Old Missoula

Rattlesnake Ranch Era Ends

Now Homes Where Cattle Roamed by Al Darr

Otto Quast would be amazed to see what’s happening to his dairy ranch.

Quast came almost barefoot to Missoula in 1889. He was 19, an immigrant from North Dakota by way of Ft. Buford and the Great Northern Railway construction camps.

Sixteen years after he went to work here for Pete Fedderson on a dairy farm, young Quast owned the best part of 1,200 acres stretching from the Rattlesnake Valley floor to the saddle below Mt. Jumbo and beyond.

He bought homesteads here and homesteads there. The owners probably thought they were making a handsome profit on the land because most of it cost them just $2.50 per acre, in patent titles from Uncle Sam.

Quast himself would be 96 today, had he lived. He did well in dairy and beef cows when he left Missoula for Corvallis in 1915, but his original property in the Rattlesnake Valley has appreciated beyond anyone’s imagination half a century ago.

Who would believe in 1915 that Rattlesnake land then selling as pasture for perhaps $10 per acre would in 1966 sell for hundreds of dollars per acre?

The Quast ranch, more recently known as the Klapwyk ranch, was sold to a group of developers who envision homes for all tastes and incomes on the undulating, tree-dotted slopes.

Missoulians Don Tomlinson, Jack Weidenfeller, George Caras and Dick Pew, incorporated as Lincoln Hills Development Co., negotiated the Klapwyk ranch purchase. They look toward a 20-year development project.

Klapwyk ranch has heights and hidden wonders that only a rambling inspection of the spread reveals. Healthy orchards adorn the upper reaches as well as the valley floor, and springs trickle down through brush-choked gullies.

Four-wheel drive vehicles can climb from the Albert Klapwyk home and the big red barn (said to have been built by Otto Quast 60 or 70 years ago) clear to the final leg up Mt. Jumbo. They’ll be on Quast-Klapwyk holdings all the way and for a quarter of a mile across the saddle down toward East Missoula.

State Highway engineers thought seriously of routing Interstate 90 across this relatively low ridge between East Missoula and the Rattlesnake. Klapwyk said they should have done so, but he’s happy they didn’t.

Klapwyk himself was a boy when he first worked on the ranch. He has owned the place since 1939, but he first worked there for Luther E. Tucker, the only man who owned the entire Quast acreage at absolutely the wrong time.

Klapwyk remembers from the abstracts that an A. J. Bishop ran the dairy farm after 1915. Title transfers show Oscar Johnson, Alex McLaren and Earl Reynolds as owners from the Quast era until the early 1920s when Tucker bought the place.

Tucker mortgaged to the Federal Land Bank, and along came the Great Crash. He lost the property in 1930.

Ordinary people weren’t buying property for the next eight or nine years. Speculators and subdivision developers were far over the horizon, a world war and more away.

The Rattlesnake Valley, meanwhile, was pure country, and not such desirable residential country at that. Missoula itself was still a ribbon of homes flanking the Clark Fork River, and who wanted to live in the snow belt up the Rattlesnake?

A few people did live there, in modest homes strung thinly along Van Buren Avenue. Maybe half a dozen more pretentious homes were sprinkled down on the creek side of Van Buren.

Coyotes, meanwhile, beat a well-trodden path from the woods above the Quast farm to waterways below.

Coyotes and deer still inhabit the ranch in season. One grey prairie wolf loped down within a stone’s throw of Bert Klapwyk and his guests one day last week. The animal stared for half a minute, seemed to ascertain there were no guns aboard the Jeep, then trotted disdainfully over a ridge and into the brush. Coyotes disappear from sight almost at will, but they haven’t yet disappeared altogether from the Rattlesnake Valley.

Otto Quast began gathering the ranch in 1891. By 1895 he had a firm water right amounting to 500 miner’s inches or 750 cubic feet per minute, diverted from Rattlesnake Creek. That water right still holds, and water still flows along a diversion ditch on the ranch.

Improvements will be costly on the scenic slopes. The developers plan to bring in a professional planner from San Francisco, where hills abound, and he’ll lay out a good access road before all else.

All utility lines will be laid underground, streets will be hard-surfaced and as many as possible of the natural terrain features will be retained in the platting.

But with his development, the largest remaining ranch in the Rattlesnake Valley will come to an end. There are those alive today who will regret this.

The article above appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on September 11, 1966.

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Some Interesting Sidelights On A Local Dairy Whose Slogan Is “Clean Milk And Pure-Bred Cows”

Does it pay to advertise? Does it especially profit a community to spread abroad information concerning some of its resources?

How clean milk and pure-bred cows, coupled with scientific management, make the dairying business pleasant and profitable.

The romance of a locomotive engineer and how he was induced to leave a thriving business in the east and come to Montana to engaged in dairying on a big scale.

Each one of the propositions stated above might serve for a theme of a separate story, themes that could be properly developed and dressed and treated until they were almost completely swallowed up by a most enchanting yarn.

