Henry Plummer

Sheriff and outlaw Henry Plummer needed no introduction to the citizens of Montana Territory in the mid-nineteenth century. And well into the twentieth century, Frank Bird Linderman sought out the stories of the people who knew Plummer—and ultimately hanged him. In 1920 Linderman completed a novel about Plummer’s life, but it was rejected by publisher after publisher. They felt that it showed too much fidelity to historical truth for a public increasingly enamored of western dime novels. Eighty years later, Linderman’s lively interpretation of one of Montana’s most enduring legends is being published for the first time. Plummer scarcely resembled the model sheriffs of movie and television westerns. Coolly calculating, he used his position as sheriff of Bannack during Montana Territory’s first gold rush to organize a band of road agents who systematically robbed and murdered miners in remote areas. The highwaymen became so brazen that the miners felt compelled to band together and wage a vigorous lynch-law campaign to restore order. In 1864 these vigilantes caught up with Plummer and delivered their own brand of justice.