The Rankin Ranch is located on the southwestern flank of the
Big Belt Mountains, between Montana Highway 284 and
Helena National Forest. The ranch consists of about of land, most of which is open
prairie. The ranch complex is located on Avalanche Gulch Road, a county road providing access to the national forest, just southwest of the national forest boundary, and is screened by a number of trees. The main house is a modest single-story clapboarded frame structure. The front facade, facing roughly west, is set behind a recessed porch supported by fieldstone posts. The interior, of the house, and the accompanying ranch outbuildings, are not architecturally distinguished. The ranch house is believed to have been built in 1923 by Dan Flouree, the same year the initial parcel of the ranch was purchased by Wellington Rankin, brother of Jeannette Rankin. This ranch became the regular summer home for Jeanette from then until 1956. Of all of the places she lived, it is the place where she spent the most of her time during the height of her political influence. Elected in 1916 to the
United States House of Representatives, she was the first woman elected to Congress. She was a strong
pacificist, opposing American entry into both
World War I and
World War II; in 1941, she was the only member of Congress to oppose the war declaration after the December
Attack on Pearl Harbor. She was a supporter of socially progressive legislation, working to secure
women's suffrage. An area of surrounding the homestead was designated a
National Historic Landmark in 1976, in recognition of Rankin's historic role. ==See also==