Bannack State Park in Montana is a real Ghost Town.....
Bannack State Park is a ghost town in west Montana. It was established in 1863 as a gold mining camp. People either looking to strike it big or who were fleeing the civil war ended up in Bannack. A large portion of the population came from Minnesota. Imagine traveling in a wagon over 1000 miles only to find a little ramshackle camp to make your home in.
This was an honest to goodness wild west community. Whenever I'm in Montana I feel drawn to the past and what it must have been like and here are the remains of that past. Authentic little cabins and buildings that saw hope and hardship. The town had those wooden sidewalks you see in the movies, a church, a store, a jail, and of course a saloon.
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This was a tough place to be. One story tells about a man who made it to Bannack carrying a human leg as he had been eating human remains on his trip to survive.
Bannack was well known for it's lawlessness and criminals. Many hangings happened here. One man was so hated by the community for his crimes that they hung him, burned his house with his dead body thrown into it, then panned the ashes for any gold he may have had.
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Mining continued in Bannack off and on into the 1950's. Some of the buildings were still inhabited into the 1970! I wish I knew more about who actually lived here in the 1970's but what I do know is they loved their wallpaper and linoleum.
There are other ghost towns in Montana, I hope we get to visit more of them. Bannack however is said to be the most "intact" and maybe the most haunted......
