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Bannack,
Montana was born in 1862 when
gold was found along Grasshopper Creek. Like other gold rushes,
miners rushed to the settlement in search of their fortunes and before
long the hills around
Bannack
were filled with as many as 10,000 miners. With that many men
during the era of the rough and tumble days of the
Old
West, there was bound to be violence.
 Not long
after the settlement was formed, in walked a man named
Henry
Plummer. Handsome, well dressed and charismatic, he gained
the trust of the area miners and was soon elected sheriff of the
burgeoning community. However, little did the unsuspecting
citizens of
Bannack
know, but their new sheriff led a secret
band of road agents called the "Innocents", who began to terrorize the
travelers between
Bannack and
Virginia
City,
robbing and killing more than 100 men over the next several months.
In December, 1863 the miners formed the
Montana Vigilantes and
during the next forty two days, the Vigilantes hanged 24 of the gang
members, including
Henry Plummer. Later, historians questioned the authenticity of the
outlaw tale, suggesting that the whole story was only a cover for
the ruthless vigilantes themselves. Today, many say that the
ghost of
Henry Plummer haunts
this old settlement, which has long since become a
ghost
town. Perhaps he wants to avenge his name.
At the
Hotel
Meade, which was originally built as a courthouse in 1875, there are
numerous stories of ghostly activity. When
Bannack lost its county seat
status to nearby Dillon in 1881, the building sat vacant until 1890
when it was remodeled into a plush hotel. The hotel opened and
closed sporadically through the years with the ebb and flow of mining activity. At
one time the building acted in the capacity
of a hospital.
Cold spots, the apparition of a teen-age
girl, and sounds of crying children are often reported by those who
visit this old building. The first sighting of a young girl
was well over a hundred years ago. The teen is said to be that
of a girl named Dorothy Dunn who drowned in a dredge pond along the
creek long ago. Shortly after her death, she made her first
appearance to her best friend, who was with her at the time of her
death.
Since then there have been multiple sightings of the teen-age girl wearing
a long blue dress on the second story of the old hotel. These
reports often come from children, one of which reportedly stated that the
ghost of Dorothy Dunn tried to talk to her. The seven year old could
see Dorothy’s mouth moving but no sound came out. Dorothy has also
been sighted standing in an upstairs window by passersby on the street
below.
Yet
more sightings have been reported throughout the town of ghostly women
dressed in their best finery.
When mining played out,
Bannack became a
ghost town in the 1940s. However, the
Montana Department of
Fish, Wildlife, and Parks saved the town from
the elements and vandalism by making it a state park on August 15,
1954.
Today, over sixty structures remain standing,
most of which can be explored. The staff preserve, rather than
restore the buildings of this old town allowing visitors an opportunity to
relive the
American West.
©
Kathy Weiser/Legends
of America, updated March, 2010.
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