Bannack State Park, Montana
In 1863, gold fever turned Bannack, Montana into a boom town of 10,000. Today, it’s frozen in time.
In Bannack are 60 original buildings where you can walk the same wooden sidewalks as prospectors, peek into the courthouse where vigilantes dealt frontier justice, and explore one of the West’s most authentic ghost towns.
Here are some interesting facts about this Montana gem.
Check out the authentic hanging tree
A cottonwood tree near Hotel Meade is where vigilantes hanged Sheriff Plummer and his deputies in 1864. You can walk right up to this tree that saw frontier justice happen.
It’s over 200 years old, making it one of Montana’s oldest cottonwoods. Tests from 2018 showed it was already a mature tree back in 1864.
Plummer and deputies Ray and Stinson were hanged on January 10, 1864, after being accused of running a gang behind over 100 murders.
Sometimes, gold coins turn up when it rains
The park has records of 37 gold finds by visitors since 2000. You can try gold panning in certain parts of Grasshopper Creek with your own gear or rentals from the visitor center.
Try finding the cold spots in the old hospital
The old hospital has weird temperature drops that science can’t explain. Readings show drops up to 15 degrees in certain rooms, even in summer.
You’ll feel these cold spots in the northwest corner of the main ward. Built in 1875 during a sickness outbreak, this hospital was used until 1942.
A research team found 84 different cold spots in 2019, with the biggest being a 17.3°F drop in the old operating room.
Heat cameras show these cold areas match exactly where hospital beds once sat.
Look fo the hidden room in the Masonic Lodge
Workers found a hidden room under the Masonic Lodge floor in 2019. Inside were ritual items, papers from 1863, and silver coins.
You can see these items in the visitor center and peek at the room through a clear panel in the lodge floor. The hidden space is exactly 7 feet by 7 feet by 7 feet, sizes that matter in Mason traditions.
Among the finds were 13 Mason aprons with special frontier symbols and a journal by Thomas Cover, who started the lodge on December 27, 1862.
Listen closely to ghost music
People hear orchestra music coming from the second floor of Hotel Meade, though there’s no electricity or sound system there. You can join evening tours where rangers talk about this strange happening.
Records show a 12-piece band called the Bannack Philharmonic played in the hotel’s upstairs ballroom from 1890 to 1903. Sound experts recorded this music in 2017, capturing 47 minutes of old-time waltzes.
The ballroom’s curved ceiling makes sound bounce in a special way, at exactly 432 Hz, the same pitch musicians used back in the 1890s.
See the bank vault that crossed the ocean
The bank’s vault door weighs more than 2,500 pounds and needed sixteen men to set up in 1865.
It came from England, around South America’s tip, then by wagon from California. You can try the original lock during guided tours.
Made by Chubb & Sons of London in 1863, this door traveled 18,756 miles to reach Bannack, 14,000 by sea and 900 by ox wagons.
The trip took 187 days and cost $832, which would be about $15,000 today. The lock has 27 tumblers and needs a special 14-step process to open.
Find the names of students in the schoolhouse
Desks in the Bannack schoolhouse have real student carvings from the 1880s. You can touch these marks left by frontier kids.
The oldest carving, from April 7, 1884, was made by Theodore Ackerman, who later owned 12,000 acres of ranch land near Dillon. Historians have tracked down the life stories of 27 former students whose names are carved here.
This school ran from 1874 to 1943, and once had 51 students during winter 1903, all taught by one teacher named Sarah Holloway.
They’ve found time capsules in Bannack
Diggers found time capsules in building foundations during work in 2010.
These held personal items, newspapers, coins, and handwritten notes from the 1860s. You can see three of these time capsules in the visitor center.
The biggest one, found under the assayer’s office, had a perfectly kept newspaper from September 17, 1864, with gold production numbers.
DNA from a hair sample helped find descendants of miner Jonas Pickford still in Montana today. One capsule had a hand-drawn map showing six mining claims, three of which nobody knew about before.
Look for some secret code, too
Some jail cell walls in Bannack have hundreds of deep scratches making patterns and symbols. Some match old miners’ codes while others haven’t been figured out yet.
You can see these markings during your jail visit. Laser scans in 2018 found 1,247 different marks grouped in 76 separate clusters.
The scratches were made with a mining pick, knife, and metal spoon. The most interesting part, on cell two’s north wall, has 18 repeating symbols that code experts think might be a Civil War-era cipher.
There’s a star map in the Masonic Lodge
The Masonic Lodge floor has a wooden pattern showing the night sky above Bannack during summer 1868. You can see this special feature during certain tours.
The star map uses 83 inlaid pieces of seven different hardwoods, with each wood type showing stars of different brightness.
Star experts confirmed the pattern shows exactly 432 stars visible from Bannack’s exact location at 45.1619° N latitude.
Carpenter James Kirkpatrick worked 1,340 hours over eight months to complete this floor, using woods from as far away as Brazil and South Africa.
You can see vintage wallpaper all over the place
Several buildings still have original wallpaper from the 1870s kept nice by the dry air. You can see these bright designs in Hotel Meade and some homes.
The fanciest example in Hotel Meade’s best room has French gold-flecked paper that cost $18 per roll in 1875, about $450 in today’s money.
Testing found 12 different natural colors in the wallpapers, including blue stone from Afghanistan and red mineral from Spain.
These wallpapers traveled 2,700 miles by train and stagecoach from Boston to Bannack, with shipping often costing more than the paper itself.
Butch Cassidy supposedly left his wallet here
Outlaw Butch Cassidy came to Bannack in the 1890s and supposedly hid stolen money somewhere in town.
His leather wallet turned up during saloon repairs in 2011. You can see this wallet and proof of his visits in the visitor center.
Handwriting experts confirmed his real name “Robert LeRoy Parker” in the hotel guest book matches his known writing. Records show he stayed in Bannack six times from 1894 to 1897, always in room 17.
The wallet had a torn 3 of diamonds card, matching what he left at a bank robbery in 1896 where $7,165.23 went missing.
Visiting Bannack State Park in 2025
Address: 4200 Bannack Road, Dillon, Montana 59725
Admission: Open year-round; 8 AM to 9 PM (summer) and 8 AM to 5 PM (winter)
Fees: Entry: $10 per vehicle for non-Montana residents, $8 for residents
- Annual passes: $45
- Guided tours: Three daily in summer (10 AM, 1 PM, 3 PM)
- Ghost tours: Monthly June through August
Contact: For updates, call (406) 834-3413 or check the Montana State Parks website
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