Kyla

Report on Bannack, Montana

March 26, 2001

 Bannack: Montana’s First Best Place

            Gold was the beginning of Montana, and the future of Bannack.   Our state was considered the Last Frontier, the last for the discovery of gold.  Bannack was Montana’s First Best Place.  The river that flows [WSD1] through it was Montana’s first discovery of gold and this mining camp was the first town to be made.  From hard-working miners to Road Agents, Montana’s first settlement supported a vast variety of citizens and their situations.  The events [WSD2] that happened on the banks of Grasshopper Creek not only shaped a town, but Montana’s future.

            Bannack, Montana is located in the southwestern corner of Montana, on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains.  This valley holds all kinds of weather.  The temperatures are very drastic, having a 90° summer and a record low of -62° in the winter.  A little creek that flows through Bannack is what held the town’s future. (Anderson, 4; Graves, 7)

            On July 28, 1862, John White and other members of ‘Pikes Peakers’ discovered gold in the creeks waters.  The creek, originally named Willard Creek by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was renamed Grasshopper Creek.  This was because of the dense grasshopper population at the time. (Anderson, 2)

            This discovery led to the greatest rush to the West since the California Gold Rush in 1848.  The author of Bannack: Ghost Town stated, “Bannack sprang up over night.” (2; A Window in Time; Graves, 12)

            The mining camp on Grasshopper Creek was named Bannack after the neighboring Bannock Indians.  The Indian relations would not turn out good.  “Sometimes the Indians were more sinned against than sinning.” (Graves, 42; Davis, 48)

            The people who rushed to Bannack were not only miners.  Many came to escape the Civil War (1862-1865), including veterans that did not want to fight again.  Also, many people came with the smart idea of making money off the miners; many set up saloons and general stores. (A Window in Time)

            Bannack’s gold was unlike other gold.  When most gold was 95% pure, Grasshopper Creeks was 99%-99.5% pure[WSD3] . (Anderson, 6)

            Mining became the main attraction in Bannack.  The boomers who traveled to the diggings came for the adventure and wealth.  Miners used picks, shovels, rockers, and sluice boxes in the early days.  Then came hydraulic mining and in 1895 Feilding L. Graves invented the first electric dredge.  Grasshopper Creek soon supported 5 dredges.  The dredging period continued for [WSD4] about 10 years, until most gold had been stripped from the creek. (Graves, 47; A Window in Time)

            Because of the Pikes Peakers discovery, the route to Bannack was considered the ‘New Eldorodo [WSD5] of the North.’  People traveled by wagon, stagecoach, horse back, steamboat, and even foot.  Many people came ill-prepared and lacking supplies, especially since the first winter was very severe.  “The people of Bannack knew a great deal of hardship.  They had crossed the Great Plains, surviving dust storms, drought, rainstorms, drownings, starvation, and Indian attacks, only to arrive in Bannack without even a decent place to live.  Many arrived late in the year with only wagons to live in.  If a family were fortunate enough to find a cabin, if was usually small and uncomfortable.” “By early fall the mining camp boosted a population of about 400 and swelled to 3,000 by spring.” (A Window in Time, Bannack Historical, 2; Anderson, 2, 4)

            The growing mining camp had few permanent buildings.  People of Bannack used tents, caves, dugouts, shanties, huts, brush wikiups, and wagons as shelter.  Once the miners figured that the [WSD6] gold would hold out, they built rough, one-room cabins. (Graves, 12; A Window in Time)

            The jobs Bannack offered were store owners, saloon keepers, freight drivers, merchants, doctors, craftsmen, and of course, miners.  Also there were the industries of farming and ranching.  (Anderson, 6; Bannack Historical, 1).

            Most supplies were expensive at the Grasshopper diggings and the general store was lacking many things.  Bannack had a low supply of flour, butter, milk, horse feed, and also building materials, such as wood and nails.  The population was dependent on mail, better supply, and transportation. (A Window in Time)

            Bannack’s population consisted of mostly men.  Female companionship was lacking.  The women that did live in there would stay at home while the men did all the shopping and gossiping.  If they intruded they were not considered part of the respectable society.   Dances were their only social activity, while words on paper were their only link to their former life, family, and friends. (A Window in Time; Anderson, 4; Davis, 60)

            Although it was a small mining camp, just becoming a town, it had several other things to do than work.  Saloons were where most citizens spent their nights.  Bannack offered many, yet they were all smelly, poorly heated, and drafty.  Also the town had a dance hall where they held about 2 to 3 dances a week.  Sometimes traveling theaters and circuses stopped and served as the main attraction.  Bannack even had a baseball team.  “They were quite professional and played other rural communities, such as Argenta and Mill Point.”  In the winter, many people ice-skated, fighting the freezing cold weather.  Plus, Bannack had a brewery, billiard hall, and bowling alley. (Anderson, 6, 11)

