Once the Garnet Mountains echoed with the blasts of dynamite, the clatter of hooves on steep, narrow roads, and the shouts of men to find fortune.

Once, miners swapped stories in the saloons of Beartown, Top O'Deep and Reynolds City, towns that exist only in history and local legend. Once, loggers felled great trees with crosscut saws to supply timber for railroad ties and mine shafts.

Today, follow the byway to Garnet, Montana's best-preserved ghost town. Continue over the summit to complete a 26-mile journey into gold country, rich not just in natural wealth but in the stories of the hardy individuals who lived and died here.

Why Gold?
A Fault of Nature
The rounded slopes of the Garnet Range disguise the geologic upheavals responsible for an interior laced with enough gold to create a stampede in the 1860s.

Between 75 to 70 million years ago, great thrust faults carried the Sapphire Block eastward from the top of the Idaho batholith (near today's Montana/Idaho border). The Garnet Range forms the northern edge of the Sapphire Block. The key to gold and minerals lies in the granite that rose molten and steaming from the earth, forming a slippery base for the Block to slide on. When the granite cooled in fractures of sedimentary rocks, the crystallizing process separated both quartz and gold into distinct veins. As the rocks weathered, gold flakes eroded into the streams ---and into the pans of prospectors.

How the Garnet Range Got Its Name
When the granite magma entered Madison limestone, the two reacted to form a new kind of rock called a "skarn" that consisted mostly of garnet crystals, along with gold.

Seasons Of Travel
Summer: Passable for passenger cars.
Winter: 116 miles of groomed trails for snowmobiles and cross-country skiers from January 1 to April 30.

Thanks... to the following partners who helped make the Back Country Byway program a success:
Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks
Garnet Preservation Association
Local Communities