Archives West Finding Aid

William Andrew Patt (1860-1957) was born on January 21, 1860 in Central Falls, Rhode Island. He came west around 1878 and established a ranch in the Upper Madison Valley along Grayling Creek in 1885. He worked off the ranch occasionally as a builder in both Idaho and Yellowstone National Park and also guided hunting parties which traveled through the area. One of these hunting parties in 1886 may have included Theodore Roosevelt. In 1889, Patt married Emma Kerzenmacher in Helena, Montana. The couple eventually had nine children. Patt was asked by the "Montana Park and Hotel Society" in Helena to keep a journal recording weather conditions in the Upper Madison Valley. Every two weeks he transcribed his diary entries and mailed them to the Society. In 1897 the Patt family left Montana for Pleasant Valley (Humphrey) Idaho and their ranch was taken over by Mrs. Patt's brother, Peter Kerzenmacher. The entire place was flooded by Hegben Lake around 1914. William Patt died in Pocatello, Idaho on June 6, 1954.