Hello All
Garnet is situated in a remote valley located at the head of First Chance Creek, 6,000 feet up in the green pine forested mountains east of Missoula. Garnet has an isolated feel to it and is not heavily touristed or commercialized. As you might expect (especially when you see it), Garnet has a reputation of being a haunted ghost town.
Garnet dates back to the turn to 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 around the area later to be established as Garnet in the 1860s, and gold was found at the First Chance Gulch in 1865. Miners worked about 50 mines in the vicinity. Garnet dates back to 1895, but it wasn?t until an abundant strike at the Nancy Hanks Mine that the town began to boom. In 1896, the Nancy Hanks Mine produced $690,000, and the boom continued throughout the 1890s as mining companies rolled into Garnet.
Twenty years after it was established, the gold in Garnet ran out. AS few as 150 people remained in Garnet and most of the mines were abandoned by 1905. A fire raged through the town in 1912, destroying many commercial establishments. Garnet was never rebuilt, and employment opportunities presented by World War I lured remaining residents away.
Garnet did experience a revival of sorts in 1934 following the rise in gold prices instituted by President Roosevelt. Just as World War I had stripped Garnet of the remnants of its first population, World War II did the town in once again. Mining became more challenging as dynamite use was restricted and Garnet was abandoned once and for all by 1940.
Today the town is looked after by one care taker who is cut off from the rest of world during winter. Cabins can be rented out during summer.
Hardluck
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