During the 1860s, gold lured thousands of miners to Montana’s Garnet Mountains. In 1895, the town of Garnet was established. In 1898, Garnet had a population of about 1,000 and by 1905, only 150 remained. In 1934, gold prices were raised and, together with new technology, another gold boom began. By 1936, the population had increased to 250. With World War II, the boom disappeared and in 1942 the post office closed. By 1948, the general store had closed, and souvenir hunters were looting the town. Today the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the Garnet Preservation Association maintain Garnet in a state of arrested decay.
With regard to the state of arrested decay, one of the information signs explains:
“Workers seek to retain the original materials and building techniques to freeze Garnet in time. The goal is to retain the ghostly nature of the abandoned buildings, while preventing the roofs from caving in and the walls from giving way.”
Miner’s cabins were built quickly using whatever material was at hand. According to the information pamphlet:
“Less time building meant more time mining. Logs notched at the corners fit closer together and required less daubing to fill the voids between logs. Daubing material come from whatever was on hand, usually mud, grass, and moss.”
Shown below are some of the miners’ cabins.
Outhouses
Garnet was occupied in an era before indoor plumbing was common and so the toilets were simply small buildings built over a pit which collected the human waste. Like the cabins, these outhouses were constructed to be functional rather than aesthetically pleasing. Shown below are some of the remaining outhouses.
