First Thanksgiving in Gold Country

“Our first Thanksgiving Day dinner in the territory in the fall of 1863 was one of the memorable dinners I have ever attended. Henry Plummer, desiring to be on good terms with the Chief Justice, Mr. Edgerton, and my husband... invited [us] to dinner…he sent to Salt Lake City, a distance of five hundred miles, and everything that money could buy was served, delicately cooked and with all the style that would characterize a banquet at “Sherry’s” (a fancy restaurant). I now recall to mind that the turkey cost forty dollars in gold (now equal to $620).” (Harriet Sanders)

The first recorded Thanksgiving in what became Montana took place in the isolated mining town of Bannack in 1863, shortly after President Abraham Lincoln had established it as a national observance.

Goods were scarce, freight was slow arriving, and no one even thought about serving a turkey. Near neighbor invited Harriet and Wilbur along with Henry Edgerton, Sanders’ uncle, to Thanksgiving dinner. This neighbor wanted to make a good impression on the family.

Edgerton was the newly appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Idaho Territory, which then included present-day Montana. Their host offered the invitation well in advance.

He miraculously procured a turkey—an unheard of, unbelievable luxury—for thirty dollars in gold dust, and paid a fortune to have it freighted all the way from Salt Lake City. Harriet wrote later that their Thanksgiving meal was as fine and beautifully cooked as any meal she ever enjoyed in New York City’s finest restaurant.

Unfortunately, their host failed to make a good impression. In early January, just weeks later, Sanders and the vigilantes saw to the hanging of Sheriff Henry Plummer, the same man who had hosted their Thanksgiving Day feast. (Ellen Baumler )

“The first official observance of Thanksgiving after the creation of Montana Territory came in 1865. Although President Lincoln had established the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day, following Lincoln’s assassination, President Johnson chose Dec. 7 as the day of official observance.”

“Residents of the mining camps paused in their relentless search for golden treasure and gave thanks for their good luck and for the end of the Civil War. Virginia City businesses closed. There were private celebrations and culinary preparations in many homes and restaurants.

The Montana Post reported that sleighs were gliding merrily around town all day, men hobnobbed at the bars, and there was a singing party in the governor’s office. The next year, 1866, at Last Chance, celebrations were more community oriented. Young ladies put on their pretties and attended the Firemen’s Ball on Thanksgiving Eve at the Young America Hall.

Markets were well supplied for Thanksgiving Day feasts. Shoppers could choose elk, deer, bear, sage hens, grouse, and pheasant. There was no mention of turkeys, however, at Thanksgiving tables on that particular holiday.” (Ellen Baumler )

From its earliest days, American football has shared a nearly unbreakable bond with today’s Thanksgiving holiday. Princeton and Yale played on Thanksgiving Day in 1876, just 13 years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the bill declaring the last Thursday in November a federal holiday to offer thanks. As a day free from work and classes, Thanksgiving offered college and high school students the opportunity to play games free from class or work conflicts.

“In its earliest decade, before dawning Blue and Gold and years before the team was known as the Bobcats, Montana State Agricultural College played its rival on Thanksgiving Day. The College’s first game against the University came on November 25, 1897, in Missoula. It was Thanksgiving Day, and the Grizzlies won 18-6 in the second football game ever played by Montana State and the first against collegiate competition. One year later the University again won on Thanksgiving, this time in Missoula just two weeks after capturing a game on the College’s home grounds.

Missoula had won three straight in the series, but the first streak between the teams was about to be ended, then doubled. Montana State beat their in-state rivals twice in 1899, including a 38-0 thrashing on Thanksgiving Day in Bozeman. That was the second of a six-game Bobcat win streak that remains tied for their longest in the series.”

Montana and Montana State has played a Thanksgiving Day game every year from the series’ inception until 1904. The schools didn’t play in 1905, and the two years after that Montana State discontinued its football program by faculty decree in order to implement rules and fiscal structure. Montana State and Montana would meet on Thanksgiving Day only one more time, a 10-0 UM win in 1910 in Missoula.

“In the late 1920s, Montana State played three Thanksgiving Day games. In 1926 the Cats closed their season with a 7-0 loss at the College of Idaho at Caldwell. Two years later Montana State and Mt. Saint Charles (now Carroll) met in Sheridan, Wyoming, in a game that decided the state championship of Montana because the Cats and Grizzlies had played to a tie. Carroll won this one easily, 29-0.

In 1929, Montana State sent what may be its best pre-World War II team to Great Falls to again decide the collegiate championship of Montana. The game set up this way because of the 14-12 win over the Grizzlies in Butte, sparked by Max Worthington’s heroics.

On ‘a snow-covered field which handicapped the speedy backs of both the Saints and Bobcats,’ according to the 1929 Montanan, Montana State gained a measure of revenge and snagged the state title. Two completed passes early in the second quarter set up a third, from Austin DeFrate to Gus Wylie, that delivered the only score of the game. Montana State used excellent defense and “line plunges” by O’Leary helped the Cats control the game, and the College intercepted passes on the final three Saints drives of the day (two by Wylie, one by Ivar Twilde) to secure the victory.”

“After those back-to-back games against Carroll, the Bobcats would play only two more games on Thanksgiving Day. In 1936 the Cats beat Montana Tech 26-7 in Butte. Two years later, the Bobcats and Northern Colorado battled to a 0-0 tie in the snow. The Bobcats stand 7-6-1 all-time on Thanksgiving Day, 5-4 against the Grizzlies, which started the whole thing to begin with.”

Q: What do you get if you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter? A: Pumpkin pi.