A NOVEL & FEATURE FILM IN DEVELOPMENT

One vigilante posse. One sheriff.
BOTH sworn to uphold justice…In 4 months the posse hung 24 men.
The Vigilance Committee’s bylaws declared: “The only punishment shall be death.”
So when the rope around the sheriff’s neck stopped swinging, had justice been served, or was it lawless rebellion?
The Montana Vigilantes swore to keep their secrets, 164 years later~
BANNACK 1863 ~ exposes them…
Based on actual events.

• The History

• Film Production

• The Characters

• Behind the Scenes

THE ROAD BACK TO BANNACKAn Author’s Journey Through Loss, Recovery, and Rediscovering Her Voice
By Kelli KlampeSometimes the hardest part of writing a story isn’t finding the words. It’s finding your way back to them.For those who have followed my writing over the years, I believe it’s time to tell a little of the story behind the stories.When the Words DisappearedIn 2015, I published my novel Jayes – Jamestown. That same year, I suffered a brain aneurysm that changed my life in ways I never anticipated.Recovery wasn’t simply about healing physically. It was about rediscovering parts of myself I had taken for granted.One day, I listened to the audiobook of my own novel. I didn’t recognize it. Not the words. Not the story. Not even the voice behind something I had spent years creating.Imagine being a writer and discovering that a piece of your own imagination had become unfamiliar to you.It was frightening.I had been working on the sequel, which was nearly complete, but suddenly finishing a book wasn’t my greatest concern. I was questioning whether I could still be the writer I had once been. My memory was not there anymore, it is still questionable.For the first time, I was afraid of the very thing I loved doing most.So I stepped away.A Different Story, Another DetourEventually, I began searching for a fresh beginning.I turned toward a subject deeply connected to my family history: the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857.Growing up, I listened to my grandmother tell stories about our family’s connection to that tragedy. It was a history that fascinated me, troubled me, and ultimately became the focus of years of research.I studied historical accounts, visited the site, and worked to understand the people and circumstances surrounding those events. I was ready to write again and fulfill a promise. Then, in 2021, I suffered a right sided MCA stroke. It was in the same place my aneurysm had been clipped.Once again, my life and my writing were interrupted. My abilities questioned again- not necessarily by others but myself. That self doubt is vicious.But as I recovered and continued researching, something else began to change. I realized that the story I had originally set out to tell was no longer the story I wanted to write.Through my mothers illness and death, I had come to know members of today’s Mormon community. I encountered kindness, generosity, and people whose lives and beliefs could not simply be defined by events that occurred generations before them.The history deserved to be remembered honestly. That never changed. But I began questioning whether my approach would contribute to understanding or simply carry old wounds into another generation.After years of work, I made the difficult decision to put that project aside for good. It wasn’t a decision made lightly. Sometimes walking away from a story requires as much conviction as finishing one.Some Stories Find Their Way Back to UsOver the past decade, life has taken me through experiences I never could have imagined. There were losses, difficult choices, unexpected challenges, and moments when I wondered whether the part of me that had once lived so comfortably inside fictional worlds was gone.But something remarkable happened. I found myself returning to a place that had captured my imagination more than thirty years earlier.Bannack, Montana.A nearly forgotten frontier town where ambition, greed, loyalty, betrayal, and the pursuit of justice collided in the winter of 1863–1864.A place where an elected sheriff named Henry Plummer was accused of leading a murderous outlaw gang.A place where vigilantes took justice into their own hands.A place where the verdict remains disputed more than 160 years later.The deeper I explored its history, the more questions I discovered.And somewhere along the way, the writer in me began waking up again.BANNACK 1863 — A New BeginningToday, I’m developing Bannack 1863 as both a historical novel and a feature-film screenplay.At its heart is the complicated legend of Sheriff Henry Plummer, the vigilantes who condemned him, and two women whose lives become intertwined with his fate.It’s a story about love, loyalty, power, betrayal, and the dangerous line between justice and vengeance.But most importantly, it’s a story that asks questions rather than pretending history has answered them all.For the first time in years, I feel excited about the possibilities of storytelling again.I’m researching. I’m writing. I’m creating characters who occupy my thoughts long after I’ve closed my computer.And I’ve returned to Bannack itself, walking the dusty streets, standing inside its historic buildings, and imagining the lives that once unfolded there.There’s something extraordinary about standing in a place you’ve spent years imagining.History stops feeling quite so distant. And the stories begin to feel alive.Finding My Way HomeI can’t pretend the last decade was easy, or that everything I lost along the way has returned.Some things have changed permanently.But I’ve learned that creativity doesn’t always disappear when life interrupts it. Sometimes it simply waits for us to find a different way forward.I may not write exactly as I did in 2015.Perhaps that’s not such a terrible thing.I’m bringing more life experience, more perspective, and a deeper understanding of human nature to the stories I tell today.And maybe that’s exactly what this particular story needed.To everyone who has followed my work, encouraged me, or wondered where I disappeared to, thank you.I’m grateful to have the opportunity to begin again.Sometimes the story we’re meant to tell is the one that finds us when we’re finally ready.Mine brought me back to Bannack.And it feels good to be writing again.Kelli KlampeAuthor & Screenwriter — Bannack 1863

