From East to West, July is the month for festivals, including these unique and lesser known celebrations.
In the West, the Bannack, Montana, ghost town is the high culture of ghost towning. No torn up wood buildings here for scary October celebrations. The Bannack Days celebration has never gained a lot of press or international tourism, but the ghost town, which is a national park, is truly unique. Built as a gold mining boom town around 1863, fortune hunters swarmed the remote area to pan for gold. They built a lively town of enduring brick and wooden structures: Bakeries, saloons, and a lovely Methodist church.
Check out Bannack Days July 15-16 at the old town, if you can find it.
The address? It's about 11 miles upstream from where Grasshopper Creek joins with the Beaverhead River south of Dillon. Folks in Dillon will know where it is. Just ask around.
It is indeed a remote location, connected to Salt Lake, Utah, mainly by the Montana Trail. Back in the day, traders said you could pluck out a sage brush bush along the Grasshopper Creek and shake out a panful of gold.
While there, don't miss the Lewis and Clark lookout hill nearby — a tiny 8-acre park where Western explorer William Clark climbed a towering hill to chart the direction for the Corps of Discovery.
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.