Bannack Montana State Park

InsideMT was contracted by the Montana Office of Tourism and Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks to capture advertising media of Bannack State Park, a real Montana gold rush ghost town.

Embark on an adventure into the Old West when you tour Montana’s Bannack State Park. Stroll the boardwalks of Montana’s best preserved mining ghost town. In 1862, John White discovered a rich vein of gold near Bannack, sparking a mass migration into the region. Bannack’s gold was more than 99% pure, inspiring miners, deserters of the Civil War, businessmen and troublemakers alike to flood into this rugged corner of Montana.

Explore Grasshopper Creek were placer miners drudged out tons of gold at $30 an ounce in 1863 when the town was booming. These nineteenth century mining camps spontaneously erupted overnight throughout Montana and the Wild West.

Bannack was a remote, booming gold town full of fast money and few laws. Henry Plummer arrived in town and boldly assigned himself as sheriff, but not everyone in Bannack saw the security he promised. Allegedly, Plummer organized a posse of locals to hijack caravans laden with gold on their way to Virginia City. Known as one of the deadliest trails in the West, no one was spared during these heartless attacks. Soon enough, Plummer and his gang were locked up by the infamous Vigilantes in the same jail he built before being walked to the gallows on a cold January day.

Take a stroll up the crooked path to the hanging gallows where Plummer and his deputies were lynched (without trial) in 1864. If you listen closely, you can still hear the clattering hooves of Vigilante horses on the frozen ground, and see Plummer’s last breath in the air under the gallows.