Killing Time in Montana's Past

If you have ever had to spend several hours in a waiting room, you know that it can be grueling.  I do it for almost five hours three times a week while my husband undergoes his dialysis treatment.  I know I should be working on my new book or some other more productive pursuit, but sometimes I just need a diversion. While trying to pretend I was doing something worthwhile, I started doing random searches on Google for historical photographs of Montana. Now I find myself doing it each time I sit down at the computer to work. I have made a little game of it to test my Montana history knowledge. When I see picture that interests me I try to figure out as much as I can before I click on the photo.  

Sometimes I just enter a broad subject in the search box, something like "historical Montana photos" sometimes I enter a narrower topic like "historical Anaconda Montana photos."  I am never disappointed. It is fun to find subjects that are familiar and you give yourself a mental pat on the back when you recognize a person or place from Montana's past and it is exciting when a photo links you to a new destination or a new story.  

Bannack State Park Reopening Today

Bannack State Park is reopening today.  On July 17, 2013 a flash flood poured down Hangman's gulch and raged down the main street of Bannack, washing away boardwalks and one building and leaving mud and destruction in its wake.  I cried when I watched the news that night. Bannack has always been the place I have gone when I felt the need to get away.  Like a religious person needs a church as a tangible touchstone, I need my preserved and restored historic sites to connect with Montana's history.  I wish I could be in Bannack today to see for myself what has transpired in Bannack's latest page in history.

As devastating as the flood was to the town, it was just that, another page in Bannack's history.  Like every town that has ever existed, there have been periods of growth and prosperity and times of despair and disaster. The difference with Bannack is that there has been so much work preserving the past and it was all jeopardized by an act of nature.  I am sure that the Montana State Park personal responsible for the care of Bannack has done a fine job of getting the park ready to reopen.  I suspect there might be some new photos in the visitor center of the flood and it's aftermath.