During the 1860s, gold lured thousands of miners to Montana’s Garnet Mountains. Along the streambeds and beneath the ground’s surface they found gold nuggets, flakes, and dust. Within a decade, the placer gold deposits played out and prospectors turned to drilling deep into the bedrock to find lodes. The Sierra Mine Loop Trail begins at the parking lot for the Garnet Ghost Town and goes through the Sierra Claim and the Forest Lode Claim. This is public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Shown below are photos of the trail.
Public Lands
At the present time, public lands are seen as undesirable by the current regime. The Secretary of the Interior has stated that his department serves the oil and gas industries and his actions bear this out. There seems to be little concern for the public use of lands, meaning lands which are open to all, regardless of income.
More Public Lands photo tours:
Public Lands: a Miners' Cemetery (Photo Diary)
Public Lands: The Swan River Nature Trail (Photo Diary)
Public Lands: A Dam Day Use Area (Photo Diary)
Public Lands: Oregon Beaches (Photo Diary)
Public Lands: Roads End (Photo Diary)
Public Lands: Simpson Beach (Photo Diary)
Public Lands: Cape Arago State Park (Photo Diary)