Distinctly Montana Magazine

W W W. D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA NA . C O M 79 ing. It was something practical, thoughtful—and conspicuous: a red scarf. "You'll find it useful these cold nights," he told him. Sure enough, they were followed. Several nights later, Hauser was unable to sleep and decided to take a walk around his camp. He found a group of masked men casing the camp, who, deprived of the element of surprise, scattered into the night. Others, like the young Dutchman Nick Tiebolt, were less lucky. Well-liked by all, Tiebolt was discovered after disappearing while on route to deliver a passel of mules. He had been dragged for miles behind a horse, alive, after having already been shot in the head. Plummer was implicated in many of the road agent's crimes. e Innocents were known to convene at the Rattlesnake Ranch, 12 miles out of Virginia City, and so was Plummer. One man claimed that when he complained to Plummer about how treacherous the roads had become, Plummer had offered him some of his own purloined gold back. And finally, two victims of robbery identified him as one of their robbers. But it was Tiebolt's murder that cinched the rope around Plummer's neck: regardless of whether or not he had actually committed any of the crimes, he was in the Vigilantes' sights. On that January morning in 1864 when Plummer and two sup- posed accomplices were rounded up, Plummer asked for a drink of liquor and was obliged. en they were hung. News of Plummer's death travelled fast. e next morning there was what one witness described as a "living stream" of people come to see Plummer's body hanging from the rafters of a half-construct- ed cabin. e atmosphere in town that day was solemn, but satisfied to see Plummer hung "in his Sunday clothes" and "neatly shaved." Around 30 more alleged road agents would be hung in the next six weeks, a frenzy of killings, but by February things became calm, and the remaining road agents left for friendlier climes. A LEGEND'S LEGACY A persistent legend has arisen in the years after Plummer's death that he had hidden a large amount of gold somewhere, and that some clever treasure hunter might follow the clues and avail himself of it. But while small caches of road agent gold have been uncov- ered, no treasures have been found. Despite his acquittal a century later, most assume he deserved his fate. Nevertheless we are left with a mystery that has only deepened with time. As more writers and artists have voiced their opinion on Plummer, interpretations of the man and his fate proliferate. He has become a legend, and, more, a symbol of a time in Mon- tana's history when the definition of justice was decidedly more ambiguous. "vigilance committees" arose all over the territories in order to "police" non-existent laws, usually with violence. View out the window of a Bannack cabin

• Cover