Bannack State Park - Bannack, MT

Eddie & I visited Bannack State Park for the first time this past weekend. Bannack, once a thriving gold mining town, is one of the best preserved ghost towns. The town was acquired by the state in the 50s I believe but it still had year-round residents until 1975 with summer residents until 1983. This is probably one of the reasons why it is so well preserved. You can walk through most of the buildings and one of the park rangers even let us into one of the locked buildings. The ranger also mentioned that it's very dry in that particular area with very little snow which probably also helps the condition of the buildings. Thousands once lived in Bannack, each hoping to strike it rich with the nearly pure gold found in the Grasshopper River behind the town. While most gold ranks at 80-90% pure, some of the gold found in Bannack rated at 99.5% pure - as pure as refined gold.This is a pic of the valley, taken near the town cemetery which is on a hill that overlooks the town: