I think it is easier for one’s imagination to conjure these up in the dark.Īs the moon rose, I began setting up my camera on a tripod at the overlook, and working on compositions, keenly aware that I was completely alone there. Looking down into town, I tried to imagine the four stores, four hotels, three livery stables, two barbershops, a union hall, a school with 41 students, a butcher shop, a candy shop, a doctor’s office, an assay office, and thirteen saloons/dance halls that used to be there. These towns were slapped together without thought to longevity and a fire in 1912 claimed a chunk of Garnet. These aren’t movie sets, they were real towns with real people. I think the allure of ghost towns is in trying to imagine life back then. With the town being in a small, tight valley, you actually come to an overlook from which you can see pretty much most of the town below. It was a fairly clear night with only a few clouds and a quarter moon was about to rise.Īfter I got my camera equipment together, I headed down the short trail. I arrived at the parking lot above the town after dusk. ![]() With this in mind, I set my sights on a moonlit photoshoot in Garnet. Although it closes at 4:30, there are no gates and the town remains open 24/7. They maintain an office in “downtown” Garnet. On the other hand, Garnet is not a park, but is run by the BLM. Here is where another, important difference between Bannack and Garnet comes in.īannack is a state park, and it is closed and gated between sunset and sunrise, so there is no nighttime access allowed. One topic that I thought might be particularly interesting is photographing ghost towns at night. I am always looking for opportunities to explore nighttime photography. Mitchell had intended to keep the arm, but he lost it somewhere during his inebriated travels after the poker game. The two then spent the night together in a whiskey-infused poker party. Mitchell was the area’s doctor and is known for having sawn off the arm of a miner known as “Shorty”, after he stumbled into his own fireplace in a drunken stupor, badly burning his arm. Instead of a hung sheriff, Garnet has the story of “Shorty’s Arm”. Garnet has the reputation as having been a calm, family-friendly town, founded by a Dr. ![]() By contrast, Garnet was one of the later gold strikes in the 1890s and is nestled in a small, green mountain valley east of Missoula. Bannack has the reputation of an early, freewheeling, rowdy town, and the lore is dominated by an outlaw sheriff, hung by a vigilante group formed during a time of widespread lawlessness. However, Montana has two very well preserved and protected ghost towns in Bannack and Garnet, and they couldn’t be more different.īannack was the site of one of the earliest gold strikes in Montana in 1862 and located along Grasshopper Creek in the open, arid, southwest part of the state. Most of these now lie silent and are slowly returning to Nature. They are a testament to a time gone by, a time of gold fever and busted dreams. ![]() Like the other western states, Montana has its share of ghost towns scattered among its mountains.
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