The Battle of the Big Hole and Bannack
Trip Start
Aug 12, 2008
1
5
9
Trip End
Aug 21, 2008
Dillon,
Montana,
United States
Saturday, August 16, 2008
"In 1877, about 750 non-treaty Nez Perce fled Idaho in the face of demands from the US Army that all Nez Perce move onto a reservation a fraction from the size of their traditional homeland. The Army was enforcing a national policy of placing all American Indians on reservations to make way for the westward expansion of the young United States. In early August, the non-treaty Nez Perce camped for several days along the North Fork of the Big Hole River. They knew they had crossed into Montana Territory, and believed they were safe from further pursuit.
Just before daybreak on August 9, 1877, military forces attacked them as they rested after six weeks of conflict and flight. Although the soldiers and civilian volunteers attacked the village while most of the Nez Perce slept, the warriors quickly mounted a resistance and drove the military men to retreat to a wooded hill nearby. The soldiers dug trenches for protection, but the Nez Perce warriors surrounded the fortified hill and held the soldiers there. Meanwhile, the older men, women and children in the camp buried the dead and fled again.
The Battle of the Big Hole lasted less than 36 hours, yet casualties were dreadfully high. Between 60 and 90 Nez Perce men, women, and children were killed, most in the initial attack on the sleeping camp.
Wise River on the way to Big Hole
How many Nez Perce were wounded in the battle is impossible to say, but the number is doubtlessly high. Twenty-two soldiers, a civilian guide, and five civilian volunteers were killed, and 39 more were severely wounded."This was a turning point for Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce, who suffered near-extermination. It was a sobering morning in a gloriously and painfully beautiful place.
After lunch in Wisdom (I wish the restuarant had a bumper sticker to match the t-shirt I saw: "I've got it! Wisdom, Montana") we drove a short distance to Bannack, an important gold rush town settled in 1863 and the site of many outlaw/vigilante actions. (http://www.bannack.org) While it was a booming town for a few years and a viable town for another 60, after WWII it was gradually abandoned. The last residents left as late as the '70s, and the town in its entirety - without any changes - became a state park and an official ghost town.
The most famous (infamous) resident was Henry Plummer, a leader of the Montana Gold Camp Vigilantes. These men hanged 22 men in January and February of 1864. Ultimately, Plummer had his vigilante justice turned on himself, and the gallows remain in Bannack. "Plummer was elected sheriff of Bannack on May 24, 1863 and later that year, his jurisdiction included Virginia City. After he was hanged on January 10, 1864, his corpse, along with Buck Stinson's, was taken to an unfinished building where they were kept until burial. Plummer was said to have been buried somewhere near the scaffold up the gulch. Most agree that it is somewhere near the present gallows."
Herre's an excerpt from the Bannack web site: "Bannack was founded in 1862 when John White discovered gold on Grasshopper Creek. As news of the gold strike spread many prospectors and businessmen rushed to Bannack hoping to strike it rich. In 1864, Bannack was named as the first Territorial Capital of Montana.... From the late 1860's to the 1930's, Bannack continued as a mining town with a fluctuating population.
By the 1950's gold workings had dwindled and most folks had moved on. At that point the State of Montana declared Bannack a State Park. Today, over sixty structures remain standing, most of which can be explored."
We had dinner and lodging in Dillon - so friendly! - before continuing out Gold Rush focus tomorrow in Nevada and Virginia Cities.
