Bannack Montana Ghost Town (Part 1)

 

Bannack, Montana Ghost Town (Part 1)

In July, 1862, John White and several other “Pikes Peaker’s” discovered gold along Grasshopper Creek, as they named it.  They called it that due to the large numbers of grasshoppers along the shore.  Little did they know, the creek had already been named “Willards Creek” by Lewis and Clark.  White quickly filed a mining claim, and by the fall, Bannack had a population of about 400.  By spring, the population had grown to 3,000.  Bannack was named after the Bannack Indians, who frequented the area.  Bannack is now a state park, and many of the buildings have been preserved so we can all appreciate the lives that once lived here.

This building was once owned by the Turner family, and it also served as a Post Office and barbershop in addition to a residence. 

Here are some views from inside the Turner House.  I really love the old wallpaper.  I would love it as quilting fabric!!

This building was the Assay Office, and was one of the first and important buildings in Bannack.  It analyzed the minerals brought in by the miners.  Interestingly, some of Bannack’s gold was assayed at 99.5% pure as refined gold.  Most gold is assayed at 80% - 95% pure, so Bannack’s gold was more pure.  This building also served as the stage station and butcher shop..

As is true for many buildings in Bannack, this building not only served as the City Drug Store, it also was a general store, another assay office and even a school when the regular school was in disrepair.  In addition, the first telephone in Bannack was installed in this building in 1889.

This brick building had 2 very different lives.  It is the first brick building in Bannack, and was built in 1875 to serve as the Beaverhead County Courthouse.  However, in 1880, the town of Dillon was established by the Utah and Northern Railroad, and because of the railroad, Dillon became the economic heart of the county.  After several political battles, it also became the county seat, and this courthouse was no longer needed.  However, in 1981, it was purchased by Dr. John Singleton Meade for only $1,250, and remodeled it and turned it into a rather plush hotel.  The hotel operated on and off, as mining activity increased or decreased, until the 1940s.

It was amazing walking into Hotel Meade.  As we entered the front door, a beautiful winding staircase was off to our right.  I could imagine the ladies in their finest coming down those stairs for dinner.  The stove that now sits just outside the kitchen is impressive, too. We got to go upstairs and see some views from the window, see some rooms in a state of disrepair, and get to see a vintage quilt on a bed from the era. The furnishings in that room were donated by the Sons and Daughters of Montana Pioneers and Their Friends.

This building, Skinner’s Saloon, was moved from nearby Yankee Flats to Main Street, Bannack, in 1863.  The owner, Cyrus Skinner, and a man named Henry Plummer had both served time in San Quentin Penitentiary in California.  This saloon served as a popular gathering place for Henry Plummer’s Road Agents.  Although Skinner left Bannack before Plummer was hanged, he was tracked down and hanged for his alleged role as a spy for the Road Agents.  After Skinner left, this building served a more legitimate use as a general store.

We were able to enter this building as well, and it was interesting to see the bar that perhaps was used as a counter in the general store, some table, chairs and a piano that was most likely used when this was a saloon, and, perhaps most curiously, a barber’s chair!

This is a collection of various mining tools and equipment used over the years in Bannack.  When you think of what heavy equipment looks like today, these almost look like toys – although they are a tad heavier!!

Off in the distance, we could see The Gallows, were used to hang those who were determined to be criminals.  Vigilante justice was often swift, and resulted in hangings that weren’t necessarily warranted.

Here we have Bachelors’ Row!  When miners first arrived at Bannack, during warm months, they slept wherever they could, caring more about mining gold and other minerals, than where they slept at night.  However, when the weather turned cooler, and then cold, they quickly built this row of cabins that is parallel to but behind Main Street.

The Roe/Graves House was built by William Roe in 1866 or 1867.  Although Roe did file a mining claim, he made his living by opening a general store and meat market and soon after licensed a banking business to buy gold.  He was one of the vigilantes who captured Plummer (mentioned above) and later moved to Dillon.  F.L. Graves then acquired the house and developed the first electric gold dredge. 

This church was the only one specifically built as a place of worship  Before the church was built, when traveling ministers would come into Bannack, they found the bars and saloons open on Sunday.  One of them, “Brother Van” as he was known, went into one of them one day and announced he was a minister.  The owner of the saloon then announced that the saloon would be closed for one hour.  Brother Van had a good voice and sang a popular song of the day, “A Diamond in the Rough”.  People were hungry for that type of entertainment, and stayed to hear more and also get some religion! 

