Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The area around Dillon (population 4,134, elevation 5,096 feet) was significant on Lewis
and Clark's westward journey. One site earned the name Camp Fortunate when Lewis and
Clark met the Shoshone and managed to cache supplies for their return voyage.
After gold strikes in Bannack, Helena, and Butte, the area around what is now Dillon be-
came an important shipping route between the booming mining camps and more-developed
Utah, often the source of equipment, supplies, and labor. Eventually the railroads came
through the region, but not until a deal was struck between Irish rancher Richard Deacon,
the railroad owners, and the merchants who made their living following the railroad con-
struction crews. A staunch opponent of the railroad and a shrewd businessman, Deacon
raised the price on his land to a whopping $10,500, which the railroad agreed to pay. The
town of Dillon, named for Sidney Dillon, president of the Utah and Northern Railway, grew
quickly as the construction crews completed the rail line during the winter of 1880-1881.
Its longevity was ensured when the county seat was moved to Dillon from nearby Bannack
later that year. The town prospered with the construction of a teachers college in 1892, lead-
ing some to predict that Dillon would become “the very Athens of the West.”
If not quite Athens, today Dillon is a thriving (and growing!) little community and home
to the University of Montana-Western. The town has preserved its local history—from Nat-
ive American influences to agriculture and mining—and achieved a reputation as an ex-
cellent launching point for outdoor adventures that include hunting, fishing, hiking, biking,
and rockhounding. Mostly, though, it is Dillon's proximity to historic mining centers like
Bannack, Virginia City, and Nevada City that make it an obvious destination.
More reliable than the first frost, Montanans mark the end of summer with the
annual
Labor Day weekend sale
at the
Patagonia Outlet
(16 S. Idaho St., 406/683-2580,
www.patagonia.com
,
10am-6pm Mon.-Sat., 11am-5pm Sun.). Sales on the already reduced
selection of eco-friendly and always cutting-edge outdoor gear jump to 40 percent dis-
counts. Just as Montanans buy their ski passes before the first flake falls, so too do they get
their gear when the getting's cheap.
Twenty-five miles west of Dillon is
Bannack State Park
(406/834-3413,
www.bannack.org
,
8am-9pm daily May-early Oct., 8am-5pm daily early Oct.-Apr., $5/
vehicle nonresidents), which comprises the original mining settlement of Bannack. First es-
tablished in 1862 when John White discovered gold on Grasshopper Creek, the town waxed
and waned for years until World War II, when all nonessential mining was prohibited. In
