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Cross country skiing through bannack in winter

Ghost Towns

Virginia City

VISIT A GHOST TOWN

Visiting one of Montana’s ghost towns is like stepping back in time to the era of gold, saloons and vigilantes. Experience the quiet solitude of Bannack State Park or watch history come alive with a performance at Virginia City and Nevada City.

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Granite Ghost Town State Park

Ghost Town
Philipsburg

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 ...

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Coloma - Mystery Camp of Garnet Range

Ghost Town
Missoula

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, ...

Bannack State Park

State Park
Bannack

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 ...

Rimini

Ghost Town
Helena

Originally Rimini was named Young Ireland. History has it that Rimini was either named after a city in Italy or a drama production that traveled through during its formative years. Several of Rimini's old buildings are inhabited today and make up the Rimini community. Porphyry Dike Mine is ...

Karst's Camp

Ghost Town
Big Sky

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 ...

Virginia City

State Historic Site
Virginia City, MT

Virginia City offers visitors the opportunity to pan for gold, take stagecoach rides, ghost tours, train rides, firetruck tours and see an old time play. Virginia City, Montana - step back in time and relive the Montana frontier gold rush experience of the mid-to-late 1800s. Today, through ...

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Marysville

Ghost Town
Marysville

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 ...

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Alder Gulch

Ghost Town
Virginia City

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. ...