History of the Quirk Ranch

 The Barn & Emmet Quirk

A couple of Irish brothers and a dream! Tom and Maurice Quirk arrived in the Tobacco Valley of North Western Montana in 1880. And for the next 140 years, Quirk decendants have diligently and passionately expanded the ranch acreage and successfully raised healthy livestock.

Every generation has kept an open mind to introducing new enterprises on the ranch to provide diversity and financial stability. Our family has persisted through ranch floods, fires, the scourge of polio, the Great Depression, Prohibition, 23 U.S. Presidents, multiple wars, recessions, droughts, and the transfer of ownership through four succeeding generations. We attribute a lot of our success to a stubborn streak coupled with a premium placed on lifelong learning and education; both in the classroom and in field and pasture. A generational and reinforced Quirk conviction is that all family members be well educated for individual independence and to ensure continued family success.

Emmet and Grace had two daughters, one of whom returned to the ranch with her husband. Leland and Faye Driggs had three daughters and their youngest, Amy, continues the family ranch with her husband Jeff Peterson and their children Stella and Declan.

Grace is Not Just her name

Grace Downing

In 1937 Emmet Quirk married Grace Downing, a U.C Berkeley educated and well-loved local high school English teacher who joined him at the ranch. Grace was intelligent, kind, and quietly persistent. We named our beef and lamb business after our grandmother as a tribute to these beautiful and important qualities; all of them are necessary to the way we raise and handle our livestock.

Family Business

In recent decades the members of the Quirk ranch have embraced new ideas and regenerative agriculture practices including management intensive grazing, low stress stock handling and a strong focus on soil health. These have improved the overall health of the domestic animals, soils, grasslands and surrounding natural environment. We welcome your interest and are always happy to answer questions about the way we raise our cattle and sheep. We aim to provide you with an excellent healthy product while also being good stewards of this land.

Please contact Amy Driggs with any questions:
Call/Text: 208-310-6664, Email: adriggs@graceyourplate.com