A Ghostly Ghost Town?

by Rain Trueax

In 2010, my husband and i were on a freewheeling trip through Montana, with no set destinations. He suggested we stop at Bannack. I wasn't that excited at the possibility, since I knew little of its history as a mining town. When we got there, I learned it was where Henry Plummer met his end, and I instantly got more interested.

Bannack was supposed to be Bannock, for the Native American tribe. When registering it, someone misspelled it. After stopping at the visitor center, paying the admittance and getting a small pamphlet explaining some of the buildings, we were free to wander through the town. It was very picturesque, perfect for the camera with structures in better shape than many other ghost towns  I have visited.

In several of the buildings, I wondered if there might be ghosts. Mining towns of that time had many sudden deaths with much potential for a spirit hanging around. I didn't actually feel any energy from a ghost-- despite being open to it. Maybe a nighttime visit would have a different result. Do ghosts have a preferred time to come out? Especially in the hotel, I took photos wondering if something more would show up-- it didn't.

One of the more likely possibilities as a ghost would be Henry Plummer. His story is filled with all the controversy as is found with other bigger than life people of that time. Was Plummer a murderous outlaw or in the end victimized by the vigilantes who were the real robbers and killers. Online, you can find many opinions as to who he was and his history. Here's one-- [Henry Plummer].

When I decided to write about Bannack, I went looking online for 'ghost hunters' who had been there. Although I have never seen a ghost myself, I have been places where I've felt strange energies. I can't say it was true at Bannack. When I return someday, which I'd love to do, and camp in the lovely campground with our vacation trailer, I would at least know who might have been unwilling to leave even after death.

Dorothy Dunn was in her teens when she drowned in the dredge pond August 4, 1916. Her friend, who had been with her that fateful day, was the first to claim she appeared to her as a ghost. Today, it appears children are most likely to see her wearing a blue dress. She has talked to some in Hotel Meade, which had been her home, as her father was hotel manager at the time of her death.

Supposedly, the hotel has other apparitions. An older woman haunts the second floor as well as Dorothy. Crying children are also supposedly heard by some. Are those ghosts or impressions left by past energies. The hotel was used for a time

as a hospital-- places very likely to have ghostly manifestations.  Saloons like the one alongside here have sudden death stories of shootouts and bullets gone astray.
 
Another building with ghostly stories is Chrismans' Store. It had offices at the back used by Henry Plummer. Some, who do this kind of research, claim to have photographed hauntings with fuzzy figures. This though is the kind of thing that always makes me wary, since photos can be so easily faked. Still, are there even today ghostly meetings there where the men chew the fat-- so to speak?

The Bessette House is another claimed location. Abed Bessette, who first owned it, was one of the vigilantes. He raised sheep and owned several buildings, including the hotel. He died in Bannack in 1919. Did he not want to leave? 

The possibilities for ghosts in his home go beyond him. During typhoid, diphtheria, and other killer epidemics, his home was used to quarantine patients and many died there. There is supposedly photo evidence of a ghost there.

In terms of becoming a ghost, one of the most exciting potentials has to be Henry Plummer. After a checkered history (read link above) in 1863, he had arrived in Bannack where he was appointed sheriff.  Was he using that as a way to also rob and murder with his posse, named The Innocents? Whoever was doing the violence, 102 people were murdered in mining camps and along the road between [Bannack and Virginia City]. 

On December 23, 1863, a vigilante committee was organized, formed a posse, captured him, put him in his own jail before they hung him on a gallows above the town, along with two of his deputies. That gallows is still there or so goes the story. He'd done a lot in his 27 years but was he trying to do right by Bannack?  Questions remain as to whether the real robbers were the vigilantes since the robberies didn't stop with his death. 

Was Plummer wronged, and he hangs around the town out of anger at a tragic miscarriage of justice, a desire to find vindication, or did he have nowhere else to go after a misused life? There are those who claim they have seen him in the Skinner Saloon, Chrismans' store and other buildings in the town. His grave, higher up the gulch with the gallows, has been robbed twice. The second time it is claimed his skull was taken and put in a saloon. That saloon later burned to the ground.

Do I believe in ghosts? I don't know. I have friends who claim to see them. I've watched a couple of the cable shows where they search for them, knew one of the psychics who was on a show when they went to Tombstone ghost hunting. I haven't been convinced ghosts are a reality-- don't know that they're not either. 

