In 1859, William Thompson won an important commission to build a government fort and houses in Yankton, then the extreme frontier of the Northwest Territory. Unfortunately, before the young frontiersman could get paid for his work tragedy struck: Indians burned the buildings. The situation left the 21-year-old penniless. It wouldn’t be the first time. An unusual number of financial tragedies befell the hard-working William Thompson […]
A Twisted William Thompson Was Published in 1899
Who would have thought that William Thompson, the rugged frontiersman who was instrumental in the founding of Virginia City, Montana, was also a published author? Perhaps this explains the penchant of descendants toward things literary. Asked by the Anaconda Standard to reminisce about his first Christmas at Alder Gulch, a mining camp that included the town of Virginia City, Thompson relates in an avuncular […]
Kids Largely Bored By Visit to Thompson Museum
We drove a hundred of miles out of our way during the summer of 1997 to visit Virginia City, Montana, the place where my great grandfather, J.E. Thompson, and his brother William Boyce Thompson were born. There’s a museum there that celebrates the history of the mining town of Alder Gulch. I was fascinated by the […]