Robber's Roost (Daly's Place) - Alder, Montana

National Register of Historic Places Added: 1976   Building: #76001124

-page last updated August 2006, TMC.

This roadhouse between Alder and Sheridan on Highway 287 had a dance hall on the second floor when it was built in 1863 by Pete Daly.  The main floor was a shrine to Bacchus and Lady Luck. The second floor was dedicated to Terpsichore and bullet holes in the logs attest the fervor of ardent swains for fickle sirens. Occasionally a gent succumbed.  Pete’s tavern became a hangout for unwholesome characters who held up stage coaches and robbed lone travelers. One of the road agents is alleged to have left a small fortune in gold cached in the vicinity.  Local lore says stagecoach hold-ups were planned on the premises during the gold rush days.  

An antique shop now fills this historic structure.

Robber's Roost

    Pete Daly built a log roadhouse at this site in 1863. Unlike most roadhouses of the time, which provided meals, companionship, and a place to stay for the weary travelers, Daly's was allegedly a hangout for Montana's most notorious criminal gang - the "innocents". It was reputedly run by Henry Plummer, the sheriff of Bannack and Virginia City.  His deputies were supposedly members of the gang.

    According to legend, the innocents watched travelers stopping here on the Virginia City and Bannack road.  If they looked like easy targets to the crooks, there were plenty of places to rob them in the wilderness between the two mining camps.  Although not a member of the innocents Daly was well aware of their activities. Most of the members of the gang, including Plummer were killed by vigilantes in early 1864.

    This log building is traditionally known as Robbers Roost, it was not, however, constructed until several years after Plummer's gang meet its grizzly end.  Unlike its predecessor this building functioned more as a traditional stage stop.  Pete Daly lived to a ripe old age and was one of the valleys most prominent citizens at the time of his death in 1915.