it's not like something you can do for you know a few minutes and then ya move on to something else take your takes everything you got I know I talked to this piece about this before but you ever would you be interested in doing like a day in the life of a rancher kind of a thing at some planer oh yeah would ya sure would you mind doing that yeah so that'd be great yeah [Music] I was waiting in the undertone senators with Fairlane light phone unaware where my heart oh how sweet again yeah cooks cooks bowls were a little more valuable than I thought before well that right oh yeah when he had that sale in 1927 sale in like three days he made four hundred eighty thousand dollars oh it's back then yeah I mean we're talking that's Millions yeah yeah I mean Millions yes I think what he do is when like after he got this he would in the spring he'd start trailing this way and just graze over the top of the mountains and then wind up here with his Bulls in the fall and then we numb and winter the Bulls here and then I think Coward probably headed back towards Georgetown so what David is talking about is a be cook had his main ranch over here under what is now canning for a lake on what's called done let the Dunlevy ranch was just somewhere around this area most likely and then they would have driven the cattle up over the belt mountains which would be right here probably through the diamond city area that's the town that doesn't actually exist anymore but it was there so right through this area and then down to Fort Logan and when they got to Fort Logan they don't have to go all the way over here to white silver springs they can most likely cross over through this area by newland Creek which is actually a ranch that AV cook owned at one time and then we'll go back up to 80 highway 89 and go to the sheep ranch so that would have been about 50 miles roughly to go from Townsend over to the sheep ranch for some more grazing and then they might have driven them back some of them back or worked them back over there for the for the cattle that came back with a winter okay is a couple of the stories ever yeah so you ever hear about the the guy who stole one of his bulls huh his name was it was a relative of my wife actually oh is that right Curt deal okay old old Kurt deal but back then you stole one of a be Cooke's bulls some are on this side just on this side of white sulfur and got caught oh is that right yeah that's some time prison for that dude because those things were not cheap strange ones like another who lost her at first I was hesitant [Music] now it seems so how damn lined up so far from home when I barely had left this show [Music] [Music] and I was waiting in the undertow [Music] unaware I was leading him [Music] [Music] the never new address but I was waiting you I think they probably just had one workhorse they pull that with for cleaning cleaning probably and then they could scoop some that's pretty cool I can just imagine walking down this alleyway a hundred years ago with with like $4,000 work we're talking bulls that are worth now like I don't know hundreds thousand dollars each that's that's amazing being put in these little stalls this was they think this was possibly like a common area right here I'm not positive it kind of matches that side except for these stalls aren't there so they might have just been stalls and this is where according to David they would winter some of his prized Hereford bulls and you can see the the workmanship the amount of lumber that is used for this thing and not only for the walls and the ceilings everything but this is completely everything is would like the entire these are wide plank floors in this entire barn and I bet you this barn is a hundred and fifty feet long if it's a foot so I mean the amount of lumber in this thing is incredible you know one thing you can tell is there was some money involved in the setup of these things yeah right you didn't actually make his money in this he already had it that helps doesn't it yeah here is a newspaper clipping that I was given by the Montana Historical Society and so thanks to them but this shows that a be cooked buys four thousand acre ranch or consideration of $100,000 a B cook purchased the Sheep Creek Ranch from Thomas Marlow in May of 1916 you can see on this form here that's found in some papers also from the Montana Historical Society Thomas Marlow valued the property to total property 15,000 471 though obviously he sold it for a lot more than he tax valued it meaning this is the value he paid taxes on was right here at 15,000 471 but the property was actually worth a lot more when cook bought it at $100,000 he also added to that was some more Marlowe property when we see that right here it was gonna be sold at a sheriff sale but instead Cook bought it for something like twelve thousand three hundred and ninety one dollars plus he had to take on a mortgage from a different bank in Lewistown for ten thousand dollars ten thousand three hundred and sixteen dollars so it's about 22,000 23,000 dollars there plus the hundred thousand dollars he paid for the four thousand acres so you guys maintain this then just to kind of keep it do you use it much or you know just a patch oh this is a section yeah I think got one over here too so it's obviously stole that's what it is it's to only get the top oh yeah they need stop the I don't know what purpose that would have but every