My Fifth Great Uncle, Michael "Mike" Grove, Was a Miner Out in Bannack, Montana

"Bannack State Park" lecture uploaded by the Montana Historical Society (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC1_ABaqaHg)

I think my mom will cover this guy in more depth later for his Civil War service for Colorado, but I was excited to find a hard-drinking miner in the Wild West in my family tree, in this case an older brother Michael "Mike" Grove (1810-1890) of my 4th great grandfather Frederick Grove (1812-1882).

At 60 years old Michael Grove appeared in "Bannock", Beaverhead, Montana Territory (his occupation was "Works in mine").  Bannack is now a ghost town/state park.

patdarl (username) posted the following about Mike Grove on an Ancestry board in 2003:

Tony French lived in Bannack in the early days. He kept a journal, in which he recorded info on every person thet lived in Bannack. He wrote:
"Mike Grove: Went to Bannack in the early 1860's. He worked at placer mining for wages. Later he mined for himself at what they called Gyroing, that is drifting on the benches for pockets containing gold. He, like a number of his kind, spent all his gold for whiskey. He died at Bannack."

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