Dillon Montana and Bannack State Park

We arrived on Saturday and are staying at the Southside RV Park.  The park is clean, tidy and the owners are very friendly.  The weather here is still iffy, with nice sunny days in the low 60's to chilly chilly windy and snowy.  Seems the high winds are following us along with unseasonably cold.  Yesterday we had winds in the mid 30's with gusts in the 50's-60's.  Come on Spring, lets get going!

The Snake River

This is flat land Montana, Farming everywhere you look

The mountains rise out the flats

What would Montana be without beef?  Everyone has a herd.

Mowgli's favorite spot to travel  

On Sunday we drove 26 miles to Bannack State Park, the best preserved Ghost Town there is.  There are 50 buildings and you can venture into any that are not locked.  The town of Bannack was formed in 1862 when gold was discovered in Grasshopper Creek.  Soon the population exploded to 3000+ by 1863.  When the gold ran out, the town died.  Typical of gold towns, there were feuds, murders and prostitution.  The girls came and went and new arrivals garnered quite a bit of attention.  Hurdy Gurdy girls were entertainers and provided comfort and companionship for $.50 to$1.00 a dance. 

Skinners Saloon had a beautiful carved bar and a barbers chair.  This was the gathering place for Sheriff Henry Plummer and his road agents.    

Many a mug was skid down this bar I would guess

a barbers chair in Skinners Saloon

There were also civilized activities like ice skating,baseball and fancy balls.  The Mason's recognized the need for a school house so they built their lodge and a one room schoolhouse in one building.  The desks looked really uncomfortable!

The Merry Go Round in front of the School House

I would hate to have to sit in these all day long!

The Mason's meeting room

The Gallows were outside of town.  These were permanent structures and were ordered by Sheriff Henry Plummer to hang a convicted murderer.  The Sheriff himself was later hanged from these same Gallows.  The jails were built so the prisoners could see the Gallows from the barred windows.  The prisoners were chained to the floor to keep from escaping.  No one wanted the job of guarding a prisoner since that meant they couldn't be out mining for gold.  The jail was the first one to be built in Montana territory.  

The view of the Gallows from the jail

Prisoners were attached to these 

The Jails

I took so many pictures of the buildings, peeling layers of wallpaper and linoleum on the floors, I will post them in a separate post.  Too many for one post!  To learn more the direct link to the Bannack State Park website is Bannack.org/.

We'll be spending a few more days here as there is lots to see!