Emily Chan
In 1934, President Roosevelt raised the price of gold from $16 to $32 an ounce, causing some miners to return to Garnet and rework the mines.
But, those efforts were short-lived, and the town was quickly deserted once again when World War Two began.
By the early 1940s, Garnet was a ghost town. The Montana School of Mines declared the Garnet mines dead in 1960. And, in 2010, Garnet made it onto the list for the National Register of Historic Places.
The buildings in the old ghost town have been preserved but not restored to their former glory. There are more than 80 buildings left, and many of them are sound enough to walk through.
These structures tell the stories of the rise and fall of Garnet, providing a glimpse of what the mining days were like.
Some believe that former residents of Garnet still haunt the abandoned buildings. The most common supernatural occurrences are laughter and music, which are reported to come from Kelley’s Saloon.
Garnet is one of the best-preserved ghost towns in Montana. Overall, it gives us a chance to appreciate a valuable piece of Montana’s history.
