Distinctly Montana Magazine

W W W. D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA NA . C O M 65 F I N D Y OU R A D V E N T U R E • SP I R I T A N D I N S P I R A T I O N • VIRGINIA CITY THE CURIOUS AFTERLIFE OF MONTANA'S GHOST TOWNS Article and Photos by JOSEPH SHELTON I visited Bannack next. Its tale is also one of boom-and-bust mining, and like Elkhorn, it has refused to die. In fact thousands of people visit the town for Bannack Days, always held on the third weekend in July, for historical reenactments, educational and entertaining displays, old- timey songs, and delicious food (the peach cobbler this year was to die for). Bannack, named (and misspelled) for the Bannock Indians, was the first territorial capital of Montana and was built on the spot of the territory's first major gold rush in 1862. e population grew to 3,000 a mere year later, and the town became famous, or infamous, when Sheriff Plummer began moonlighting as one of its most industrious highwaymen. He was hung in 1864 for murder and robbery. e actor playing him in this year's Bannack Days spun a more colorful version of the yarn involving Unionist vigilantes trying to stop Sheriff Plum- mer from funding the Confederates. e actor, who sported a long beard and performed his role with theatrical relish, concluded with his frank assessment of this year's election. I thought how in ghost towns, the past and the present bleed into one another. In the Grace United Methodist Church, completed by farmers and townspeople who came from miles around to seek protection from the Battle of the Big Hole fought by Chief Joseph in 1877, visitors sang hymns like "How Great ou Art" and "Beulah Land." Crowds at Bannack Day are singing the same songs that they sang then, in the same place, and presumably in the same spirit of community. ey say the same doxology. e children squirm with the same sense of innocent restlessness. e lines between reenactment and the real thing, just a bunch of folk in Montana going to church, become blurred further. Virginia City, which I visited last, has become downright sophisticated. I sat in Bob's Place, which serves such cosmopolitan fare as a Caprese salad, ai red curry quinoa, and polenta with pesto and fire-roasted tomatoes. Virginia City is the kind of place where you can spend a nickel on a nickelodeon burlesque, take in a turn of the century melodrama, or

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