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State hub · Montana
Montana's best-known ghost towns are mining camps in the mountains of the southwest. The territory's first major gold strike came on Grasshopper Creek on July 28, 1862, and Bannack grew beside it. A year later, on May 26, 1863, gold was found in Alder Gulch, and Virginia City and Nevada City filled the gulch; Virginia City was the territorial capital from 1865 to 1875. Later booms were in silver and hard-rock gold: Granite above Philipsburg, Elkhorn in the Elkhorn Mountains, Marysville around Thomas Cruse's Drumlummon mine, and Garnet in the Garnet Range in the 1890s. After the Sherman Silver Purchase Act was repealed in 1893, Granite, a town of more than 3,000, was down to 140 people a year later.
Our index also lists railroad stops, river landings and farm towns on the eastern plains, but most of the sites people visit sit between Missoula, Helena and Dillon. What survives is unusually good. Bannack keeps more than 50 log and frame buildings in a state park, Garnet is a BLM site with many buildings still standing, and the state owns most of the historic buildings in Virginia City and Nevada City. Elsewhere expect a hall or two, mine dumps and cellar holes.
Town guides
Our complete guides, most-read first: history, what's left, current access, photos, maps and directions.
GuideBeaverhead County
The camp of Montana's first big gold strike, in 1862, and for a few months the territory's capital. Its log and brick buildings still line Main…
GuideMadison County
The gold town of 1863 that became Montana's territorial capital, home of the vigilantes and Boot Hill. About 200 people still live here, and in…
GuideGranite County
A gold camp of 1895 at the head of First Chance Gulch, close to 1,000 people at its peak in 1898 and largely abandoned by the 1940s. The Bureau of…
GuideMadison County
A gold camp of 1863 in Alder Gulch, where the Montana Vigilantes got their start. It was a ghost town by 1876. Collectors filled it with buildings…
GuideJefferson County
A silver town of 2,500 in the 1880s, high in the Elkhorn Mountains, that diphtheria and falling silver prices emptied. Two of its halls are Montana's…
GuideLewis and Clark County
Thomas Cruse's Drumlummon mine made Marysville a gold town of thousands in the 1880s. The mine closed, most people left, and about 80 now live among…
GuideGranite County
A silver town of about 3,000 people high on Granite Mountain, which emptied within a year of the 1893 crash. Montana's state parks keep the ruins of…
Watch
102 indexed sites across 56 counties, from Bannack's Main Street to the silver camp at Granite, with each featured town's status and drive times from Missoula, Helena and Bozeman.
Where to start
Open attractions, living towns and true ruins, with their current status.
Beaverhead County
Site of Montana's first major gold strike in 1862 and the first territorial capital. Its last residents left in the 1970s; more than 50 buildings line Main Street in Bannack State Park, open all year.
Granite County
Gold camp of the 1890s with up to 1,000 people in 1898; a fire destroyed much of it in 1912. The BLM manages the surviving buildings; the road is closed to wheeled vehicles from January through April.
Madison County
Alder Gulch boomtown of 1863 and territorial capital from 1865 to 1875. The state owns most of its historic buildings, and 219 people lived there in 2020.
Madison County
Alder Gulch camp of 1863, down to about 50 people by 1880. Charles Bovey moved in about 100 old buildings; the state now runs it as a living history museum, with some businesses open only in summer.
Jefferson County
Silver town of about 2,500 at its peak. Fraternity Hall of 1893 and Gillian Hall form Elkhorn State Park; the rest of the town is private, and some cabins are lived in.
Granite County
Silver town of more than 3,000 that emptied after 1893. The superintendent's house and union hall ruins form a state park, open Memorial Day to September 30 and reached only by high-clearance vehicle.
Lewis and Clark County
Gold town founded in 1876 around Thomas Cruse's Drumlummon mine, with about 3,000 people in the 1880s and 1890s. 82 people lived there in 2020, and the old Methodist church still stands.
Near a city
Driving distance and time from downtown, routed over OpenStreetMap roads. Dirt roads are usually slower than the estimate.
Directory
Every town, camp and settlement in our Montana index, with its county. A ◦ marks sites already on the map.
No sites match. Try fewer letters or another county.
Plan a trip
Most of these towns sit high in the mountains. Garnet is at about 6,000 feet and its road is closed to wheeled vehicles from January through April, open then only to snowmobiles, skis and snowshoes. Granite is at about 7,000 feet, snow can block its road into late May, and the park is open only from Memorial Day to September 30. Bannack and Elkhorn are open all year.
Granite needs a high-clearance vehicle and is closed to RVs and buses; the road climbs 1,280 feet, steep and narrow. Garnet is about 9 miles of gravel after 4 paved miles off Highway 200, and the BLM advises against the other routes in. Elkhorn is reached on backcountry roads.
Montana state parks charge nonresidents $8 per vehicle; residents who paid the parks fee with their registration enter free. Garnet charges $10 per person, free under 16. At Elkhorn the state owns only the two halls and the rest of the town is private, so stay on the streets. Camping is not allowed in or near Elkhorn.
Montana's Department of Environmental Quality counts thousands of abandoned coal and hard-rock mines in the state, with open portals, subsidence and highwalls; abandoned mine programs use the motto "Stay out, stay alive." On federal land such as Garnet, objects of archaeological interest at least 100 years old are protected by the Archaeological Resources Protection Act.
FAQ
There is no official count. Our index lists 102 sites, 74 of them with coordinates on our map so far.
Bannack is the usual answer: the site of the first big gold strike, with more than 50 buildings in a state park open all year. Garnet is one of the best preserved of the later gold camps, and Virginia City and Nevada City show an Alder Gulch boomtown with businesses still open in summer.
Yes. Bannack State Park has a 28-site campground open all year, with drinking water only in summer, and sites from $4 to $34 a night. Reservations are taken online or at 1-855-922-6768.
In winter. The BLM rents cabins at Garnet from December through April through Recreation.gov, and reservations open October 1. From January through April the road is closed to wheeled vehicles, so the last miles are by snowmobile, skis or snowshoes.
Marysville is northwest of the city, and Rimini, Wickes and Comet lie to the southwest; Elkhorn is to the south near Boulder. See the drive times above. These are routed estimates; mountain dirt roads are usually slower.
Abandoned