This Historic State Park Is a Preserved Ghost Town & Montana’s First Capital

The Ghost Town That Struck Gold

In southwest Montana sits Bannack State Park, home to one of America’s best-kept ghost towns from the 1860s gold rush.

It’s now a 1600-acre National Historic Landmark with 60 historic buildings straight from that era. Here are some interesting facts about one of the most unique state parks in the US.

The Grasshopper Gold Strike

When John White found gold in Grasshopper Creek in 1862, people rushed to Bannack hoping to get rich. Within just one year, 3,000 people called this place home.

The creek, named after the many grasshoppers nearby, gave up $2 to 3 million in gold by 1876. Among those who came were 300 Chinese workers who built their community here.

If you visit now, you can still try panning for gold with a $5 permit from the visitor center.

First Territorial Capital

Bannack was once the bustling first capital of the Montana Territory from 1864 to 1865. It hosted the first session of the Montana Territorial Legislature in 1864.

But it’s status as the capital was short-lived, lasting only a year until 1865, when the capital moved to Virginia City. Today, Bannack’s weathered streets and stark, abandoned buildings evoke the vibrant history of a town that briefly held Montana’s political heart.

The Masonic Lodge and Schoolhouse

At the Masonic Lodge, built in 1874, kids learned their lessons on the first floor, while secret Masonic meetings happened upstairs.

The building still has its old wooden desks where students carved their names. You can see the original floors, blackboards from Wisconsin, and a big iron stove from St. Louis.

Look closely at the building’s east side to spot the special ‘G’ symbol used by the Masons.

The Sheriff Who Became an Outlaw

Henry Plummer’s story sounds like something from a movie. He was both the town sheriff and the leader of a dangerous gang called ‘The Innocents.’

While wearing his sheriff’s badge in 1863, he secretly led his gang to rob and kill travelers for their gold.

The townspeople finally caught on to Plummer’s crimes. On January 10, 1864, they hanged him from a wooden gallows that you can still see in Bannack today. Estimates suggest that the gang was responsible for 21 to 30 deaths.

Hotel Meade’s Elegant Past

What started as a courthouse in 1875 became the fancy Hotel Meade in 1890.

Dr. John Singleton Mead bought the building for $1,250 and spent $8,000 making it into a hotel that would impress any visitor. The red bricks (noted for being the first brick building in Montana) came from clay found right outside town.

It took 50,000 of them to build it. Inside, bits of fancy French wallpaper that cost $12 per roll still cling to the walls of what was once a grand dining room.

The Deadly Winter of 1863

The winter of 1863-1864 brought terrible sadness to Bannack when many children got sick with diphtheria. Between December and February, 20 to 30 young lives were lost.

These children now rest in Boot Hill Cemetery, which sits on a hill 400 yards north of town. When you visit, you’ll see a mix of stone markers and wooden crosses. The youngest child buried there was just three months old.

The Town’s Unusual Power Source

The first electric light in Montana was installed at the Alice Mine in Butte in 1880, marking an early use of electricity in the state.

The water-powered system in Bannack utilized local water sources like Grasshopper Creek to generate electricity. The system made enough power for 500 people and worked until 1942, when the last mine closed.

You can still see parts of this old power system, including the generator house and wooden water channels, along the creek today.

The Chinese Heritage

Some historical records do suggest that Chinese miners constructed secret tunnels under Main Street. And special radar technology shows, they’re still there.

These passages, 4 to 6 feet high and 400 feet long, gave them safe places to store things and hide when people treated them badly.

In 1995, over 1,000 old items were discovered, from medicine bottles with Chinese writing to pieces of special green pottery.

The Last Resident

Dorothy Kidd lived in Bannack until 1970, making her the town’s last permanent resident. For 20 years, she showed visitors around the ghost town, charging just 25 cents and sharing life stories there.

Today, you can visit her small two-room house, built in 1868. Inside, you’ll find her things just as she left them, including her 1925 Singer sewing machine and books about Montana’s history.

Preservation Through Decay

The park takes care of Bannack’s buildings through ‘arrested decay.’ This method, started by Charles Peterson in 1973, keeps the buildings from falling down while letting them age naturally.

Using materials like square nails and local stone, they’ve saved 60 old buildings, including the jail from 1863, the church from 1864, and Graves House from 1865. This careful work helps Bannack stay one of the most real-looking ghost towns in the West.

The Gallows Grove Mystery

Near town stands a group of cottonwood trees called ‘Gallows Grove,’ where 24 people were hanged between 1863 and 1865. This incident made headlines in Virginia City’s newspaper, the Montana Post.

A man named Wilbur Sanders marked each tree with numbers to match each hanging. While these marks have mostly worn away, scientists who studied the trees in 2008 found proof that ropes had damaged the wood, just as the old stories said.