These old ghost towns give us a glimpse back in time to the gold miner’s dreams of striking it rich or the saloon girl’s hopes for better days. If you have visited any of the old ghost towns in the last few years you have witnessed the rapid decay of the structures and the loss of a valuable and unique chapter in Montana’s history. The old ghost town buildings in Montana are slowly falling apart, board by board and brick by brick.
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The future of this historic town now depends on the work of volunteers and contributions from the public. Much remained however, and souvenir hunters soon stripped the town not only of loose items, but of doors, woodwork, wallpaper, and even the hotel stairway. Several new cabins were constructed following the war, and in 1948 an auction was held with items from the Davey store. The use of dynamite for domestic purposes was curtailed, making mining difficult. Then, World War II drew the population away again. A new wave of miners moved into abandoned cabins and began re-working the mines and dumps. In 1934 when President Roosevelt raised gold prices from $16 to $32 an ounce, Garnet revived. Davey still ran the store however, and the hotel stood intact. Cabins were abandoned, furnishings included, as though residents were merely vacationing. A fire in the town’s business district in 1912 destroyed may commercial buildings, most remaining residents moved away to defense-related jobs. The Nancy Hanks yielded about $300,000 worth of gold, and an estimated $950,000 was extracted from all the mines in Garnet by 1917, but by 1905, many of the mines were abandoned and the town’s population had shrunk to about 150. Most of the buildings stood on existing or future mining claims, and about twenty mines operated.Īfter 1900 many mine owners leased their mines out, the gold having become scarcer and harder to mine. Eager miners and entrepreneurs built quickly and without planning. There were four stores, four hotels, three livery stables, two barber shops, a union hall, a school with 41 students, a butcher shop, a candy shop, a doctor’s office, an assay office, and thirteen saloons comprised the town. By January 1898 nearly 1,000 people resided in Garnet. Soon after Mitchell erected his mill, Sam Ritchey hit a rich vein of ore in his Nancy Hanks mine just west of the town. Around it grew the town, which was originally named Mitchell, but in 1897 became known as Garnet. Armistead Mitchell erected a stamp mill to crush local ore. Miners began to trickle back.Īt the head of First Chance Gulch in 1895, Dr. Silver mines closed, and within weeks thousands of unemployed miners were on to gold mining in the Garnets. Silver mines elsewhere started to draw the miners out of the Garnet Mountains, but in 1893, the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act set off a panic throughout the region. Although miners had located gold-bearing quartz veins, the lack of decent roads and refined extracting and smelting techniques, made further development unfeasible at that time.
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The Garnet Mountains attracted miners who collected the gold first by panning, then by using rockers and sluice boxes as the free-floating gold diminished. with running water, but by 1870 most area placer mining was no longer profitable. Placer mining of gold or other minerals is done by washing the sand, gravel, etc. In the 1800s miners migrated north from played-out placer mines in California and Colorado.
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The bawdy houses did a brisk business and Missoula and Deer Lodge were close enough for necessary supplies. There was a school, the crime rate was low, and liquor flowed freely in the town’s many saloons. The surrounding mountains were rich in gold-bearing quartz. Garnet was named for the semi-precious ruby-colored stone found in the area and it was a good place to live. Yet, a century after Garnet emerged, remnants of the town stand, hidden high in the Garnet Mountain Range east of Missoula. As a result, buildings grew quickly, most lacking foundations. Enterprising miners were more interested in extracting the riches below ground than building above. Montana’s most intact ghost town wasn’t built to last.