The church was another building we could walk into, and both Jeff and I thought the pews looked a lot like student desk seats, minus the desks!  The piano was also in the church, off to the side, stored.  I did get a very nice picture of the arched window above the entrance door.  However, we didn’t see any sort of alter, or podium from which the minister might do readings and homilies.

These two buildings rounded out the end of one side of Main Street in Bannack.  Bootleggers Cabin (top) housed the last known bootleggers to operate in Bannack.  When they learned the law was after them, they disappeared in the night.  The second building (bottom) was Xavier Renois’ Cabin.  This little cabin was built with hand tools by Renois, a French Canadian.  He was a member of the Masonic Lodge and the school board.

This rounds out the first half of our exploration of the ghost town of Bannack, Montana.  Stay tuned – there’s lot more to come!!

Enjoy!

Bannack Montana Ghost Town (Part 2)

 

 

Bannack, Montana Ghost Town (Part 2)

Let’s continue with our tour of the ghost town of Bannack, Montana.  This had to be the most complete deserted ghost town we’ve seen to date.  Without further ado, let’s continue our tour…

The building on the right in the image is The Bessette House, the home to one of the view individuals who lived to what was considered old age back in these days.  Mitty Bessette arrived in Bannack in 1864, and lived until 1919.  After he died, this house was used to house those suffering from illnesses that required they be quarantined until they recovered or died.  For that reason, it is believed to be haunted. The building to the left in the image was the Spokane Mining House.  It served as the place of business for one of the last companies to try hard rock mining.

The Ovitt Store was like many buildings in Bannack, in that it had several different “lives”.  Some of the “lives” it had were as a boarding house, bakery and saloon before Mabel Ovitt bought it .  Mable was born in 1896, and was the town author, writing a book on Bannack and the Vigilante/Road Agent activities, known as “Golden Treasure”.  In addition to being an author and running the store, Mable owned a mine in the hills above Bannack, and she was forever seeking the Mother Lode.  Sadly, in 1968, while heading to her mine, while opening a gate, Mabel’s car’s transmission failed and Mabel was crushed beneath its wheels.  She is buried in Bannack’s cemetery and her headstone reads, “Our Golden Treasure”.

Building #19 – When the gold rush was at its peak, the Bannack Jail was rarely used.  After all, people would rather be mining gold than watching prisoners.  The larger image of the jail is one of two jail buildings, and it was built around 1863.  This was the first jail in what became The Montana Territory. For prisoners in the jail, when they looked out the barred windows, the gallows were plainly visible.

We did have a bit of fun at the jail.  Jeff went inside and you can see him peeking out of the window.  Inside, the building is definitely showing some wear.  I was amazed at the small slot that was what I think of as the food slot, where meals were placed, so prisoners could eat.

This small building, Chrisman’s Store, served many purposes – news bureau, university, and social settlement, which applied apparently only to men.  But, then, most of the residents, at least in Bannack’s early days, were men.  It is believed that Henry Plummer had his office in the back of this building, and Dutch John Wagoner was hanged from its rafters.

These two buildings are known as the Gibson Houses.  The larger, 2 story house was originally known as the Montana Hotel.  When the Gibson’s acquired it in 1890, they continued to use it as a rooming house.  The smaller building was used as their home.  In a former life, it was a blacksmith shop.

This building served as both the Masonic Lodge in Bannack and the Schoolhouse.  The Lodge built the combination building in 1874.  The Lodge is on the second floor, reached by outside stairs on the side of the building.  You can see them toward the back of the building.  There isn’t much to see of the Lodge portion of the building, so I didn’t photograph it.  The school is on the first floor, and served students from K – 8^th grade.  The school was over 70 years old when it closed in the early 1940s.

Inside the schoolhouse, you see rows and rows of desks are still there.  There is an old fashioned merry-go-round outside in the front yard area, and visitors are instructed NOT to try to ride on it!

Doctor Ryburn was one of the last doctors in Bannack.  He practiced here from 1897 to 1915.  He began traveling by horse and buggy and ended up traveling by auto.  Since his patients didn’t always have money, he accepted payment in kind, taking chickens, vegetables, and other items his patients had to trade with.

John Carhart owned this house when he mined around Bannack for about 30 years.  It was built in the 1860s  The fake brick siding was popular in the 1920s and 1930s.

Augustus Graeter and his wife, Emily Drury, were married in Nebraska in 1860 and moved to Bannack in 1862.  In partnership with A.J. Smith, Graeter built the Smith - Graeter Ditch in 1863 to provide water for mining.  He worked on other things as well and was one of the founders of the State Bank and Trust in Dillon.

