Boots on Boot Hill

Frank Parish meet his end in Virginia City on January 14, 1864. He and four others were encountered frontier justice and the end off rope at the hands of the Mo...
Read more

Frank Parish meet his end in Virginia City on January 14, 1864. He and four others were encountered frontier justice and the end off rope at the hands of the Montana Vigilantes. Parish came west from Tennessee in hopes of finding fortune in the Montana gold rush, establishing a claim at Rattlesnake Creek on the Virginia City-Bannack stage line. Parish's was arrested “[f]or being a road agent, thief, and an accessory to numerous robberies and murders on the highway.” To this, Parish quietly responded, “I am innocent of all, as innocent as you are.” Questions surround Parish's involvement in the stage coach robbery that led to his hanging and the presumed virtue of the Montana Vigilantes. Markers for Parish and his convicted cohort stand on Virginia City's Boot Hill. The weathered, white-washed wood plank markers create a memorable scene set against the tall grass and big Montana sky.
Read less