Rubber Tire Roamin’

Garnet Ghost Town

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

We were on our way to Red Lodge, Montana – which is about a nine-hour haul from Cranbrook.

As I plotted out our route on my usually trusty Rand McNally atlas, I noticed a ghost town that we could visit that wouldn’t take us too far afield. On the atlas, it showed a gravel road that led from Montana Highway 200, about 25 miles east of Missoula.

We found the access road easily enough and followed it about 13 miles to Garnet Ghost Town, a surprisingly well-preserved and sprawling site. The road in was essentially a good quality forest service road, with a couple of heritage attractions along the way.

Established in 1865 after a gold strike up Bear Gulch in the Garnet Range (named for the semi-precious stone found there), a mining town, originally called ‘Mitchell’, struggled along until 1895 when a rich vein was discovered, creating a boom that produced some of the current buildings in the ghost town.

The boom turned to bust by 1900 and by 1905 the town only had about 150 residents.

A fire in 1912 devastated much of the town and by about 1920 only a few residents remained, including Frank A. Davey who ran a store and hotel.

In 1934, President Roosevelt doubled gold prices and Garnet experienced another small revival. By 1936, the town had grown to 250 residents and life was good in Garnet, until 1939 when the Second World War drew many residents away and wartime restrictions on dynamite made mining impossible.

The post office closed in 1942 and by 1947, following the death of the indomitable Frank Davey, the town had run its course.

As much of the town had been abandoned, a great many artifacts were left behind and they are on display throughout the 22 buildings one can visit.

“Garnet is now recognized as one of Montana’s most intact ghost towns, and thousands of visitors make the trek up the steep mountain roads each year to experience history first-hand,” a Bureau of Land Management brochure notes.

It was an eye-opening visit to a remote but interesting location.

Leaving was another matter.

As I wanted to continue on to Interstate 90, I followed a sign pointing me toward it, after leaving the ghost town parking lot.

In our little VW Jetta we crept along a road that I would compare to a soon-to-be decommissioned back bush side road. Take any major logging road in your area, then take an arterial road and THEN take a track running off that secondary road and you get the idea.

We covered three miles in about 20 minutes before I turned around and we crept back toward Garnet.

Once back, I tried another road and bottomed out on a rock, making me turn around again.

Long story shortened – we doubled back on the way we came in and ended up about two hours behind schedule. It seemed like a good idea – and would have been if we had more time.

If you enjoy wandering around ghost towns, we recommend Garnet. Just remember to make sure you have directions down pat before heading in.

You can access Garnet Ghost Town from the East Kootenay via Highway 83 south from Big Fork, Montana, to Highway 200, and west (right) to the Garnet Ghost Town access road.

You can also access it from Missoula, by heading east on Highway 200.

Photos by Ian Cobb and Carrie Schafer/e-KNOW

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