I've put ghosts in only one of my books, A Price to be Paid. It's an Arizona paranormal/metaphysical romance that goes into reincarnation and whether one lifetime is enough to pay for wrong deeds. The possible man needing to pay for his misspent life was in one of my Arizona historicals, where he met a fitting end.

For me, such thinking comes under the heading of speculation and mystery. I won't go ghost hunting... well, unless I head back to Bannack to camp in that lovely campground. 

FOLK HEALING VERSUS QUAKERY

Folk healing is a tradition that goes back as far as even the most primitive civilizations. Every ancient culture has healers and plant-derived medicines. For years, I’ve collected folk remedies and alternative healing methods. I enjoyed taking herbal classes from author Beth Trissel, who is extremely knowledgeable about herbs and their uses.

I also love perusing old advertisements for medical remedies and clues to lifestyles of various eras. I blame—and thank—Jacquie Rogers for getting me started on old newspapers. (I blame Jacquie for a lot of things, unless she's within swatting distance.)  You learn the most amazing things from the historic articles and advertisements.

Through the beginning of the twentieth century, any individual could go to the neighborhood drug store and buy heroin, cocaine, cannabis powder, and laudanum over the counter. Shocking today, but they were routinely used as analgesics. Not until 1907 did the Federal Government regulate the sale of these drugs. At that time, they also decreed that medicines must contain a list of ingredients.

Wizard Oil claims to cure most ills,
but gives no list of ingredients.

While sincere, well-informed healers practiced, there were charlatans popping out from under every rock. No doubt you’re familiar with the idea of a salesman hawking his cure-all formula from a caravan then leaving town quickly. He was often labeled a “snake oil salesman”. What I recently learned is that there actually was a product labeled Snake Oil Liniment on the market. I don’t know if it really contained snake oil and, if so, what kind of snake was used.

Apparently, this
cures everything!

In my opinion, the weirdest of the weird “remedies” was the sale of “sanitized” tapeworms for those who wanted to lose weight but continue to eat all they wanted. Isn't that every overweight person's dream? I don’t understand how this worked—if it did, which I doubt. Obese King Henry VIII supposedly had a 26-foot tapeworm at the time of his death. I wouldn't have liked being the person who measured that. Sure didn’t slim him, did it? I wonder what happened to the people who took the tapeworm tablets.

Every  overweight person's dream,
to eat and always stay thin.

Some of the so-called curatives advertised were criminally detrimental to health. The most chilling are the ads that promise to “cure” all types of cancer without surgery, and there are several. Makes me hope karma got those charlatans tenfold!

I shudder when I think of some of the so-called “cures” I’ve been told were used on my ancestors. One—a diabetic—died of gangrene after her swollen feet were slit and leeches applied to drain off the excess liquid.

In the late 1800s, Coca Cola ® contained a small amount of cocaine and was popular with my family members of the time—and the cocaine-free version continues to be a favorite today. Originally, Coca Cola® was marketed as a patent medicine to aid the nerves and digestion (see ad below). My father started drinking it when he developed digestive problems. The name comes from the secret recipe that includes kola nuts and coca leaves. (Cherry Dr Pepper® for me, thank you.)

Another ancestor took up smoking because he had asthma and sinusitis and was told cigarettes would help. I was told those he used contained menthol so were likely not those in the ad below. The ad doesn't specify type of tobacco, etc., so who knows?

Numerous babies in our family were given Paregoric—camphorated tincture of opium, a patent remedy usually given to infants and children—to calm their colic, diarrhea, or fretful teething. Paregoric was available without a prescription in some states as late as 1970. Now it requires a doctor’s prescription as treatment for diarrhea and other stomach problems that include IBS, cancer, and Crohn's.

Is it just me or
is this ad chilling?

Amazing anyone survived, isn’t it? 

Of course, the healers I use as my characters are the best at their jobs and always conscientious and knowledgeable. Prudence Lynch is the fourth healer I’ve written about in a book: Pearl Parker Kincaid in THE MOST UNSUITABLE WIFE and the Kincaid series, Kathryn McClintock in THE TEXAN’S IRISH BRIDE and the McClintock Series, Deirdre Dougherty in the time travel OUT OF THE BLUE, and PRUDENCE in the Bride Brigade Series.

Here’s the summary of my recent release, PRUDENCE, Bride Brigade Book 7:

Prudence Lynch’s beloved grandmother trained her in midwifery and in folk medicine. Always ostracized because they’re different—until someone needs their help—they live in poverty at the edge of a tiny Virginia village where rumors plague them.

