Montana
Garnet Ghost Town
Garnet is a historic mining ghost town located
in west central Montana and sits at an elevation of about
6,000 feet at the head of First Chance Creek. It was named
after the brown garnet rock which was used as an abrasive
and a semi-precious stone found in the area.Placer miners
were active in the area as early as the 1860's and placer
gold was found in the First Chance Gulch in 1865, most of
which was recovered by drift diggings.
It wasn't until an abundance of gold was
discovered at the Nancy Hanks Mine in 1898 that Garnet became
a boomtown The town dates back to 1895, a mining town created
to service the miners of the nearly fifty mines in the are.
In 1898, the population was one thousand people. It was
a union town represented by the strong miners' union, the
Garnet Western Labor Union, negotiating for fair pay, better
working hours and safety rules.
It then became a host to nearly 1,000 people.
There were hotels, saloons, stores, a school, a Chinese
laundry and barbershops.The union hall doubled as the town's
dance hall and resonated with dances, theater, harvest festivals
and union meetings.
But, by 1905, the gold was playing out and only 150 people
remained. 1912 nearly half the town burned down and was
never rebuilt.
Garnet slowly fell into silence with only
a brief spark of life during the Great Depression of 1930.
Garnet is quite different from the rip-roaring frontier
gold-mining towns in Montana such as Bannack and Virginia
City with their lawlessness, vigilantes, and extra-legal
hangings. For one thing, Garnet was settled three decades
after these early placer-mining towns. The gold mines that
gave rise to the town of Garnet were hard-rock mines that
demanded entrepreneurs with access to industrial equipment.
Hundreds of miners brought their families to live at the
top of the long, steep grade from the Northern Pacific Railroad
stop at Bearmouth. Many businesses thrived on Main Street.
More than 50 children attended the school.
The men worked hard, without electricity,
with only steam engines and hand tools, removing more than
60,000 ounces of gold, 50,000 ounces of silver, and 60,000
ounces of copper before the rich veins of minerals were
tapped out. Garnet was mostly left to the memories and the
ghosts when the town's remaining merchant, Frank Davey,
died in 1947 and by 1950 the town was deserted.
Restoration work began in 1970 by the Garnet
Preservation Project. The public donated $90,000 worth of
artifacts. The structures being restored include the J.R.
Wells Hotel, Dahl's Saloon, Kelly's Bar, and the F.A. Davey's
Store.
Davey's spirit along with others can be felt
all in this town and especially on the second floor of theWells
Hotel. If you go up the stairs, walk straight towards the
wall without turning, and then look to your left, the open
door leds to one of the most active spirits in the hotel.
The mine was owned by two partners. After a disagreement,
one partner sold his share to the other for $50. He later
hanged himself and some suspect his spirit never left the
mine, he regreted selling.
Behind the scenes at Garnet, workers stabilize
the old buildings to keep them from falling down. The goal
is to retain the ghostly nature of the abandoned buildings
while preserving the roofs from caving in and the walls
from giving away. The structures being restored include
the J.R. Wells Hotel, Dahl's Saloon, Kelly's Bar, and the
F.A. Davey's Store.
The Garnet Ghost Town from the west, take
I-90 east to Exit 109, the Bonner Exit. Continue on Highway
200 east for 23 miles. Shortly after the 22 mile marker
turn south at the sign Garnet Ghost Town. The parking lot
is 11 miles up the gravel road.From the east, take I-90
west to Exit 154 for Drummond and follow the Frontage Road
from the west end of Drummond for 10 miles to the Bear Gulch
Road. Turn onto Bear Gulch road at the sign for Garnet.
Proceed 11 miles up the gravel road.Please note the gravel
road is not recommended for trailers or motorhomes.
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