Day 2

Today was ghost town day. We headed east from Missoula to Garnet, MT. Garnet was an 1890's mining town that finally gave up about 1947 or so. Garnet is only 10 miles off I-90, but that 10 miles will take you 45 minutes to an hour to drive. The first 5 miles aren't too bad, but that last few are very slow going on the one lane dirt (not gravel) road.

We finally made it to Garnet. After parking the car, this shot was taken from an observation point about halfway down from the parking lot to the town.

This is an 1898 saloon. Its actually a very small building. Miners and townspeople would have been crowded inside.

In the bottom left of the previous picture you can see this ore cart. Used to move rock from the mines to water where it could be washed for gold.

Inside the saloon, we find these four Virginia Dare wine bottles.

Compared to the rest of the town, this hotel was huge. The owner wanted something equal to the finest hotel in the capital of Helena, MT. The hotel is three floors with the kitchen and dining on the first floor and the main sleeping rooms on the second floor. The third floor was where miners could rent a piece of floor to put their bedroll. At least it was dry.

Here we are inside the hotel's kitchen. The stoves are along the right wall.

Just off from the kitchen there was a storage room. This cabinet, like several of the furnishings, show artistic tin patterns.

This image shows the consruction of the town. Notched logs set on a stone foundation with mud between the logs for insulation.

The next two shots are just some of the scenery. Despite the very slow and rough road, we did very much enjoy the view around us.

It was raining around the Garnet ghost town and the Montana Rail Link MoW (Maintenance of Way) people were working on the tracks. It wasn't until we got back to Missoula that we had a chance to photograph a train. This is a BNSF coal train operating over the MRL.

The fun picture for the day. Do you know what this is? Look below the image for the answer.

It's a very early version of a baby walker. No plastic on this one. It's all metal and I sure hope the wheels turned a little better when that baby was trying to walk around in it.