National Guard to lead investigation, cleanup of munitions at old Bannack Artillery Range

Military crews will be looking for and cleaning up old munitions left behind from artillery training in the 1940s and ‘50s for the next two months at the former artillery range south of Bannack.

The work will be done by the Army National Guard, Montana Army National Guard and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Bureau of Land Management land that used to be the Bannack Artillery Range, a 3,413-acre site in Beaverhead County that sits about a mile and a half south of Bannack.

The BLM said the work is being done to find out whether the past artillery training conducted in 1949, 1950 and 1952 left behind unexploded ordnance or other things that could be a risk to the public.

In 2019, firefighters working the Bannack fire in the area had to stop their work temporarily after finding two unexploded shells within the boundary of the fire.

The work at the site is expected to run from this week through mid-June, though the BLM said there would be phased fieldwork through the fall. The work will include surveying, surface inspections, some subsurface investigations and site restoration. Contractor Tetra Tech will assist in the operation.

People living nearby and recreating in the area should expect to see crews and increased activity nearby and working off of designated roads, the BLM said.

Public access to the land will remain open, but motorized public travel will be restricted to designated roads and trails to keep visitors safe.

The BLM said more information on work plans, safety and project updates can be found by the public at the project’s information repository at the Dillon Public Library.