third post in here which is a pillar to hold up the the upstairs has this slot on it and so you would you were able to slide boards down this to create another partition so you could let Bulls loose over in that section in each section you could have one or two bulls in right here they have this interesting little block in every single one of them now if you look up at the top you can see you slide up or down there and you could stop it right here so that only the top was up there so my guess is and my guesses aren't aren't always on at all but my guess is they they would have boards down here as a partition and then you could slide them up and hold them up here above this so you could move Bulls back and forth and then you can just go like that and drop the boards back down to create another partition that's my thought but you can see there's each one of these has them at the same height on every third post the things that they thought of back then and the the time and care that they they took to build this they got gutters running down right behind every stall so you you can take the crap and even have drains in the floor and this is a hundred years ago you got drains in the floor every second post so all the liquids would fall through there and not sit on this wood and make it rot and the grooves make it actually easier to have a dry surface over here you can stand on and then you can you could slide a shovel down that and pick up all their manure but these drains are pretty cool they obviously are hand-hewn drains hand-hewn isn't really the term I'm going for hand-forged would be the turn-on going for now these the original windows and stuff these windows have these these things these holders here because they used to tip in for air used to be able to tip them in and then he probably take them completely out to get ventilation for the cattle you wonder if they cut this stuff like up here okay this is a balance sheet from Sheep Creek Ranch which obviously they call it the Sheep Creek Ranch and this was a B cooks ranch the first year in operation from May 21st to December 31st in 1917 and you can see her on the expenses side you have a little bit of logging one hundred ninety six dollars and 32 cents in labor and actually a little bit of wood sales over here you have a hundred and seventy eight dollars and fifty cents along with a purchase of logs of $96 but in the second year 1918 that's when we see a difference here in the labor cost you see a logging labor cost of almost a thousand dollars more in fact than painting costs so he's got a lot of people out there logging in 1918 he's got some Solomon repair so obviously he's making his own boards and then we still have a purchase of a hundred and fifty dollars worth of logs as well so he's taking in a lot of lumber he's got lumber 236 236 dollars and seventy six cents this is all expenses on this side over here we have no sales of logs or timber of any kind so my guess that in 1918 he was building these two barns because he's taking in a lot of lumber cutting them but not selling any little interesting note here it says on his expenses side that auto upkeep including repairs for smash-up was two hundred and $2.75 obviously somebody got in a wreck there yeah so did he like all these were show cattle right I think so so he they're all kind of halter broke ins yeah I'm in that time all the Bulls like all the Hereford bulls back then were broke to lead Oh were they a lot of worried up with a nose ring or halter eyeball and I think they'd probably start him with a nose ring and then put a bee cook didn't do things half way he did things all the way they have a runway behind these to feed the the Bulls and they have places to put the the grain and then places to put the hay so this alleyway right here is your feeding area so you would throw the hay down from up above I'll show you that in a minute and then you have little troughs for each each of them to have their own grain so this potentially could have two Bulls in it with a hole to tie them up there's a little hole here to run the lead rope through so you could tie up the bull and then he to eat out of this side and the the hay would be down here the grain would be up here and then the other one could be in this side tie it up right here so you could have Maul haltered that's a little different than how cattle ranchers do it today of course they're not raising the type of cattle that these were either I mean these were the best of the best he went all over the country to purchase the best stock the stock with the best bloodlines the best cows and the best bulls to then breed the the finest herd in the world of Hereford cattle you guys still have the forest permit that goes with this yeah yeah lots of timber yeah Lots but that's fun to get all the cows out guys snow brings them home I suppose yeah once you miss leave the gate open those of you that don't know most ranches run cattle on national forest ground belongs to the United States or service and the United States Forest Service gives out permits have for a long time ever since its inception I believe and what they do is leased the ground so you you will hear the terms either Forest Service permit or grazing permit or Forest Service lease and what that means is that you have the right you pay a certain amount per year it's a an amount that is usually tied to how many animals you can put on it and that amount