Thanksgiving, 1863 was a notable day for some of the citizens of Bannack. At the boarding house of his sister-in-law, Martha Vail, Henry Plummer hosted the first turkey dinner ever in the mining camp. A turkey, delivered at the considerable expense of $40, had arrived from Salt Lake City. It was a feast with vegetables and the first butter that some of them had seen since they left the states for the west.
Among the guests were the family of Sidney Edgerton, who would in a few months become the first territorial governor of Montana. His nephew, Wilber Fisk Sanders, and his family were also guests. Sanders, too, made a name for himself in the pages of Montana history. The host, Henry Plummer, did not fare so well. Within less than six weeks of that famous Thanksgiving dinner, Henry Plummer was hanged by Vigilantes, allegedly for his leadership in a band of road agents. It is ironic that some of those responsible for his fate were his guests for Thanksgiving dinner.
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