THE ROAD BACK TO BANNACKAn Author’s Journey Through Loss, Recovery, and Rediscovering Her Voice
By Kelli KlampeSometimes the hardest part of writing a story isn’t finding the words. It’s finding your way back to them.For those who have followed my writing over the years, I believe it’s time to tell a little of the story behind the stories.When the Words DisappearedIn 2015, I published my novel Jayes – Jamestown. That same year, I suffered a brain aneurysm that changed my life in ways I never anticipated.Recovery wasn’t simply about healing physically. It was about rediscovering parts of myself I had taken for granted.One day, I listened to the audiobook of my own novel. I didn’t recognize it. Not the words. Not the story. Not even the voice behind something I had spent years creating.Imagine being a writer and discovering that a piece of your own imagination had become unfamiliar to you.It was frightening.I had been working on the sequel, which was nearly complete, but suddenly finishing a book wasn’t my greatest concern. I was questioning whether I could still be the writer I had once been. My memory was not there anymore, it is still questionable.For the first time, I was afraid of the very thing I loved doing most.So I stepped away.A Different Story, Another DetourEventually, I began searching for a fresh beginning.I turned toward a subject deeply connected to my family history: the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857.Growing up, I listened to my grandmother tell stories about our family’s connection to that tragedy. It was a history that fascinated me, troubled me, and ultimately became the focus of years of research.I studied historical accounts, visited the site, and worked to understand the people and circumstances surrounding those events. I was ready to write again and fulfill a promise. Then, in 2021, I suffered a right sided MCA stroke. It was in the same place my aneurysm had been clipped.Once again, my life and my writing were interrupted. My abilities questioned again- not necessarily by others but myself. That self doubt is vicious.But as I recovered and continued researching, something else began to change. I realized that the story I had originally set out to tell was no longer the story I wanted to write.Through my mothers illness and death, I had come to know members of today’s Mormon community. I encountered kindness, generosity, and people whose lives and beliefs could not simply be defined by events that occurred generations before them.The history deserved to be remembered honestly. That never changed. But I began questioning whether my approach would contribute to understanding or simply carry old wounds into another generation.After years of work, I made the difficult decision to put that project aside for good. It wasn’t a decision made lightly. Sometimes walking away from a story requires as much conviction as finishing one.Some Stories Find Their Way Back to UsOver the past decade, life has taken me through experiences I never could have imagined. There were losses, difficult choices, unexpected challenges, and moments when I wondered whether the part of me that had once lived so comfortably inside fictional worlds was gone.But something remarkable happened. I found myself returning to a place that had captured my imagination more than thirty years earlier.Bannack, Montana.A nearly forgotten frontier town where ambition, greed, loyalty, betrayal, and the pursuit of justice collided in the winter of 1863–1864.A place where an elected sheriff named Henry Plummer was accused of leading a murderous outlaw gang.A place where vigilantes took justice into their own hands.A place where the verdict remains disputed more than 160 years later.The deeper I explored its history, the more questions I discovered.And somewhere along the way, the writer in me began waking up again.BANNACK 1863 — A New BeginningToday, I’m developing Bannack 1863 as both a historical novel and a feature-film screenplay.At its heart is the complicated legend of Sheriff Henry Plummer, the vigilantes who condemned him, and two women whose lives become intertwined with his fate.It’s a story about love, loyalty, power, betrayal, and the dangerous line between justice and vengeance.But most importantly, it’s a story that asks questions rather than pretending history has answered them all.For the first time in years, I feel excited about the possibilities of storytelling again.I’m researching. I’m writing. I’m creating characters who occupy my thoughts long after I’ve closed my computer.And I’ve returned to Bannack itself, walking the dusty streets, standing inside its historic buildings, and imagining the lives that once unfolded there.There’s something extraordinary about standing in a place you’ve spent years imagining.History stops feeling quite so distant. And the stories begin to feel alive.Finding My Way HomeI can’t pretend the last decade was easy, or that everything I lost along the way has returned.Some things have changed permanently.But I’ve learned that creativity doesn’t always disappear when life interrupts it. Sometimes it simply waits for us to find a different way forward.I may not write exactly as I did in 2015.Perhaps that’s not such a terrible thing.I’m bringing more life experience, more perspective, and a deeper understanding of human nature to the stories I tell today.And maybe that’s exactly what this particular story needed.To everyone who has followed my work, encouraged me, or wondered where I disappeared to, thank you.I’m grateful to have the opportunity to begin again.Sometimes the story we’re meant to tell is the one that finds us when we’re finally ready.Mine brought me back to Bannack.And it feels good to be writing again.Kelli KlampeAuthor & Screenwriter — Bannack 1863

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