Historic Eureka ranch honored by Cowboy Hall of Fame

At Quirk Cattle Co. near Eureka, sustainability isn’t just a buzzword.

The Quirk family has sustained a thriving ranch in the Tobacco Valley for close to 140 years, and now they’re being recognized for that longevity by the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame aims to “honor our cowboy way of life, American Indian cultures and collective Montana Western heritage,” according to the organization’s mission statement. Quirk Cattle Co. will be among the 12th class of inductees in Great Falls in February.

Fourth-generation rancher Amy Driggs said recognition in the Hall of Fame is an “unexpected honor.”

Amy is the great-granddaughter of Quirk Cattle Co. founder Maurice Quirk, who started the historic enterprise with his brother Tom in the 1880s. The family ranching tradition began when the brothers immigrated from Ireland in the late 1800s. Tom happened upon the Eureka area while on a quest for gold in western British Columbia and Maurice stowed away on a freighter to join him after hearing it was “one of the most beautiful places he had ever seen.”

Along with their sister Johanna and Maurice’s four children, the Quirk brothers “focused on building up the finest ranch” at the end of the 19th century. Their cattle, marked with the 101 brand, grazed freely across the valley and surrounding mountains, expanding to land leased from the U.S. Forest Service in the Fortine and Pinkham Creek areas at the height of their expansion.

The resourceful Quirks also diversified their business by running a dance hall, rounding up wild horses for the military, growing peas for the war effort during World War I and even enabling rum runners on their property during Prohibition.

“With every generation there’s significant changes,” Amy related. “In order to survive this long, you have to make changes to keep up with the times.”

The hardy ranching family has weathered its fair share of challenges throughout the decades.

“For the past 139 years, the Quirks have persisted through ranch floods, fire, the scourge of polio, the Great Depression, Prohibition, 22 U.S. presidents, multiple wars, recessions, droughts and the transfer of ownership through four succeeding generations,” the family autobiography reported.

Maurice’s son Emmett took the helm in the 1920s after surviving a bout with polio, then passed the business on to his son-in-law Leland Driggs in 1978. Now under the care of Leland’s daughter Amy and her husband Jeff Peterson, the Quirk Cattle Co. continues to evolve.

Amy has used her marketing and sales focus to expand Quirk Cattle Co.’s reach across North America and into Australia. The ranch has also joined forces with a Northwestern ranching cooperative, Country Natural Beef, which helps with the marketing side of the enterprise.

“It’s a much more sustainable model of marketing for ranchers,” Amy said, because the members of the co-op are able to set their own base prices for beef instead of basing the prices on traditional commodity markets.

“In agriculture, you don’t get to set your base price,” Amy explained. “It’s very important for the survival of family farms and ranches.”

Through the co-op, Quirk Cattle Co. sells its beef to small grocers and larger stores such Whole Foods that emphasize sustainable products. This way, Quirk Cattle Co. can focus on utilizing more environmentally friendly practices instead of simply maximizing production.

“It’s the best possible situation,” Amy said. “It allows us to choose cattle well-suited for our environment.” Cattle branded with the 101 mark are a “smaller red Angus cross” that has a good coat to protect them through the harsh Montana winters.

Through the co-op, Quirk Cattle Co. “can market our beef honestly” and focus on “just treating the animals humanely,” Amy said.

A key part of continuing the family ranching tradition is preserving the land that supports this business and lifestyle. In its more recent history, Quirk Cattle Co. has embraced “regenerative ranching,” using research and community knowledge to develop eco-friendly ranching practices.

About 15 years ago, they switched from traditional range cattle to “intensive grazing,” a “holistic process” that attempts “to mimic nature’s patterns with livestock.”

“That was a huge change for us,” Amy recalled.

As recently as this past summer, they replaced their traditional ditch irrigation system with two large pivots. These large sprinkler systems will “hopefully help us be more effective and efficient with the water we have,” Amy said.

To continue increasing their sustainability, they’re hoping to soon adopt “no till seeding.” This technique reduces disturbance to the soil by avoiding tillage, which Amy said allows ranchers and farmers “to grow healthier soil.”

This fall they tested one small plot with this method and hope to expand the process in the future. “That’s the next big thing we’re starting to implement,” Amy reported.

It’s all part of the dedication and creativity that earned the family recognition in the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame.

“We’re the longest-existing business in this valley,” she said. ”We’ve been around forever. We refuse to give up.”

Reporter Bret Anne Serbin may be reached at bserbin@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.