FEBRUARY 2022 Ghost Towns and History of Montana Newsletter From the Anaconda Standard Feb. 6, 1899 E A R L Y D A Y S A T “ B A N N I K ” A Reminiscence of Olden Times in This Once Famous Camp. The following little incident is one that Mr. James Harby, commonly known as “Old Jim,” who was one of the staunch old pioneers of Bannack during its lively days, used to relate, and shows how business in those days was accomplished. It was during the earlier days of Montana when gold stampeders were flowing into the new Bannack mines and adjacent region. Provisions were costly Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz as necessaries and luxuries were unknown. Flour sold at $100 per sack, “nigger heel” chewing-tobacco at $7 per pound in dust. “Pilgrims” were arriving daily at the new Eldorado, lank of stomach and lean of purse. The mails came regularly to the camp, each letter with Uncle Sam’s levy of green stamps properly affixed, yet the P.M. with a commendable enterprise assessed a further tax of $1.50 upon each letter received. It was a paying office. We give the following experience of a friend at that time in his own language. “I arrived late in the evening with a dyspeptic looking mule train, a lank and hungry pilgrim with $1.35 cents in my pocket which was not enough to buy a square meal, although I did not know it. I had written home before leaving Alder Gulch to have them forward me a remittance to Bannack.” Accessed via: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
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