After Granny’s death, Prudence leaves for Richmond. There, Prudence is fortunate to be chosen to accompany Lydia Harrison to Tarnation, Texas. She believes she’s left trouble and gossip behind to establish her healing business and begin a new life. Unfortunately, trouble follows her.

Doctor Riley Gaston wants a wife and children. He’s threatened to move from Tarnation to seek a wife, but he would never actually leave the community he loves. One of the young women Lydia brings home mesmerizes Riley. That is, until he learns her so-called profession is folk healing, which he views as dangerous as it is worthless.

Prudence is as stubborn as Riley. Danger causes them to reconsider their opinions. Is their change of heart too late?

Here’s the Amazon buy link: http://a.co/3AZ9c6d         

Here’s an excerpt from PRUDENCE:

Riley walked slowly, hoping to read the sign, but it was covered by bunting. Soon enough, he’d be back and by then he could meet his new neighbor. Wait—there was no one new in town except the seven women who’d accompanied Lydia.

He froze in his spot.

No—she wouldn’t—not across the street from him. He turned and hurried across the road. Disregarding the superstition of walking under a ladder causing bad luck, he walked into the office. Sure enough, there was Prudence setting out bottles and packets of this and that.

He walked up to her. “What do you think you’re doing?”

She barely glanced up. “I’m organizing my herbs and tinctures and salves for my grand opening on Saturday.”

He edged closer. “What are you playing at? Are you setting out to deliberately cause trouble with me?”

She continued arranging things on shelves. “Certainly not. Why would you even say that? In your opinion, which you’ve made known to me and probably most of the townspeople, you don’t believe we’re in the same business. Having me here shouldn’t have anything to do with you.”

He fought for calm but it wouldn’t come. “It’s as if you’re. . . you’re saying you’re in the medical profession the same as I am.”

She stopped messing about with the dratted shelves and faced him. “Dr. Gaston, I’ve never said that. I’m interested in helping people in any way I can. If that alarms you, that’s your problem.”

He leaned in so they were nose to nose. “You’re setting yourself up as a medical authority. That’s a big problem. You can do untold harm with your so-called healing.”

Sparks shot from her blue eyes. “So can you. Do I tell you how to run your office and treat your patients? No.” She poked him in the chest. “So, Doctor Gaston. Butt. Out.”

Fuming, Riley turned on his heel and strode from the building. He rushed to Mrs. Eppes’ home. Where did Prudence get off thinking she could do this to him? 

He’d come close to kissing her. Thank heavens he’d resisted. Who was he fooling? If he were being truthful, only her anger stopped him. What was he going to do about Prudence?

More importantly, what was he going to do about what being near her did to him?

I’ve loved writing the Bride Brigade Series. PRUDENCE was emotional for me because it ends the series into which I've immersed myself. In addition to the romance of Prudence Lynch and Dr. Riley Gaston, this book ties up loose ends and settles Lydia Harrison’s conundrum. Although I’ve already eagerly dived into one of the many new projects I have planned, DANIEL in the McClintock Series, saying goodbye to Tarnation, Texas and its citizens is bittersweet.

Caroline Clemmons is an Amazon bestselling and award winning author of contemporary and historical western romance. She lives in North Central Texas cowboy country with her Hero and their several rescued animals. Her latest series are the 7-book Bride Brigade Series and the (to date) 5-book Loving A Rancher Series for Montana Skies Series Kindle World. Check her Amazon Author Page for a complete list of her books. Sign up for her newsletter and receive a FREE historical romance novella, HAPPY IS THE BRIDE, as well as notices of new releases and contests.

Breaking Out of Pigeonholes-GUEST Judy Alter

DR. JUDY ALTER

            Writers are easily put in pigeonholes, especially genre pigeonholes. My first novel, After Pa Was Shot, was apparently a young-adult novel. I didn’t know that when I wrote it, but that’s how my agent marketed it. And voila! I was a young-adult author. I stayed in that pigeonhole for several books—seven to be exact—because I was comfortable there and that seemed to be what editors expected of me.

           
But then I wrote a novel, Mattie, which had a few steamy scenes in it and was published by Doubleday in the now-long-defunct DDD Westerns line. I followed it with A Ballad for Sallie, told by a twelve-year-old girl. It’s my contention that not all novels featuring twelve-year-old girls—or boys—are young-adult works, but the editor at the mass market house that reprinted it said Sallie didn’t sell as well because it was a juvenile.

