D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A • FA L L 2 0 1 6
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View of Virginia City from Boot Hill
Kids playing in Bannack
have your portrait
taken in sepia. You
can even see the
beam from which
road agent Clubfoot
George and unre-
pentant cannibal
Boone Helm were
hung from the
necks, and then you
can cross the street
and enjoy some
artisanal huckle-
berry popcorn and
enjoy the free wifi.
e layers of time
are stacked on top
of one another, thin as tissues.
I talked to the folks who worked there and asked
them whether the town was living or dead. Even in
the off-season the answer is, definitively, "alive."
But inevitably, as fall
turns to winter, the tide
of tourists will subside
and the ghost towns will
quiet down. In Virginia
City, the number of
souls living in the town
drops to just about 200,
and the employees of
the ompson-Hick-
man Library settle in for
a long and snowy winter.
e library, which shares
the building with a
history museum, has
been there since 1923.
Much has changed for
residents of Virginia City since then, but the library is
one place that reaches back into the past.
Christina Koch, Assistant Librarian, says that
"during the winter, most of the businesses in town
I THOUGHT HOW IN GHOST TOWNS,
THE PAST AND THE PRESENT
BLEED INTO ONE ANOTHER.
