By Valerie Mellema.

 

Exploring ghost towns is a fun, entertaining way to relive aspects of the American West. Some ghost towns in the American West, such as Oatman, Arizona, are not only inhabited but make the most of their opportunity to capitalize on their town’s former glory. In other cases, ghost towns are truly empty and uninhabited, aside from archaeologists and occasional tourists passing through. Such is the case high in the hills of west-central Montana, where the historic ghost town of Garnet is located.

If you’ve been to any of Montana’s other well-known ghost towns like Virginia City or Bannack, you’ll find Garnet just as intriguing, if not even more so.

It sits in a remote valley at the head of First Chance Creek, 6,000 feet up in the green, pine-forested mountains East of Missoula. Garnet feels isolated and isn’t heavily touristy or commercialized. As you might expect (especially once you see it), Garnet has a reputation as a haunted ghost town.

Garnet dates back to the turn of the 20th Century. It was named for the semi-precious garnet rock first mined there before gold was found. Like most mining towns, Garnet wasn’t built to last, yet over a century later, buildings lacking foundations still stand.

Placer mining was practiced in the area that would later become Garnet in the 1860s, and gold was found at First Chance Gulch in 1865. Miners worked about 50 mines nearby. Garnet dates back to 1895, but it didn’t begin to boom until an abundant strike at the Nancy Hanks Mine. In 1896, the Nancy Hanks Mine produced $690,000, and the boom continued throughout the 1890s as mining companies rolled into Garnet.

Based on the wealth it produced, you can get a good idea of what life must have been like when Garnet was thriving. Garnet had four hotels, four stores, two barbershops, a butcher shop, a doctor’s office, laundry facilities, and thirteen saloons.

Despite its remote location, Garnet had a school, and unlike other mining towns, many families lived there. Stagecoach transportation ran daily between Bearmouth and Coloma, and supplies were available in Missoula and Deer Lodge, just a three-day’s journey from Garnet. Garnet’s population grew, and it became more of a community than a typical mining town. The population swelled to as many as 1,200 in its prime.

Residents of Garnet did more than mine for garnets and gold and support the miners’ efforts. Residents enjoyed dances and parties, picnics and fishing trips, and a genuine social life. Saloons and the drinking, gambling, and prostitution that typified many mining camp towns were present but controlled to a great degree. The jail was available as an incentive to keep rowdy drunkenness at a minimum, or at least a tolerable level.

If you’d like to ghost-hunt in Garnet, one of the most popularly cited haunted buildings is Kelly’s Saloon. People report hearing music and laughter there even in the dead of winter, when only one person oversees the town.

Caretakers also report unexplained footsteps in the old Wells Hotel, as well as doors shutting even where no doors exist. Whether it’s the Saloon or the hotel, those who’ve experienced the unexplained phenomena confirm that as soon as you approach the building, the noises immediately stop.