Image catalogue number
980227T

Houses and outbuildings on the outskirts of Bannack

Bannack is a ghost town located in the Eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains of Montana.

The first gold strike in the Montana territory was discovered near the site of Bannack in 1862. The town was founded and grew to support the gold miners. In it's heydays the population was approximately 3000 individuals.

Bannack's first sheriff was Henry Plummer, whose gang are said to have killed 102 people and robbed countless others before he and his gang of 24 people were caught and hung by town vigilantes.

Bannack grew to become Montana's first territorial capital.

But like many gold boom towns the population slowly left as the mines and stream were mined out and exciting gold strikes were made elsewhere. The miners left followed by the merchants who had no one left to sell to leaving the once thriving territorial capital a ghost town.