Wind whistles through an abandoned mine shaft.
A loose door knocks in the breeze. Cattle feed past the tilted skeleton of a barn.
Underneath, if you listen hard enough, you can hear the faint sounds of a tin pan piano, the crack of a miner’s hammer against stone, the distant giggle of dancehall girls. Peppered throughout Montana, the remains of a bygone age stand weathering in slowly fading bits and pieces. Read about Castle Town, once home to more than 1,500 miners and families, now a sparse scattering of cabins and frame shacks. Explore Garnet, named after a semiprecious stone, abandoned after more than $10 million in gold was taken from the surrounding mines. And browse the beehive-shaped charcoal kilns of Glendale, southwest of Butte.

 

First published in 1974, Ghost Towns of Montana is the classic look at the history of the Treasure State. An invaluable resource for ghost town tourists and history buffs alike, it’s also a record of passing time, an ode to those miners, ranchers, and cowboys who founded Montana.