           
The label “children’s writer” still follows me these days, partly because I’ve written a lot of nonfiction for young adults, everything from a history of Montana to a book explaining vaccines and a biography of Harry S. Truman. But by the 1990s I moved into a new pigeonhole: western writer. I was active in Western Writers of America, even president for a term, and I was writing westerns—no, not “shoot-'em-ups” but four of the books I’m most proud of (though choosing  your favorite of your books is, as a friend of mine has said, like being forced to choose a favorite child). 

           
I thought Libbie, a fictional account of the life of Mrs. George Armstrong Custer published in 1994, was my big breakthrough (it proved not to be). It got great reviews from all sorts of publication, including lots of romance review magazines—and one scathing review in the Dallas Morning News because the reviewer, who called himself a curmudgeon, dismissed it as a romance.

Jessie, the life of Jessie Benton Frémont and daughter of Senator Thomas Hart Benton, was next. As the wife of and explorer/adventurer/entrepreneur/lifelong failure and the daughter of a forceful senator and proponent of westward expansion, Jessie was in the midst of the national political scene for many years before following her husband about the country and eventually becoming an author.

Cherokee Rose was based on the life of Lucille Mulhall, the first woman trick roper but the publicity for that book was nil—I saw one brief mention in Entertainment Today. The market for women’s western fiction was either dying or moving away from me. I didn’t publish adult fiction again until 2002 when Leisure Books brought out a mass market edition of Sundance, Butch and Me, told, of course, by Etta Place. I always particularly liked that book because it made my well-read son-in-law laugh out loud.

           
There are still countless western women I could write about. Indeed I wrote a y/a entitled Extraordinary Women of the West, and a friend laughed that I should tell the editors I had about a hundred more women to go. But I saw the handwriting on the wall, busied myself with the non-fiction y/a market and my daytime job, and dreamed of writing mysteries, while reading every cozy I could get my hands on.

AVAILABLE LATE AUGUST

           
 Finally I dipped my toe into the Guppy pond of Sisters in Crime and found myself literally a newbie in a new world. No one knew I had a publishing history, and I certainly didn’t understand the intricate ins and outs of finding an agent and publishing a mystery. In retrospect I wasted a lot of time querying agents and a few of the better known small presses, giving one press an exclusive that stretched out to a year, wasting another year with an agent who decided he couldn’t sell it.

           
Next I queried a new press, Turquoise Morning. They accepted Skeleton in a Dead Space more quickly than they predicted. It’s launching August 29, give or take, and I’m busy planning marketing, on Facebook and Twitter, writing blogs, and learning all kinds of things that didn’t exist when I last published adult fiction. As we all know, in the old days, your publisher did the marketing; today, we do it.

           
Now if I can just jump out of the y/a and western pigeonholes into the mystery one—or maybe a bigger one that encompasses all three? Western mysteries sort of intrigue me, but I haven’t come up with a plot yet. And after my recent trip to Scotland, a mystery set in Scotland has my brain whirling with possibilities.
Pigeonholes be darned!

~*~*~*~

Judy's forthcoming cozy mystery is Skeleton in a Dead Space from Turquoise Morning Press, due in late August or early September.

Her most recent books are Extraordinary Women of Texas and Great Texas Chefs (both TCU Press) and Cooking My Way through Life with Kids and Books (State House Press).

She is the author of seven published Western Historical novels for adults, nonfiction books for young adults, one collection of short stories, and a critical biography of Texas novelist Elmer Kelton.

Judy's works have won awards from Western Writers of America, Western Heritage Wrangler Award, Texas Institute of Letters, and the Children's Book Council.

RECOGNITIONS:

Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement – Western Writers of America

Named One of 100 Women, Living and Dead, Who Have Left Their Mark on Texas – Dallas Morning News

Named Outstanding Woman of Fort Worth in the Arts, 1988, - Mayor’s Commission on the Status of Women

Named to Texas Literary Hall of Fame, Fort Worth Public Library

I am a regular blogger- http://www.judys-stew.blogspot.com/  and http://potluckwithjudy.com/   and regular reader of the listservs from the Guppies and Sisters in Crime.

From 1982 until 2009 Judy Alter worked at Texas Christian University Press, five years as editor, and the remaining as director. Using her vast knowledge and university degrees, much of her writing has been about the experiences of women in the American West.

She is the single mother of four now-grown children and the grandparent of seven. She lives in Fort Worth, Texas, with Scooby, an Australian shepherd, and Wynona, cat that is part Maine Coon.

Thank you for visiting Judy Alter here at Sweethearts of the West. You're welcome to leave a comment for her.

Celia Yeary