gold...

...ghost towns and a mystic number.

A day of explorations, battlefields and  histories  along highways and byways travelled by many before.
Smoke still hides the mountains that usually backdrop this beautiful country and today we followed in the steps of Lewis and Clark, the Nez Perce (Nimiipuu) people to the site of the Big Hole Battlefield and the prospectors who discovered gold in Grasshopper Creek waters around the (now ghost town) of Bannack.

Following the discovery of gold  in 1862 by 1863 the settlement had 3000 residents and buildings strung along the main street of the town including  saloons, hotels, assay office, shops a masonic lodge, a school, doctor's surgery and post office.. In 1864 it was named the first Territorial capital of Montana.
The Wild West it certainly was  with a certain Henry Plummer appointed sheriff to protect shipments of gold from the thieving hands of 'road agents' (highwaymen).
Henry and his lads had the perfect disguise as they were in fact 'road agents'!
Miffed by Sheriff Plummer's lack of success in stopping the robberies and murders, settlers set up the Montanan Vigilantes, posters proclaiming their intents decorated by a skull and crossbones and mystic numbers 3-7-77. Plummer and his band of by now not so merry men were captured and hung, the corpses 'stiffening in the icy blast.'

Today Montanan State patrolmen wear the emblem 3-3-77 on shoulder patches and tonight with a dinner of prime rib beef we sipped on Good Medicine beer in glasses featuring the 3-7-77 symbol (extra)