            The first funeral of Bannack was in the fall of 1862.  A service was held and William H. Bell was put to rest.  The first Thanksgiving Feast was held in 1863. (A Window in Time; Graves, 13)

In October of 1863, Bannack’s first day of school was held.  Lucia Darling, niece of Sidney Edgerton who would later be governor of Montana, was the teacher.  Class would be held in her living room.  The next summer, they built a cabin for the increased number of students.  And by 1874 the school would be moved to the Masonic Lodge.  But, by the 1940’s there would be so few students that school would have to close. (Graves, 14; Anderson, 4)

            “In Bannack's early days, outlaws were among the fortune seekers.  Road Agents, as these thieves were called, robbed and even murdered to obtain the gold they wanted.  The lawlessness of the new surroundings was unfamiliar and frightening.” (Bannack Historical, 2)

            Among the many people of Bannack, there was a two-faced escapee.  Henry Plummer had fled both California and Nevada.  When he arrived in Bannack he pretended to set his life anew.  Plummer became the Preserver of Peace, Guardian of Law and Order, a symbol of hospitality, and he built the jails. His home was a scene of dances and receptions for the ‘upper crust’.  After Hank Crawford was appointed first sheriff of Bannack, Henry Plummer made an attempt to kill him.  Crawford fled and the citizens elected Plummer as official sheriff.  At the same time he committed over 100 murders and many stagecoach raids.  He was the leader of the road agent gang, the ‘Innocents’.  This group had 75 to100 members.  Headquarters of the Plummer Gang was at Rattlesnake Ranch and Robbers Roost.  3-7-77 was the deadly sign of the Innocents.  Whenever a person found this written on their door then they would flee or face certain death.  Some people believed that the sign meant the dimensions of a grave, 3 feet wide, 7 feet long, and 77 inches deep, while others thought it meant that the person would have 3 hours, 7 minutes, and 77 seconds to get out of town.  People soon found the other face of Plummer and on January 10, 1863, he was executed by the gallows that he built[WSD7] .  He was buried in Hangman’s Pit. (Flourin, 397; Davis, 45; Miller, 151)

            On December 23, 1863, the Montana Vigilante committee formed.  James Williams directed this group.  Their purpose was to restore law and order, killing highway thieves and murders. They ended up killing approximately 24 of Plummers gang.  (Anderson, 11; A Window in Time)

            The jails that Henry Plummer built were rarely used.  If a person committed a crime then they would be warned to leave town or hung. (Anderson, 12)

            As more people began to settle the West, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Sidney Edgerton Chief Justice of the Idaho Territory.  At the time, Bannack was considered to be in Idaho.  Edgerton, his wife Mary, and their four children arrived in Bannack in September of 1863.  Once in the mining town he decided there was so many people they needed a new territory.  Edgerton convinced the president to make Montana a territory.  On May 26, 1864, it was official, Edgerton became governor, and Bannack became the first territorial capital. (Graves, 42; A Window in Time; Anderson, 3; Porter, 2)

The Legislature of Montana met in Sidney Edgerton’s cabin, which was considered the governors mansion.   To soon the capital was shifted to Virginia City. (Porter, 2; Miller, 151)

            “As the price of gold declined, so did Bannack's population.  It was no longer affordable for the towns people to operate the mines which were the main source of absence of jobs, people were forced to go elsewhere to find suitable means to support their families.”  Over the years Bannack’s population was decreasing.  In May of 1863 gold was discovered 70 miles away, in Alder Gulch.  That night they lost several 100s.  Virginia City and Nevada City were trade rivals.  When trains came to Montana, they put a depot in Dillon, a town just 15 to 20 miles away.  Plus, the county seat moved there. (A Window in Time; Anderson, 6)

            By 1890 there was about 400 people left and by the 1930s very few people remained.  The business and social community had left.  Although the town was never completely deserted, it was considered a ghost town. (A Window in Time)

            August 15, 1954 was the date Bannack became a state park.  This would be the “salvation of a fragile piece of Montana’s History.”  The former mining camp is now a great place for recreation and tourism.  Today, there are over 50 buildings. (Anderson, 16; A Window in Time)

            The events that shaped Bannack and Montana today are genuinely a piece of our states colorful history.  The ghosts that walk the ghost town today tell their adventurous tales through the wind, the buildings, and the creeks waters.  Without gold there would not have been Bannack, without Bannack there wouldn’t be a Montana Territory, and without Montana there would not have been such a fabulous state to live in with important history and culture.  Thanks to the past, all the people and stories.  All in all Bannack truly is Montana’s “First Best Place”.[WSD8]