Ghost Ranches of Montana Helena Area
Wagon Driver’s Homestead
Oil on Canvas 24 ” x 20 ” $900 Contact to Purchase Gehring Ranch This old structure was a bunk house for the hired help, and the tractor was used by Grandpa and Dad.
Wagon Driver’s Home
Oil on Canvas 20 ” x 16″ $800 Contact to Purchase Gehring Ranch This old log structure crumbling at the road’s edge, was built by Great-Grandfather Gehring as a barn. Three generations ranched here and Billy, the great-grandson of the wagon driver, keeps a herd of the animals that once covered the plains.
The TV Room
Oil on Canvas 12 ” x 16″ $450 Contact to Purchase [four_fifth_last]Sleeping Giant Ranch Look carefully at the painting. This small room in the barn receives light through a 1950’s TV screen! It is impressive that ranchers can always find a new use for everything old – nothing is wasted.
She Rarely Missed
Oil on Barnwood Mixed Media 25 1/2″ x 22″ $1300 Contact to Purchase Sleeping Giant Ranch Fannie (also spelled Fanny) Sperry was born March 27, 1887 on her parents’ horse ranch, and from an early age was taught to be a fine equestrienne. When she became Bucking Horse Champion of Montana and the Lady Bucking Horse Champion of the World in 1912 and 1913, she used her prize money to help her family. She joined Bill Cody’s Wild West Show in 1916 and, according to her niece, Viola, could out-shoot and out-ride Annie Oakley but never got the chance, for […]
Put Your Money on Fannie
Oil on Old Barn Wood 20″ x 16″ $700 Contact to Purchase “MISS FANNIE SPERRY WINNING 4 MILE RELAY RACE TIME 9 MIN. 42 SEC – 8 CHANGES OF HORSES” When or where this race was held has been forgotten by her elderly niece, Viola Sperry; but Viola did describe the excitement of the race in which her aunt beat Christine and Buff, last names forgotten, too. Fannie was hired by the Capital Stock Food Company in 1904, when she was just 17, to spend the summer racing as one of the Montana Girls relay team. The team traveled the […]
She Never Missed the Cigar
Oil on Barnwood 23 ” x 20 ” Sold Sleeping Giant Ranch Fannie Sperry was born March 27, 1887 on her parents’ horse ranch, and from an early age was taught to be a fine equestrienne. When she became the wild west champion in 1912 and 1913 she used her prize money to help her family. She joined Bill Cody’s Wild West Show in 1916 and, according to her niece, Viola, could out-shoot and out-ride Annie Oakley but never got the chance, for she joined Buffalo Bill after Annie had moved on. There she met and married Bill Steele, a […]
When Indians Were a Threat
Oil on Canvas 18″ x 14″ Sold Settle Ranch The Settles have been a proud ranching family in Montana for four generations. Their original ranch was founded in the 1870’s by Martin Settle and his uncle, Dr. Henry Clark. Located at the confluence of the north and south forks of the Musselshell River, the headquarters was marked by the big house designed by Clark’s brother-in-law, John Grant, a Portland, Oregon architect. At times the ranch was supported by cattle, at others, by sheep. Martin’s operation of the ranch was succeeded by his son, Edward, in 1919. Edward was known as […]
The Hunter’s Lucky Gate
Oil on Canvas 12″ x 9″ $500 Contact to Purchase Settle Ranch Hunters and ranchers sharing the same land, if properly governed, is a win-win situation. The hunter enjoys the thrill of bagging his prize animal, the rancher controls the wild animal population, which consumes his hard-earned feed.
Head Em’ Up
Oil on Barnwood 23.5 ” x 19.5″ $1300 Contact to Purchase Settle Ranch Taken from old family photographs these pictures vividly show the true life of the old sheep-herding days. Just as in a Bible story, these gents kept watch over their flocks by day and by night and cared for as many as 2,200 at one time.
Good Ole Days of Ranching
Oil on Barnwood 26″ x 23 ” $1300 Contact to Purchase Sleeping Giant Ranch This painting was inspired by an old Hilger family photo. The equipment suggests a dam was being dug.
Her Eden
2012 Oil on Canvas 24″ x 18″ framed in Old Barn Wood $850 Contact to Purchase When Bill Cody ended his Wild West show due to age and ill health, Fannie Sperry Steele and her husband, Bill, started their own, which performed at stampedes, roundups and rodeos. Fannie, born March 27, 1887, was then in her mid-to late-thirties, and more than half her life had been spent racing and performing. She wanted children and a ranch of her own, and with their earnings, they were able to purchase a hunters’ ranch on Arrastra Creek near the small town of Helmville, […]
Counting Sheep
Oil on Barnwood 26.5″ x 19 ” $1300 Contact to Purchase Settle Ranch Taken from old family photographs these pictures vividly show the true life of the old sheep-herding days. Just as in a Bible story, these gents kept watch over their flocks by day and by night and cared for as many as 2,200 at one time.
Champion Cowgirl
2012 Oil on Old Barn Wood 24″ x 23″ unframed $1300 Contact to Purchase Few women were strong and capable enough to ride steers, but Fannie Sperry Steele was a glowing exception. Here, at the Gilman Stampede, September 1-3, 1917, when she was thirty, Fannie out-performed her male counterparts.
Where the Champion Bronco Rider Lived
Oil on Canvas 30 ” x 20″ $1200 Contact to Purchase Sleeping Giant Ranch On this ranch thirteen children were born to Fannie’s sister, Carrie, and her husband, Joe Hilger. Viola, the youngest was the only one born in the fine new house in the foreground of the painting. Mr. Hilger owned the saw mill and produced all the boards he needed to build it. Viola never saw her mother until she was two, for her grandmother was ill, and Carrie lived at her family’s home, the Sperry ranch, to care for the grand lady until she died. School for […]
Cathedral of Ranching
Oil on Canvas 18 ” x 14″ $750 Contact to Purchase Settle Ranch The Settle Ranch in Trinity Gulch, now devoted to cattle, has two large, magnificent, wooden sheds. These, with giant cedar pillars, were built by the Chevallier family during the hey day of sheep ranching in Montana. In the murky light I felt the spirits of years long passed, just as I did in the great cathedrals at Notre Dame, Winchester, Nidaros, and others.
Aunt Fannie’s Kitchen
2007 Oil on Canvas 16 ” x 20″ $800 Contact to Purchase Sleeping Giant Ranch Peeking through the window of the large house, I could see the warm, cozy kitchen in which the thirteen Hilger children were raised and where Fannie Steele came to live her final years. I could almost hear the children bounding about while Carrie rode herd on them, and I could almost smell the goodies baking in her wood stove.
Welcome
Oil on Canvas 9″ x 12″ $500 Contact to Purchase Gehring Ranch Great-Grandfather Gehring drove all he owned from Indiana to start a new life in the early 1860’s. He had just completed his tour-of-duty in the Civil War, taken a job as wagon driver, and searched for the perfect homestead. After a harrowing descent down the steep hill where his brakes nearly burned out, he stopped the horses to rest. As he looked about he knew he had found home, so he built the log house and there three generations carried on his dream. As the old coffee pot […]