Page 15 - Montana Freemason Magazine November 2013

Montana Freemason November 2013 Volume 89 Number 5

For 139 years of service At noon members of Dillon
to Bannack and Montana Lodge No. 16 barbecued steaks,
Masonry, the Bannack Masonic and served nearly 150 people
Lodge has heard the rap of for lunch. The bill o’fare also
the gavel calling the stated included macaroni salad,
meeting to order on a yearly potato salad, baked beans,
basis. However, strangely rolls and butter rounded off
enough, the original Bannack with ice cream bars for dessert.
minutes-beginning in 1871,do Following lunch, Virginia City
not record when the first historian and brother Mason
meeting was held in the “new” John Ellingsen gave a talk on
Masonic Temple in the Fall of the general history of Virginia
1874. On September 14, 2013 City and surrounding area
sixty-one Masons were present Bannack School and Lodge. Photo: F. Lee Graves and the effect the Masons
in the lodge room to open Lodge had on bringing law and order
on the Master Mason’s degree including one brother to Southwestern Montana. Also each brother in
who was 99 years of age and already planning to be attendance in turn announced his name and his lodge.
at Bannack next year. The word was collected at the In addition to Montana, members were noted from
door, and about 3:30 p.m. W Brother John Ellingsen Markinch Fife, Scotland; Calgary, Lethbridge and
opened the Lodge on the Master Mason’s Degree. Alberta, Alaska; Pennsylvania; Georgia; Florida;
California; Nevada; Washington; Texas; Utah; and
Earlier that day, activities kept the Masons and their Idaho.
ladies busy and entertained. At 10 am a celebration of
thanks and tribute to our departed brothers was held During the tyled meeting sixty-one Masons from
in the Yankee Flats Pavilion in the Group-Use Area. North America came together in friendship. The
At 10:45 Bannack Park Manager Dale Carlson gave a ladies and families, along with the remaining Masons
who elected not attend the tyled meeting, enjoyed
other various planned activities while the Lodge was
at labor. The Lodge Secretary, W. Bro. Dave Martinez
announced that Bannack Historic Lodge No. 3-7-77
now has 1495 members, with two more memorial
applications requested. Officers for the 2014 meeting
were drawn by lot, and the date fixed at September 13,
2014.

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Page 15
most interesting and informative power point
presentation with 75 people in attendance in the
Bannack Community Church. Both video and slides
were shown of the devastating flash flood which swept
through Bannack July 17th. Dale reported that in 20
minutes, over 27 inches of mud, gravel and water had
washed down Hangman’s Gulch taking out several
hundred feet of boardwalk, damaging several buildings
and completely tearing out the Assay Office and Drug
Store, one of the older and more historic buildings
in Bannack. Fifteen inches of mud were deposited
in historic Skinner’s Saloon, the headquarters of
Henry Plummer’s Road Agents. The Masonic
Temple and School came away with hardly a scratch.