But as it is fact and not enchantment that is being sought in this article, all three of the themes will be combined. The scene opens away back east and as the story advances it shifts to the pretty Rattlesnake valley, the valley through which runs the crystal-pure stream that is the source of Missoula’s perfect water supply. The time is the present. The girl – well, there’s a girl, all right, and she is very charming. Our acquaintance with her is to be limited; to extend one short automobile ride on that glorious western Montana afternoon when the pictures which illuminate this page were taken. Her hero was at the wheel. It was very evident that she adores him and that because of this fact he counts himself a very lucky man.

The Beginning.

Reversing the order of the initial statements above, and beginning with the last one first:

About 25 years ago Otto Quast engaged in the dairy business here on a small scale. Missoula was small then and there was not the demand for milk and cream that has caused the establishment of numerous other dairies in the community since that early beginning. During all these years, Mr. Quast steadily advanced his business, establishing it in the heart of the Rattlesnake valley and developing it until it was surpassed by none in western Montana. During that quarter of a century there has never been a delay in the delivery of milk and cream to his customers, winter or summer, except once or twice when the severity of the storm was more than a match for human hardihood, causing some of his deliverymen to be a few minutes behind their schedule.

About the same time that Mr. Quast founded his dairy here, A. J. Bishop got his first job on a railroad. He advanced steadily until he became a locomotive engineer on an eastern line, following this profession for a dozen years. Then he retired and went into the wholesale business for himself in Rockford, Ill.

A Pretty Picture.

One evening about a year ago, an evening that followed a hard day’s work and a comfortable evening meal, Mr. Bishop leaned over his library table and handed his wife a copy of a Montana pamphlet issued by a banking association of Helena. He called her attention to a picture of a Montana dairy farm reproduced on one page and together they discussed the general attractiveness of the place and the desirability of owning and conducting a business of this kind in some suitable location in the far west.

That picture was of the Otto Quast dairy in the Rattlesnake valley. It appeared in that banking journal because the bankers of Montana have been the first to thoroughly recognize that dairying is soon to become the foremost industry of Montana; that even on a small scale it is proving the salvation of farmers who are keeping a few cows and selling milk and cream as a side issue of their regular farm work. Just by chance Mr. Bishop came across this picture. A few months later he had come to Montana and invested thousands of dollars, purchasing the whole Quast farm and dairy business, taking possession the 7^th day of last July.

About Advertising.

In this day and age the question: “Does Advertising Pay?” seems foolish and out of place. But there are always a few who have to be “shown” over and over again. Here is an instance when a Helena organization brought thousands of dollars and a live business man to Missoula. Those who have been inclined to make light of the proposed budget for the Missoula Chamber of Commerce to be spent in doing some scientific advertising of local resources and opportunities, can well sit up and take notice. This is just one instance of the benefits of an advertising campaign. There are thousands of other ways to bring similar results. The evidence is all on one side. And thus is the question first asked above answered in the affirmative.

The Slogan.

Mr. Bishop assumed control of his dairy here determined to carry out two main ideas in the development of his enterprise. His slogan was to be and is: “Clean Milk and Pure-Bred Cows.” Clean milk first, last and all the time; pure-bred cows as soon as he could breed and raise them from the finest milk stock produced in this country.

Clean Milk.

Real honest-to-goodness clean milk was almost an impossibility under the old methods of handling the product. No matter how careful the milkman, there is always opportunity for milk to gather dirt or become contaminated when handled by the old methods. Mr. Bishop recognized these facts, and the first thing he did upon taking charge of the dairy four months ago was to install the new method of handling the milk from the cows to the table of his customers. In that four months Mr. Bishop has changed many things about the dairy. He has improved upon everything but the name. That, he believes, is good enough. It has stood for honest measure, regular service and purity as far as had been possible under existing conditions. The Crescent Dairy will not lose its name with the coming of a new master.

Healthy Cows.

The first thing Mr. Bishop did when he opened his clean milk activities here, was to be sure that his cows were in good health. The whole herd underwent a critical examination by the state veterinarian, and there is a clean bill of health on file at the Crescent dairy for every cow in the herd.

Clean Barn.

With healthy cows the beginning could be made. The barn, a large affair with a capacity for about 200 cows at the stanchions, was further improved and cleaned and every three days it is sprayed over every nook and corner with an antiseptic solution and germ killer.

Clean Men.

Then with healthy cows in a clean barn, Mr. Bishop turned to the men who handle the animals and demanded of them the same clean bill of health that he demanded of his cows. This is rather unusual in the dairy business. But it is a mighty important factor in the real scientific plan for clean milk and Mr. Bishop has rigidly enforced the rule. Not only must his men be generally healthy and free from disease, but they must submit to an inspection each morning before entering the barn to attend to the milking, a sore throat or bad cold, that may have develop during the night, barring the victim from associating with the cows or from handling the milk until he is well again.

The Crescent dairy is selling milk and cream from 130 cows, milked at its own barns twice daily, as well as some that it buys from Otto Quast, who still milks about 30 cows at his ranch near Corvallis, this milk shipped in being handled in practically the same fashion at the dairy here.

