A Real Live, er..., not, Ghost Town

So, I just decided to take a detour into Bannack, MT. Possibly the coolest detour I've taken yet. On the MT state maps, they label ghost towns, and I saw that this one was labeled as a National Historical Site, so I took the trip.
Although it was a mining town (and, at least for a while, the capital of the Montana Territory), it is only recently a ghost town. The last residents left in the early 1970's. (Although, there were only a few of them left by that time.) One of the neat things about the site is that it's been taken over by as a State Park, but part of the stipulations in the deeding was that it retain its original ghost town feel and to "not become touristy like Virginia City". (That's as close of a quote as I can remember.)

Since some of the buildings have been lived in for a century or so, you can see how they were updated over time. And, now that they're falling apart, you can really see the different layers of housing. Some were very well done, at one point. The curving stairwell in the hotel was obviously done by someone who knew their stuff. Solid mahogany railing and ballisters, curved plaster wall around the staircase, etc. I heard a couple of guys talking about how there might be interest in restoring the building. Could be neat, if done right. But it will certainly be a of work.


Took me a while, but I did find one ghost in the town. A bartender, as it so happens. Ugly lookin' cur. I wouldn't trust what he's pouring.