page_title: Mel Pervais
section_title: Chief Joseph Ranch
hierarchical_section_title: Mel Pervais / Chief Joseph Ranch
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Chief Joseph Ranch, once owned by Mel Pervais
context_page_description: Melvin "Mel" Pervais is a Canadian-American business executive, entrepreneur, engineer and member of the Ojibwa Nation.
context_section_description: In 1987, Pervais bought the 1,400-acre (5.7 km²) Chief Joseph Ranch, including a 5,000-square-foot (460 m²) lodge built in 1917, a summer home for the family of William Ford. After the Fords sold it in 1952, it traded hands several times. When Pervais took it over, the ranch was in poor shape; the barns were falling apart and its perimeter was unfenced. Pervais improved the property and extensively renovated the lodge to its Ford-era conditions over a ten-year period. At the time, he owned a pet bobcat, Toma, named for one of Chief Joseph's wives. Pervais sold the ranch in 2004. Today it is a bed and breakfast.
caption: Chief Joseph Ranch in Darby, Montana.
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