During the 1860s a farming community known as Willow Creek was established in the lower Willow Creek valley and in the bottomlands along both banks of the Jefferson River. The Willow Creek community was dominated by two major cultural groups: a number of disaffected Mormons from Utah and a group related by marriage and friendship that had migrated from western Missouri. The group of Mormons included James Green (from Provo in 1864.)

James Green appears to have had a leadership role in the large group of Mormons who migrated from Utah to Gallatin County during the 1860s and 1870s: he was one of the first disaffected Mormons to settle in the Willow Creek area. Most importantly, Green helped transfer Mormon agriculture and irrigation methods to Montana; his arrival in 1864 surely involved him in the planning and construction of several of the irrigation ditches for which water rights were established during the mid-1860s. He was the first settler to hire a teacher to educate his children. The settlers in Willow Creek were initially squatters, since there was no means to record land claims. James Green established a ranch in 1864.

Green used Agricultural College Script in 1871 and the patented homestead process, from 1871-77, to obtain title to a large tract in the irrigated valley.

This property is significant in the history of settlement of the Willow Creek area and the establishment and development of irrigation-base agriculture in the Gallatin Valley. The ranch has significance as a first-period homestead in the Willow Creek area, developed for irrigated crop raising during the initial phase of settlement and agricultural development in the area.

The bank barn is an important and relatively rare surviving example of a late nineteenth-century barn in the Willow Creek area. The barn is also probably one of the earliest surviving gambrel-roofed barns in the greater area. The chevron patterned designs on the doors suggest pride of ownership and the importance of the building in the farm complex. The Log Granary/Dwelling (possibly 1864, 20’ x 27’ in size) was a granary converted into a dwelling. The Kents (descendents of Joseph Green, one of James Greens sons) lived in the structure during the 1950s.

The James Green property remained within the family for over 100 years until it was eventually sold in 2004.   James Green’s original homestead cabin (cir. 1864) remains on the site.  It was completely renovated in 2006 by the new owners along with a large barn built in 1888.