the wagons. The 70-mile trip between Bannack and Virginia City could "ordinarily [be] completed between the rising and setting of the sun."
The trail is indelibly associated with Sheriff Henry Plummer and his infamous outlaw gang. For eight months beginning in the Spring of 1863, the gang systematically terrorized travelers on the trail through intimidation, robbery, and, occasionally, murder. Vigilante chronicler Nathaniel Langford later claimed the area through which the trail passed was "admirably adapted to their purposes" with "ample means of concealment and advantages for attack upon passing trains with very few chances for defense or escape." Montana legend states that spies placed at the ranches covertly placed marks on horses, wagons and stagecoaches where gold was ripe for the picking. Through that system of "horseback telegraphy" the road agents routinely plundered passengers of their hard-earned gold and other valuables. In December 1863 and January 1864 the reign of terror ended violently as vigilantes from Bannack and Alder Gulch apprehended and hanged over two dozen road agents, including the gang's leader, Henry Plummer.
Today, Montana Highways 41 and 287 closely parallel the old Road Agent Trail. Indeed, when Madison County looked for ways to promote tourism in the area in the 1920s, it designated
Montana 287 the Vigilante Trail and blazed it with the old vigilante sign 3-7-77 as a tribute to the early pioneers attempt to bring order to Montana.
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