P a g e 4 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r The silver panic of 1893 and the subsequent drop in silver prices forced most of the mines to be closed and the miners left town. Today the town is a ghost town with a number of original structures still standing. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz Comet The town grew around the Comet Mine developed by the Helena and Livingstone Smelting and Reduction Company. The mines were operational until 1897 when it closed and was later sold to the Montana Consolidation Copper Company before being handed over to the Basin Montana Tunnel Company in 1927. The Mine was one of the most productive mines in the state. It closed down for the last time in 1941. Slowly the town became a ghost town and today just a couple of the structures still remain. Elkhorn Elkhorn is an old mining camp located within the Elkhorn Mountains. Silver was first discovered at the site of the town in 1870 by Peter Wys a Swiss immigrant. He died shortly thereafter and Antony M Holter took over his claim and developed the Holter Lode Mine. This brought in a lot of miners who laid several other mines such as the Hard Cash Mine, the Union Mine, the C&D Mine and the Golden Curry Mine among others and also established Elkhorn. In 1880 the Elkhorn Mining Company took over the Holter Lode Mine and transformed it building a 10 stamp mill and a smelter for the mine. Mining continued in the town until the early 1900s when most of the mining stopped. The Elkhorn Mine was on and off from then until 1937 when it closed down for the last time. Garnet Garnet is located in the Granite County along the Garnet Range Road in Western Montana. Gold was first discovered along the nearby First Chance Gulch in the 1860s. Later the Garnet Lode, one of the richest Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz
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