Firehole Ranch is a private 640-acre guest ranch located on Hebgen Lake in

Gallatin County, Montana Gallatin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Montana. With its county seat in Bozeman, it is the second-most populous county in Montana, with a population of 118,960 in the 2020 Census. The county's prominent geographical featur ...

. Owned and operated by Lynda Caine since 1999, Firehole Ranch was founded in the late 1890s as Watkins Creek Ranch by George S. Watkins. Originally much larger, Watkins Creek Ranch sold much of its land to the Madison Power and Light Company in 1904 to make way for the Hebgen Lake Dam. Much of Watkins’ cattle were sold to

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with small portions extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U ...

while the remaining land was converted into a

dude ranch A guest ranch, also known as a dude ranch, is a type of ranch oriented towards visitors or tourism. It is considered a form of agrotourism. History Guest ranches arose in response to the romanticization of the American West that began to occur ...

. Firehole Ranch was entered into the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

under the name Watkins Creek Ranch on December 27, 2006.

References

{{Gallatin County, Montana Ranches on the National Register of Historic Places in Montana 1890s establishments in Montana National Register of Historic Places in Gallatin County, Montana National Park Service rustic in Montana Dude ranches in Montana