While visiting in Montana, and on my way to Washington State, I scanned my maps looking for places of interest along the way. I was looking for historic locations when spotted this little dot called “Garnet Ghost Town” just a bit north off the highway. Oh how exciting to visit a real ghost town in the beautiful Montana mountains!
Garnet Ghost Town HomesThree homes on the hillside in the historic town of Garnet, Montana
I took the shortest distance on the map. This road soon turned in to a slightly muddy road. I was pulling my 5th wheel at the time. When we come upon another car coming down the road, I waved them down to ask if I could get the trailer up the mountain. They recommended a meadow area where there was parking for me to drop the trailer. Boy, was I lucky to have met them! The road was very windy and only one lane for a major part of the climb.
Back road to Garnet Ghost Town
The funniest thing was, once we got to the top, there were school buses. Large school buses. Haha, if I had known the area better, I could have taken the paved roads right to this historic little town. Oh well, our way was much more like finding an old town left to the wilderness and hidden away, as it must have been in it’s day! :-)
“In 1898, Garnet was a booming gold camp with nearly 1,000 residents. The town included four stores, four hotels, three livery stables, two barber shops, a union hall, a school, a butcher shop, a candy shop, a doctor’s office, an assay office, and thirteen saloons.
The surrounding mountains were rich in gold-bearing quartz so Garnet grew rapidly until about 1905 when many of the mines were abandoned. The 1910 census found only 150 residents. In 1912, fire destroyed many of the commercial buildings and by the 1920’s Garnet was a ghost town.
Garnet is one of Montana’s most intact ghost towns. It symbolizes an important era in Montana’s hard rock mining history. Substantial effort has gone into stabilizing and protecting the remaining historic structures.
Garnet is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the garnet Preservation Association, a nonprofit organization. This cooperative effort is preserving the town for the enjoyment of the public.”
Click HERE to see a few more of the photos captured.
Thank YOU for stopping by! We hope you enjoyed this side trip.
Carla