Ferry Creek Ranch is a 560 acre ranch located by the Yellowstone River where the Great Plains meet the Rockies. It is one of the oldest ranches in the state with buildings on the National Historic Trust register.
Ferry Creek Ranch was established by Napoleon Ebert in 1882. Mr. Ebert, a Civil War veteran, was the contractor who built the Northern Pacific Railroad from Wisconsin to Livingston, Montana. Pleased with the land here, he bought a quarter section (160 acres) of land from a homesteader for two hundred dollars, a broken down pony and a rusted shotgun. He camped here while he built the Park Branch rail extension to Gardiner, Montana, the North entrance to the new Yellowstone National Park.
The contract to extend the line through the Park to Cooke City never materialized and Mr. Ebert decided to settle permanently in Park county and to take up farming and ranching. He bought an additional 1,600 acres from the railroad for $1.50 an acre. In 1892 Ebert completed a Queen Anne style home made out of large blocks of locally quarried sandstone. The house was considered so magnificent at the time that it was referred to as "Ebert's Palace." He went on to build a large barn and numerous other out-buildings. On the 100th anniversary of the house's construction, it was listed on the register of The National Historic Trust.
Ebert and his sons went on to become wealthy agricultural entrepreneurs raising cattle, sheep, chickens, hay, grain and horses. One of his more successful ventures was a contract to raise and train draft horse teams used to build the interior roads of Yellowstone Park. At the ranch's peak, it employed fifty men and controlled 400 square miles of ranch land. Ebert went on to become a county commissioner and a State legislator and was active in his businesses and in public affairs until his death in 1931 at 89.
The ranch changed hands only a few times until 1990 when the Forstenzer / Danaher family bought it. At that time the buildings and land were quite run down from many years of "deferred maintenance" and the new owners put much effort into restoring the property to its former glory.
Ferry Creek Ranch is a 560 acre ranch located by the Yellowstone River where the Great Plains meet the Rockies. It is one of the oldest ranches in the state with buildings on the National Historic Trust register.
Ferry Creek Ranch was established by Napoleon Ebert in 1882. Mr. Ebert, a Civil War veteran, was the contractor who built the Northern Pacific Railroad from Wisconsin to Livingston, Montana. Pleased with the land here, he bought a quarter section (160 acres) of land from a homesteader for two hundred dollars, a broken down pony and a rusted shotgun. He camped here while he built the Park Branch rail extension to Gardiner, Montana, the North entrance to the new Yellowstone National Park.
The contract to extend the line through the Park to Cooke City never materialized and Mr. Ebert decided to settle permanently in Park county and to take up farming and ranching. He bought an additional 1,600 acres from the railroad for $1.50 an acre. In 1892 Ebert completed a Queen Anne style home made out of large blocks of locally quarried sandstone. The house was considered so magnificent at the time that it was referred to as "Ebert's Palace." He went on to build a large barn and numerous other out-buildings. On the 100th anniversary of the house's construction, it was listed on the register of The National Historic Trust.
