In 1863 Bill Fairweather and his party discovered gold in southwestern Montana. They were on their way to Yellowstone Country from Bannack but were waylaid by a band of Crows. While hiding from the Indians in a gulch they found gold. They named the gulch after the alder trees lining the gulch. Alder was one of the great gold producers of all time. The site of the largest placer gold strike in...

A registered historic landmark and the site of Montana's first major gold discovery on July 28, 1862. Please visit our website for more information!

The park is 5,837 feet in elevation and approximately 1,600 acres. The campgrounds have 28 sites. A tepee is also available to rent. The Yankee Flats Shelter and picnic site is available to rent for large groups. There is a 14 day camping limit and f...

Coloma is a couple of miles north of Garnet at the end of a trail lined with boulders. Mines near the site still remain, some containing possibly profitable deposits are sometimes mined in the summer. The structures are dated by old newspapers and mail in catalog orders from the 1920's and 1930's, which were commonly used as insulation in the cabin walls. Still standing are mining shafts, rusting...

Backcountry roads settle you into a 19th century mining landscape before you reach historic Fraternity Hall and Gillian Hall nestled within the privately owned town of Elkhorn. Bring your camera to record these two picturesque structures from the early-day silver-mining ghost town, preserved as outstanding examples of frontier architecture. Each has been recorded in the Historic American Buildings...

Garnet is a historic mining ghost town located in west central Montana and sits at an elevation of about 6,000 feet at the head of First Chance Creek. It was named after the brown garnet rock which was used as an abrasive and a semi-precious stone found in the area. The town dates back to 1895 and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the Garnet Preservation Association, a non-profit c...

Hector Horton first discovered silver in the general area in 1865. In the autumn of 1872 the Granite mine was discovered by a prospector named Holland. The mine was relocated in 1875. This is one of the best of all ghost camps. This was the richest silver mine on the earth, and it might never have been discovered if a telegram from the east hadn't been delayed. The miner's backers thought the vent...

Karst's Camp was originally a dude ranch that was founded in 1901 by Pete Karst. He was awarded the property because of back pay that the Cooper Tie Company owed him. Karst built a cabin and eventually built twenty-five cabins to accommodate one hundred people. In 1937 he installed a rope tow for use in recreational skiing. Karst's Camp eventually hosted a local bar and brothel for the local miner...

As a supply center near Alder Gulch, Laurin shared in the $100,000,000 riches of the gulch.

The town was established around a trading post ran by the Frenchman, Jean Baptiste Laurin. Laurin's store prospered because of the supplies carried for the miners and the furs traded with the Indians. Laurin was sometimes called Cicero, or Lorrain.

M. Laurin was a five foot seven inch tall man, we...

Marysville was once a thriving gold camp. Now Marysville is a small community with several buildings listed on the National Historic Register. There is much to see here in this almost ghost town. The town is far from being deserted and some mining still goes on. It's nothing like the rip-roaring period when Irishman Tommy Cruse's magnificent Drumlummon Mine poured out $50,000,000. In the year...