allows you to be able to put those cattle on public ground Forest Service ground to graze off the grass in the timber or a certain amount of time usually just just short periods of time in the summer or early fall right before a be cook purchased this ground in 1916 see where a ton of Thomas the the previous owner wrote several letters to the Forest Service at retaining his Forest Service permits he must not have been using them at all and had lost them but he got them back in order to give them to a B cook when he purchased his property so as you can see the Castle Mountain Ranch is still using those same forest permits that were attached to the land when they purchased it in 1971 alright so let's go up to the loft where they would have thrown down all the hay from down into here and then forked it over into these troughs [Music] [Music] don't ever try that these old barns you really need to take in consideration how old they are that you're pulling on old ladders like that that are 100 years old and the nails are hundred years old and so it's always a good idea just not to do what I do but I'm just going to show you this it's incredible how this barn was built I mean these it built their own trusses and you can kind of see the a-frame shape so that a-frame shape kind of started pushing obviously sort of pushing these walls over so somebody had to put in cables to kind of hold it together but absolutely incredible this is where they would have put all their hay I don't know how they got it in here it must be a door over there but they would have had to haul all the hay into here and then okay and then there's up there is a pulley you can see the pulley on the ceiling anok and a bar it's a rail so they could actually haul - hey and swing it all the way over to here from there that rail runs the length of this entire building so you could load some hay on something a little platform over there and then swing it run it along that thing that cable all the way over here and then pile it start from this end and fill this whole barn up and then you could throw it down through the holes that I came up which would make it right on right down into that Lane that you could feed from you can see the ladder going up here that would go up around the window to where they would grab ahold of that pulley to swing it swing that thing right there way down to the other end well I don't know if you can see any of this because I don't have a light with me but maybe no but these are this is the slits they got one on this side of the center and one on that side of the center where they would put the hay on to slide it so I wonder Hall okay this is a little unique so there is no door so I'm at the other end and there is no door over here too so this is very unique for a barn for an old barn because they would typically have one end obviously they'd have two big doors that open and then they would hoist the they would have some kind of a lift platform that hoisted up with an arm overhanging and then you would get the hay in and everything up here through those big doors but this this doesn't have that this has a central loading position if you notice the middle of the barn there is the middle of this floor is open so they would take everything in from the side to the center of the barn and then they have that's why they have one of those hay slits on both sides of the center so they would hoist it directly up through the center of the barn and then throw it either to one side of the other on one of those platforms and then drag it using this cable system up here drag it over to one end or the other so like I said just two weeks ago I fell through a board that was rotten and landed right here on my ribs and ever since then this whole side over here this whole rib got the muscle got torn away from the rib a little bit I believe it's very painful so don't try this kind of stuff that I'm doing I'm trying to show you something but I really advise against this do what I say not what I do because that's painful and a lot of this stuff those rungs are just held on by by straight driven nails so any one of those could pull out of there it's probably not a great idea to do that this this was a pretty unique experience to be able to come over here and visit this barn and walk through it see the old history that's in here the way that used to do things the way that a be cook used to do things because he did things very high-end so this was his bull barn on Sheep Creek Ranch in White Sulphur Springs Montana and this is really why we live in Montana huh a worlds collide those words [Music] [Music] today's [Music] I'll always remember that cold night you told me when I to though we're gonna be three and eight months we'll be a family those were the [Music] [Music] [Music] we can q your wicked son ez is justly I knew and still so much to do [Music] I used to sew we've been together for as long as I can remember we have history may memories that use you and me pain [Music] you

Channel: Trinity Vandenacre

Views: 162,023

Keywords: barndominium tour, barndominium, montana history, a b cook, barns, historic buildings, house tour, home tour, barn house, ranching, montana cattle ranch, ranches in montana, visit montana, montana tourism, Life in the West, Trinity Vandenacre, travel vlog, montana travel

Id: mKnXAOvjiSw

Length: 34min 45sec (2085 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 01 2020