Montana Ghost Town Tour

A Historic — And a Little Haunted — Montana Ghost Town Tour.

Many of Montana’s first towns were established as mining communities, and as the gold and silver rushes boomed — and busted — a handful of those towns didn’t survive. Today, these well-preserved towns allow visitors to take a step back in time, and if you’re lucky, ghost towns won’t be the only ghosts you might see on your adventure. Here are some of Montana’s best — and most well-preserved — ghost towns:

Bannack

Bannack is Montana’s best-preserved ghost town and today is a state park of the same name. As the site of Montana’s first major gold discovery in 1862, this town once boomed with more than 3,000 resid...

Coolidge

Established in the early 20th century, Coolidge was the site of Montana’s largest and final silver development. Today, visitors can see the remains of buildings, a mill and a railway at the ghost town...

Elkhorn

South of Helena, this 19th-century town tucked away in the mountains was once a silver mining community. Its wooden buildings have been well preserved and have been recorded in the Historic American B...

Garnet

Just outside of Missoula, this town was established in 1897 and was once home to more than 1,000 gold miners and their families. You can visit the ghost town and its nearly 130-year-old buildings year...

Granite

This silver boomtown near present-day Philipsburg had a population of nearly 3,000 miners at its peak, but after the Silver Panic of 1893, the town’s residents left in droves. Now, Granite Ghost Town...

Kendall

In the heart of the North Moccasin Mountains lies Kendall. In its prime, the town had an underground mine and mill and a population of about 1,500. Eventually, the town’s inhabitants migrated to nearb...

Virginia City and Nevada City

These historic towns lie within a mile of each other in the heart of Southwest Montana. Founded in the 1860s, Virginia City was at one time the state’s territorial capital, and the two towns were home...

Keep in mind while you’re exploring these historic streets and buildings that several of them lie within close proximity to private land. Be sure to familiarize yourself with land ownership before setting out on your ghostly adventure to make sure you’re keeping your explorations on public lands.