Ghost Town Accommodations in Garnet, MontanaRead Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com To read this entire feature FREE with photos cut and paste this link: http://jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/cabinweb/garnet/garnet.html
Montana's most intact ghost town wasn't built to last. Enterprising miners were more interested in extracting
riches below ground than building above. As a result, buildings grew quickly, most lacking foundations. They were small and easy to heat.
Yet, a century after Garnet emerged, remnants of town stayed hidden high in Garnet Mountain Range east of Missoula. It was named for semi-precious ruby-colored stone found in area.
Garnet was a good place to live. The surrounding mountains were rich in gold-bearing quartz. There was a school. The crime rate was low. Liquor flowed freely in town's many saloons. The bawdy houses did brisk business. Missoula and Deer Lodge were just close enough for necessary supplies.
In 1860s miners migrated north from played-out placer mines in California and Colorado. The Garnet Mountains attracted miners who collected gold first by panning, and then by using rockers and sluice boxes as free-floating gold diminished.
Placer mining of gold or other minerals is done by washing sand, gravel, etc. with running water, but by 1870 most area placer mining was no longer profitable. Although miners had located gold-bearing quartz veins, lack of decent roads and refined extracting and smelting techniques made further development unfeasible at that time. Silver mines elsewhere drew miners out of Garnets.
In 1895, repeal of Sherman Silver Purchase Act set off a panic throughout region. Silver miners closed, and within weeks thousands of unemployed miners were on move. This event, combined with improved technology, led to a renewed interest in gold mining in Garnets. Miners began a steady trickle back.
At head of First Chance Gulch in 1895, Dr. Armistead Mitchell erected a stamp mill to crush local ore. Around it grew town of Garnet. The town was originally named Mitchell, but in 1897 it became known as Garnet.
Soon after Mitchell erected his mill, Sam Ritchey hit a rich vein of ore in his Nancy Hanks mine (first photo above) just west of town. The "boom" began. By January 1898 nearly 1,000 people resided in Garnet. 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 town. Eager miners and entrepreneurs built quickly and without planning. A haphazard community resulted. Most of buildings stood on existing or future mining claims. About twenty mines operated.
After 1900 many mine owners leased their mines out, gold became scarcer and harder to mine. The Nancy Hanks yielded about $300,000 worth of gold. An estimated $950,000 was extracted from all mines in Garnet by 1917.