Milking Machines.

The 130 head of cows here are milked at 4 a. m. and at 3 p. m. every day and Mr. Bishop and three assistants milk these cows in a little over an hour.

Impossible? That’s what the writer thought, too. But if you will take the trouble to go, as he did, and see for yourself, you will be convinced and you will also have a most entertaining experience.

Not by the old fashioned milkstool and open bucket plan are these four men able to accomplish this milking stunt. There isn’t a stool or an open pail or can in the whole barn. But with the use of three milking machines, the cows are induced to give up their valuable product twice each day, the milking proceeding at a rate of 100 cows per hour for the three machines.

The milking machines are rather simple. There are four rubber cups to be slipped over the teats of each cow as the machines are used, each cup being attached to a covered milk can by a rubber hose. All four cups and “pipe lines” are then attached to a main line of hose that is in turn connected to a pipe-line running along the mangers. This pipe line connects with a vacuum system and when the machine is adjusted and turned on, the milk flows freely from the cows, and it is all over in a few minutes. Milch cows generally own a rising vote of thanks to the man who discovered the patent milking machine, as it relieves them of a lot of misery and bother to which they once had to meekly submit.

Without being opened the cans are carried from the cows to the big receiving can located at one end of the barn and when filled, the receiving can is carried to the milkhouse, more than 100 feet from the cow barn, to be strained and cooled and bottled.

This milkhouse, with a cement floor and equipped with running water, is kept scrupulously clean.

Six Strainings.

At the milkhouse, the milk from the receiving can is poured through a double strainer into smaller milk cans, these being immediately covered and carried to the milk cooler where it is strained as emptied into the reservoir, strained again as it flows into the cooler proper, strained as it is drawn from the cooler and then again as it is poured into the bottling machine, making a total of six strainings from the time the milk leaves the cow barn until it is sealed in bottles and ready for table use.

Cooling Important.

The cooler is one of the important machines of the dairy as milk treated with this machine remains sweet from 20 to 24 hours longer than the products as usually handled. The cooling machine is attached to a stream of spring water registering 50 degrees. This water passes over the coils in a thin film and the milk is cooled to the same temperature as the water. This process is used immediately after the milk is taken from the cow so that the animal heat in the milk is quickly dissipated.

Bottling.

After being strained into the reservoir of the bottling machine, the milk is sealed air-tight in the glass without coming in contact with the air, and it is then ready for the home. The bottles are boxed and made ready for the wagons but are left in the running water at the milkhouse so that the same temperature, 50 degrees, is evenly maintained until the hour of delivery.

Mr. Bishop has remodeled the wagons, too, fitting them with glass fronts and doors so that they will remain free from dust and dirt. They are kept scrupulously clean and sanitary at all times. Three wagons such as these, all painted a rich cream color, are used in the city delivery.

Future Plans.

The Crescent Dairy ranch included 1,356 acres of valley bottom and hillside land. It is rich and well watered and Mr. Bishop will next year plant his first crops of corn and alfalfa, which will compose his principal feed. The corn will be used as silage, several big modern silos being planned for the farm next year. Corn silage and alfalfa is now recognized as the strongest milk food for cows. This feed, in great quantity and excellent quality Mr. Bishop will raise and store for use on his own land, beginning with next season.

Breeding a Herd.

While these things are going on, Mr. Bishop will be breeding his new herd of dairy cows. He already has purchased three pure-bred bulls, two Holstein and one Ayershire. They came from the famous herds of Dr. David Roberts or Wisconsin, recognized as the finest milking strains in the United States. To have his herd complete and absolutely pure bred, will require several years, but Mr. Bishop has lost no time in making the beginning in the right direction.

A Show Place.

Before long the splendid buildings of the Crescent Dairy, including barns, milkhouses, sheds, out buildings and the fine two-story residence, will shine out against the green landscape of the pretty valley all painted a rich cream color. This will make an imposing picture. The Crescent Dairy promises to become one of the real show places of western Montana.

The quality of the product from the dairy is already recognized in a most substantial way. Everyone knows that the Northern Pacific dining car service is the most particular milk and cream buyer in the world. Hazen J. Titus knows what pure milk means and nothing but pure milk gets a look in on his dining cars. The Crescent Dairy is furnishing the Northern Pacific milk and cream which averages a monthly account of $225. Eight gallons of milk and four of cream are delivered daily to the dining cars passing through the city and 15 gallons of milk a day are used at the company hospital here.

Mr. Bishop is taking great delight in his plans and his work here. He has already learned that efforts to improve the quality and safety of his product are being appreciated by his customers. He is a firm believer in the possibilities of dairying not only here but in other Montana districts and is taking a certain pride in making himself a leader in the industry that is soon to spread to such proportions throughout this great state.

The above article appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on November 14, 1915.

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A. J. Bishop enlisted in the U. S. military during WWI and the Crescent Dairy went out of business in 1917. Mr. Bishop died in Missoula in 1921, after an operation for a ruptured appendix.