Montana Ghost Towns:

View of Bannack from
 Cemetary Hill

3 day layover in Dillon Montana so we could explore some ghost towns. Pretty neat stuff allot of history about the gold rush of 1862. Three towns all interelated, Bannack, Virgina City and Nevada City. Virgina City and Nevada City are pretty commercialized and touristy, still some good history but by far Bannack is a true ghost town.

Definitely some pretty shady characters. We learned about "Road Agents" (They were the bad dudes, robbers, murderers) and the "Vigilanties" (They were the good Dudes). One particular Road Agent was Henry Plummer a Sheriff from Nevada City CA. He was imprisoned at San Quentin for manslaughter. Released in 1859 he arrived in Bannack in 1862 and because he had Sheriff experience they made him the Town Sheriff. Bad move on their part. He hired a bunch of "Road Agents" to help him. Between Dec 23,1863 and the end of Jan 1864 The vigilaties had hung over 20 Road agents including Henry Plummer their Sheriff for robbery, murders etc. What was interesting is that Henry Plummer prior to the hangings had ordered that the gallows be built to hang a murderer John Horan. Little did he know that he'd be hanging from the same gallows some 2 Months after their construction.

It was awesome to be able to walk freely into those old buildings. You could actually feel like you were part of that era.

The Gallows