Night sky over Bannack.
Founded by gold prospectors on Grasshopper Creek in the territory of Montana in 1862, Bannack briefly became the territorial capital of Montana in 1864 until Virginia City took its place. Being very remote, only served by the Montana Trail (running north-south from Utah to SW Montana), it still grew to over 10000 residents. Sheriff Plummer was accused of leading a secret gang of road agents that was rumored to have murdered at least 100 in the area. Plummer was hanged, along with two of his deputies in January of 1864 without trial. A number of Plummer's associates were lynched and others banished on pain of death if they ever returned. Twenty-two individuals were accused, informally tried, and hanged by the Vigilance Committee (the Montana Vigilantes) of Bannack and Virginia City. Nathaniel Pitt Langford, the first superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, was a member of that vigilance committee. The last residents of Bannack moved in the 1970s.
More than 132,000 ounces of gold were mined in Bannack in the 1860's, all of it placer gold.
Photo is the schoolhouse/union hall, taken by Andy Austin
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