I was looking forward to this day very much. I have this obsession with ghost towns and love reading about them and their history but have never actually been to one. I have books about ghost towns in OR, WA and NV so this day was going to be great. I did my research about MT towns and picked two on the way to Belgrade that I wanted to check out.
Garnet was our first stop, only 20 miles from Clinton, MT on a long dusty steep road. Here is what the pamphlet says about Garnet:
Garnet endures along with the spirits of the rugged gold miners and their families who carved a community in the heart of the Garnet Mountain Range at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1898, some 1,000 people knew Garnet as home. The town was a union town, with a strong miners' union, the Garnet Western Labor Union, negotiating with mine owners for fair pay, working hours and safety rules. 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. A raging fire in 1912 and hardships on the home front during World War I sent most of the remaining miners, wives and children packing . Garnet slowly slipped into obscurity, despite a brief renewal of mining in the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Driving out to Garnet was like something out of a horror movie, a long bumpy dusty drive with scary looking shacks along the way that people actually live in. But once we got to the town itself it was very beautiful and there were a few other tourists looking around. I could not believe how many buildings were standing we were even able to go inside some and up to the third story of the old hotel. It was amazing to read about each building and the history. There were once 13 saloons in the town! There was a lot of vandalism in the 70’s but now there are people who watch over the town and keep it nice so that we can take a walk back in time.
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