Missoula Field Office
| Contacts: | Daivd Abrams | |||
| (406) 490-0367 |
Garnet Day Brings Ghost Town Alive
MISSOULA (June 19, 2012) – The Garnet Preservation Association and the Bureau of Land Management will host Garnet Interpretive Day June 23 from 11 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The day’s events are sure to give families a fun, wild-west experience in one of Montana’s most intact ghost towns.
Located 35 miles east of Missoula, the ghost town will be the site for gold-panning demonstrations, music by Dan Dubuque, kids’ games, a pie auction, and guided tours of the town by a BLM park ranger.
Another highlight of the day’s family-friendly festivities is the ice cream social which was an annual event 100 years ago in Garnet. Lunch will also be available for purchase on site.
Visitors to the day-long event will be charged the standard usage fee of $3; no admission is charged for those 15 and younger.
Garnet Interpretive Day is an annual tribute to all those people who lived, worked, and panned for gold in the Garnet Mountains.
More than 100 years ago, Garnet was an active gold-mining town, but after a fire destroyed many of the buildings and as the gold became more difficult to mine, the once prosperous town slowly went into a deep sleep until its last full-time resident passed away in 1947. The ghost town is now publicly owned and managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
From Highway 200, turn south on the Garnet Range Road between mile markers 22 and 23 and travel about 11 miles to Garnet Ghost Town. Visitors using I-90 should take the Bearmouth or Drummond exit, then take the Frontage Road to Bear Gulch. Garnet is 10 miles north on Bear Gulch Road. The Bear Gulch Route is steeper and not suitable for towing units.
For more information on the event, contact the BLM’s Missoula Field Office at (406) 329-3914.
For the latest BLM news and updates visit us on the web at: www.blm.gov/mt and on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/BLMMontana.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, recreational and other activities on BLM-managed land contributed more than $130 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 600,000 American jobs. The Bureau is also one of a handful of agencies that collects more revenue than it spends. In FY 2012, nearly $5.7 billion will be generated on lands managed by the BLM, which operates on a $1.1 billion budget. The BLM's multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.
Missoula Field Office 3255 Fort Missoula Road Missoula, Montana 59804