Ebert Ranch
Born in Vermont in 1842, Napoleon Ebert came to the West from Wisconsin in the 1880s, following the construction of the Northern Pacific railbeds. Ebert found his fortune here in the upper Yellowstone Valley, where he spent several months in a construction camp west of the new town of Livingston in 1883. This site became the nucleus of his original 160-acre land claim. The land claim expanded to include several thousand acres, and Ebert and his sons eventually raised sheep and grew grain and alfalfa. Active in local politics, Ebert served as county commissioner and in the state legislature, defeating his friend, neighbor, and fellow sheepman John Harvat. This one-and-one-half- story home of wood and locally quarried sandstone was constructed as ranch headquarters in 1892. A large octagonal bay and irregular roofline combining a hipped roof and gabled dormers reveal influence of the Queen Anne style. These popular nineteenth-century elements, together with a wooden porch, box posts, and bead-jointed stonework, present an unusual and pleasing combination. The appearance of the ranch house today remains little changed from the 1890s, a sturdy reminder of the agricultural side of Livingston’s heritage.
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