Dillon, Montana, and Surrounding Environs

After attending Sunday services at the chapel (actually a full-fledged little church) on the grounds of the Garrison RV park that had been our home base for the last couple days, we headed south to Dillon, Montana. Dillon is a small town surrounded by prime farming and ranching, anchored by the University of Montana Western. It's also in the heart of some prime fishing country, as town's several fly shops testify. The surrounding towns are also dotted with fly shops, outfitter/guides, and small scale fishing rod and fly manufacturers. We strolled around the old part of Dillon and noticed a much higher than average number of old homes with turrets. We could just picture it: “Darling, Violet has a turret, and I simply must have an even taller one.” “My dear, you shall have two!” It's really quite picturesque, and I had little images in my mind of perhaps coming to rest here when our wanderings were over. Alas; a brief glance at online area real estate listings confirmed that small-town western charm doesn't come cheaply. Nevertheless, the Dillon area is rich in western history and well worth a visit.

 

Our new base of operations, the Southside RV Park, was shady, well-maintained, with excellent Wi-Fi, and had a little creek running right through the middle of it. And, it has its own little museum, a labor of love maintained by a member of the owners' family. You can read about Gore's Military Museum here.

Bannack, Our First Ghost Town  

 

 

We could hardly have had a better introduction to ghost towns than Bannack. The town, now a Montana state park, is “preserved,” which means measures have been taken to arrest further decay as much as possible, but not “restored.” Although there are a couple buildings that have furnishings in place to better help visitors visualize the Bannack of days gone by, for the most part the rooms are empty, creaks and squeaks mingling with echoes of a colorful past, and most of the buildings are open for the curious to explore.

Bannack sprang up in 1862, after the discovery of gold along Grasshopper Creek (named for the heavy grasshopper population and previously named “Willard's Creek” by Lewis and Clark). Word of the gold spread quickly, and the mining camp almost immediately became the town of Bannack, a rough mining town gradually tempered by the introduction of school, church, and other social niceties. Like the oil boom towns in today's North Dakota, wages were high, but so were prices. The merchants and businessmen who also flocked to Bannack often prospered more than the gold prospectors, and other industries evolved with the mining industry. 

Bannack is home to one of the more colorful episodes of western history, that of Sheriff Plummer and his gang of criminals known as the “Innocents.” Their reign of terror was brought to an end by the Vigilantes. Bannack was also the first capital of Montana Territory.

As the “easy” gold played out, the population began to dwindle. New mining technology allowed several small booms, but the World War II prohibitions on nonessential mining were a death knell for Bannack. Mining never did make a comeback after the war, and population dwindled more, until the town was nearly empty. With the help of a court intervention, much of the town was purchased at auction. Subsequently much of it was sold to the Beaverhead County Museum Association, which, in 1954, donated it to the State of Montana. The last residents moved out as the state acquired the remaining private property in the townsite.

 Margaret Is Injured 

 

That afternoon, we continued to our next destination, Big Hole National Battlefield. We stopped for lunch at a scenic historic overlook, and when we returned to the truck we were dismayed to find that while barking at some fellow sightseers, one of our dogs had cracked the screen of our trusty GPS, which we affectionately call “Margaret.” We must remember to put the bark collars on the dogs in these situations! And I am determined to rig some sort of restraint so the dogs aren't trampling everything in the front seat every time we leave them unattended. The GPS is still fully functional, EXCEPT the area under the portion of the touchscreen that is cracked won't respond. Unfortunately, that is where “GO” is located, when we want Margaret to give us directions to an address. I have since learned that touchscreen replacement is possible, and will attempt to find out where I can have this done. However, at the time, I was so upset about the (apparent) loss of not only Margaret but the lifetime map updates that we had purchased for her that it was all I could think of. Due to my distress, I left the camera in the truck at the Big Hole Battlefield so have nothing to show you except this picture of teepee poles against the sky, which I actually took at Grant-Kohrs Ranch but which is offered here to represent the teepee poles that stand at the Big Hole site as a silent testimony to the 1877 attack. 

Big Hole National Battlefield

Actually, the Big Hole Battle, a turning point in the Nez Perce War, is related to the area gold strikes, as well as the expansion of cattle ranching and the railroad—manifest destiny, if you will. The US Government had signed a treaty with the Nez Perce that set aside a reservation consisting of much of their ancestral land. But, as settlers and miners wanted more and more of the Nez Perce land, a new treaty took away 90% of the reservation. Reluctantly, Chief Joseph was leading his people to obey the government ultimatum when one thing led to another, and the Battle of Big Hole was a terrifying siege of the Nez Perce when they stopped at Big Hole Valley during their flight to Canada. While the Nez Perce technically “won” the battle, it resulted in the deaths of many women, children, and old people. The morale of the Nez Perce was seriously injured, and less than two months later, the Nez Perce surrendered just 40 miles south of the Canadian border. It was on this occasion that Chief Joseph reportedly uttered the famous words: “My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.”

We continued “home” to Dillon in a big loop that took us along the Big Hole River, a highly scenic byway punctuated by a number of fishing access points and attractive riverside campsites. Next time we come to Montana, maybe Jan will bring his fly rod.