The miners of Virginia City suffered as much as anyone when shipping their gold to Bannack on the only road to the town. Unfortunately, it was the road infested by the notorious Plummer gang. The miners decided to take matters into their own hands and formed a Vigilante group. The group did well. They captured at least six of Plummer’s bandits and hung each one from an exposed beam of a building under construction. Plummer himself was later captured and hung in Bannack. Virginia City cannot be called a true ghost town for it is now a tourist attraction. Submitted by Henry Chenowith.

While actually then elected sheriff of Bannack, Henry Plumer (he spelt his own name with one "m"), had several gold claims of his own in Nevada City, when the newly discovered silver load, produced Virginia City.
The Territory of Montana wished to expand his sheriff duties to include the two Alder Gulch mining towns. Despite the more common, popular belief of the legend that Sheriff Plumer and his "Road Agents," were just a gang of killers of the gold-miners, en route, with their gold, Sheriff Plumer had owned many gold claims of his own and had a respectible political agenda, further reaching than just sheriff. Hard to believe that a man that owned many gold/silver mines, stooped to kill miners for their bag of gold on the trail.
The first territorial judge of Montana, Sidney Edgerton, was appointed by then President Lincoln to preside over the rough tactics of the mining frontier.
Without swearing oath to office and acting solely on rumors prepetuated by tabloids, Edgerton formed the "Vilgilantes," an angry mob of miners, using geurilla tactics and given 'above the law' status.
Evidence suggests there was no organized gold-robbing gang in the first place. It was conjecture of the tabloids via rumors. The term "Road Agents" was coined by the papers. There was trail robbing, resulting in deaths, but they were unconnected. Sheriff Plumer, with violent "Mountain law" incidents in his past, was sought out as the leader of the phantom gang "Road Agents."
The "Vigilantes" of judge Edgerton, killed many men in a flurry of hangings. A few incidents were down-right lynchings of fire. Five men, precieved to be of the "Road Agents," were hanging together in Virginia City on Jan. 14th, 1864.
They were: Haze Lyons, Boone Helm, Jack Gallagher, Frank Parish and "Clubfoot" George Lane. Their tombstones are on the boothill of Virginia City. Later in history, someone trying to prove they were buried there, dug up George Lane's "clubfoot." It can be seen in the Museum on main street.
Dimsdale, a leader of the Vigilantes, made a statement that the five confessed. John Grannis, a miner and witness to the hanging, wrote otherwise..."Obeying a notice of the vigilance committee I went to Virginia this morning... I was on guard all day and saw them hung. The five was hung in a row. All of them maintained their innocence to the last."
source, "Hanging the Sheriff" by R.E. Mather and F.E.Boswell.
submitted by Keith Kersting

From west to east, U.S. Route 287 goes through mining ghost towns, Laurin, Adler, Nevada and Virginia, in a short distance. Even though "main street" for Nevada City is route 287 and accomadates tourists with shops, for a small fee, you can enter few acres behind which is the true Nevada City ghost town. The twenty or so buildings are remarkably preserved, upkept and filled with the hundreds of thousands of the original Nevada City's artifacts. The assemblage of buildings is a complete town. On the other side of route 287 is the restored train depot with the working "small gauge" track locamotive "Alder Gulch No. 12." One can buy a ticket and cart from Nevada City, a short way to Virginia City. submitted by Keith Kersting, 2002