No, this small cottage is NOT Montana’s First Governor’s mansion.  However, it’s on the site of the mansion.  The mansion is long gone, but when it existed, it was home to the Governor, Sidney Edgerton, his wife, Mary, and their four children.  They moved from Ohio and remained for a while, but Mrs. Edgerton never really forgot their home in Ohio.

We’ve now completed the tour of Bannack.  It’s a remarkable ghost town, and I’m glad we got to see it.  Hope you enjoyed seeing the buildings and getting a taste of the history of this town!

Enjoy!

Garnet Montana Ghost Town

 

Garnet, Montana Ghost Town

The year is 1898.  In January, children raced to school down muddy streets.  Teamsters drove their horses down these streets.  Mining hoists clanged, and whistles blew.  Quartz and gold ore could be found in the mines here. About 1,000 people called Garnet home then.  However, by 1905, only 150 remained.  By 1917, Garnet miners had unearthed about $950,000 of gold (which was valued at $17/ounce then).  Although the town limped along for many more years, by 1917, Garnet’s heyday came to an end, although the last resident didn’t leave until the mid-1960s. All that’s left of the town are some buildings, most deserted.  They all tell the story of this town.  They have been maintained and stabilized to remain as close to what they once were as possible.

Before we walked the path down to the town, we saw a very small cemetery at the top of the hill (town was at the bottom).  This cemetery is called Sand Park Cemetery, and five simple graves pay tribute to five miners who died while working the mines in Garnet.  Their names are Willard Ross (d. 1895), Tom Williams (d. 1898), William Hamilton (d. 1905), William Sheehan (d. 1906) and Frank Holmes (d. 1914).  That is all that’s really known about these five souls.  Others who died, who had family or others that cared about them, were buried in “consecrated ground” in Missoula or Deer Lodge.  There were also others buried in this cemetery; however, there is nothing left of those graves.

This cabin can be rented over the winter months, as a hunting base.  Those who might rent it may want to raise a toast to Old and Marion Dahl, the former owners of this cabin.  Prior to Prohibition ending in 1933, they operated this cabin as a “Speakeasy” (aka underground tavern).  The speakeasy was frequented by miners who reopened some of the mines back in the 1930s.  Once the couple could legally have a tavern, they moved into this cabin, and added a front porch, side porch and kitchen.  Marion Dahl lived here through the mid-1960s, and holds a place in history as Garnet’s last full-time resident.

This building was once the Dahl Saloon, and operated from 1938 until the mid-1960s, when Marion Dahl left Garnet.  It had electricity that was produced by the Dahl’s electric light generator.  The site on. which it was built once housed another saloon and restaurant build by Mel Stairs in the late 1890s.  Fire destroyed that original saloon, and the Dahls built a new one. As you can see, it’s now the home to the Garnet Visitors’ Center.

This 2-story building used to be Kelly’s Saloon.  It was constructed before 1898, with Bob Moore as its owner.  Back then, it was called “Bob Moore Saloon”.  In October, 1989, L.P. Kelly bought the saloon from Bob Moore.  Since Kelly had a partner named Thomas Frazer and the saloon became known as “Kelly and Frazer Saloon”.  Over the years, several other ownership changes happened, but Kelly still kept operating it, so it became known as “Kelly’s Saloon”.  It was one of 13 saloons in Garnet during the hey day of Garnet.  Looking at the remains of the town now, it’s hard to imagine there being enough people here (mostly men) to keep 13 saloons busy!

We could walk into Kelly’s Saloon and it was very interesting to see the bar still standing, along with tables where some customers would have sat, what looked to be some sort of radio, and a small stove to keep the saloon warm in the winter months.  I felt like I could almost hear the rowdy fun that went on there back then!

What looks like 2 buildings built right next to each other (reminded me of a duplex type of structure) is only 1 building, the Davey Store.  Frank A. Davey purchased the building in 1901.  The building itself is one of the oldest in Garnet, built before 1898.  Frank Davey operated the store until 1947, when he died.

One could get just about anything one might need from the Davey Store – dry goods, shoes, jewelry, cuts of meat, canned goods, mining tools, hardware items, and apparently even skies!. In the 1910s, it also functioned as the Post Office. 

Further down the block was a rather impressively sized building, standing 2 stories high and quite long!  This building is the old JK Wells Hotel, and was build in late 1897.  Mrs. Wells designed it after one she owned in Bearmouth, Montana, about 10 miles away.  Of course, back in those days, 10 miles was quite the distance away!!  Such events as the Masquerade Ball, Hard Times Ball and St. Patrick’s Day Calico Ball were held in this hotel.  Looking through the windows, we could see some tables and chairs set up for meals, and even got a peek at the kitchen!

Along the main street in town, we also saw the remains of what was the carpenter’s shop, and old mine that was closed off when the mining there was done, and a sample of the lovely flowers we saw blooming along our walk to town, and in certain areas of town.

This cabin was built by Bill Hebner and his son in 1949.  They planned to rebuild a mill in the area and live in this house.  However, they never ended up living in this cabin.  It now serves as the staff office, and when we visited, it was manned by a volunteer, who was camped out not far from the town.

The last 2 buildings that we looked at were a building built as a cabin, but then converted to a livery stable (builder nearer to us) and Hanifen House.  The Hanifen House was built in the early 1900s by Hugh Hanifen, who lived in it until 1926.  It was then the home of Mrs. Cleary, a schoolteacher, until 1926.  The house closer to us was built between 1896 – 1900, by Frank A. Davey (who owned the store mentioned earlier), who purchased it and converted it to a livery stable, where he could house his stagecoach.  If you look closely at the image, you can see a carriage in the stable.

There were more buildings to the town; however, given the sun and heat of the day, after viewing these, we considered ourselves officially “pooped” and headed back up the hill to our Jeep.  Perhaps we’ll visit here again sometime and check out the other buildings in town!

Enjoy!

 

 

East Glacier National Park

 East Glacier National Park

Another day when we were in the Glacier National Park area, we decided to explore the east side of Going to the Sun Road.  In order to access it, we needed to drive around the southern portion of the Park.  We did see some interesting sights along this route….

For a time, our drive paralleled the route that the Amtrak Empire Builder was taking.  This train route begins in Chicago and travels west, ending in Seattle.  However, in this case, the train was heading in an easterly direction and was also skirting the southern boundary of the Park.

Along the way, we found (on the map) what appeared to be a bit of a shortcut to the East Entrance to the Park and took that.  Due to the very winding road along this “shortcut”, we felt we really didn’t save any time.  However, we sure got to see some lovely views of the outside of Glacier National Park East!

Just after entering the East Entrance, we got to see a peek at St. Mary Lake.  We also noticed some interesting rock formations.  Notice how the rock layers are somewhat curved.  Over millions of years, the curved formation would have been caused by shifting of the rock layers, which typically would have occurred due to continental drift.  The glaciers would then have carved into the rock layers, exposing what we see here. There were also some wildflowers blooming, adding a nice touch of color.

Off to the right of the road were the Baring Falls.  Here are a couple of views of the lower end of the falls.  You can see in the image on the lower left, how fast the water was flowing.  This is not some lazy river, meandering down the mountain!!

Here are a couple of views of the higher part of the Baring Falls, that we could reach by walking up some steps and a path leading to the top of the falls.  These views don’t represent the top, but are partway up.  Notice how fast the water is rushing.  The image in the lower right is of the water rushing over some rocks.  It’s very, very clear and rushing just as fast as it is clear.

This was as far up as we could see the Baring Falls, as it flows through the Sunrift Gorge.  The trail goes up the falls about ¾ mile.  We didn’t scramble up that last part, but this view was pretty without the scramble!  Again, notice how clear the water is!

Here’s a view of Virginia Falls from the road.  The hike out and back to the falls is about 2-3 miles and not one we chose to do.  Still, the falls is rather pretty, even from a distance.

Just across from Baring Falls and Sunrift Gorge is a view of Wild Goose Island in St. Mary Lake.  I purposefully took a wide view shot of the island, so you could see how small it truly is.  The sky looks very threatening in this image.  It was a rather overcast day but didn’t really seem as threatening as the image shows!!

Sometimes, along the creeks and streams, there are some small blossoms.  Seeing such tiny pieces of nature’s perfection amid such grandeur, I just must pause and relish these tiny bits of inspiration.

We did see two more creeks along the road, across the way from St. Mary Lake – the Creek at Rising Sun (on the upper left) and Rose Creek (lower right).

A peek at Jackson Glacier was as far as we could travel on the east side of Glacier National Park.  There is a platform where I suppose one gets a clearer view of the glacier – however, I prefer this sort of peek at it through the trees.  It just feels truer to the feel of the Park.

I thought I’d end this recap of Glacier National Park on a bit of a lighter note, with a couple of images of some mountain goats we saw on our drive back to the campground.  If you look closely at the image on the right, you’ll see what I think is Mama Mountain Goat relaxing on the side of a mountain that was perhaps a bit steeper than a 45-degree angle.  And, to her right, almost hidden by the trees, is her little baby.  The image on the left reflects, I believe Papa Mountain Goat.  There is a stream at the base of this mountain that they had been drinking from, and then they climbed up here to relax for the afternoon!

Enjoy!