GOLD IN THE GARNETS
A STORY OF BOOM & BUST AND PLUCKY CHARACTERS

Placer Mining Era
1865 Gold Strike in Bear Gulch

"Five thousand men were camped in Bear gulch a few weeks after (the Reynolds party) discovered gold there late in October, 1865. Spanish, French, Dutch and Irish men of every nationality, rushed to stake claims in Bear gulch. Montana Territory was then not a year old."
--Mary J. Pardee, from The Great Falls Tribune, Sept. 6, 1931

Thirty-two years before the founding of the town of Garnet by hard-rock miners, placer miners struck it rich in this modest mountain range, located between Missoula and Deer Lodge and bordered by the Blackfoot River to the north and Clark Fork River to the south.

Hordes of restless miners poured into Montana in the 1860s, most fresh from gold rushes in California, Nevada, Colorado and Idaho. Today, Bannack and Virginia City remain as prominent ghost towns from strikes that preceded the rush to the Garnet Range.

It was the Bear Gulch strike (upstream from the Clark Fork River) that put the Garnet Range on the map as a fortune-seeking destination. However, in the months that preceded the strike many miners combed the forested gulches. First, Colonel G.W. Morse led an expedition from the boomtown of Blackfoot City. He found the sparkle of gold in Bilk Gulch in the vicinity of Elk Creek, a tributary of the Blackfoot River. The news of what was called the Elk Creek strike spread as if carried by wind. One lucky miner who braved the snows left with the biggest nugget ever unearthed in these mountains-weighing two pounds. Lack of roads or amenities did not deter early prospectors.

The Elk Creek strike gave rise to two boomtowns, Reynolds City and Yreka, by spring of 1865. By October, most of the several hundred miners had packed up and headed over the summit to a far richer strike in Bear Gulch. Soon, thousands of prospectors swarmed like ants throughout the strike area. Two parties of miners laid claim to the discovery: the Burton and Reynolds groups. Historians prefer the Reynolds claim, since they recorded the find in writing.

The first major town in the Garnet Range has vanished, but in 1866 Beartown boasted 17 saloons, blacksmith shops, restaurants, a hotel, a general store, brewery, livery stables, slaughter houses, a drug store and Gee Lee's Wash House, according to Mary J. Pardee, who wrote the only detailed account of this mining town for the Great Falls Tribune in 1931.

Each day, miners worked their claims in Bear Gulch by running strictly allocated water through sluice boxes to separate gold flakes from sand and gravel. Placer mining required little capital investment-even a simple gold pan worked, but soon the free-floating gold was hard to find. Limited water sources in the mountains also posed a challenge for placer miners.

By 1870, the boom ended and most prospectors headed off to the next hot spot. It's tough to know how much gold filled their pouches. Few miners kept records and Bear Creek gold dust passed for currency, mingling with gold from other sources. By 1918, one estimate placed the total value of gold extracted from Bear Gulch at $7 million.

Beartown Tales
What has lingered are the tales of Beartown, a rough-and-tumble town of mostly men who frequented the 17 saloons. A group of partying miners called the "Beartown Roughs" kicked up their heels on the weekends after a hard week muscling rocks on their claims. Shootings and even murders were not uncommon. For instance, Jimmy Ryan, a fiery Irish saloonkeeper who loved to sing was insulted by a miner who taunted that if he sang that badly, he'd shoot himself. Ryan opted to shoot the irritating prospector instead, but missed and killed the miner's partner.

A miner known as "Shorty" made local history after he stumbled drunkenly into his own fireplace and badly burned his arm. Dr. Armistead Mitchell, who later would help found Garnet, often rode a horse from his Deer Lodge home to offer medical help to the Beartown miners. This time, Mitchell sawed off Shorty's arm and then joined his patient in an all-night poker party. Whiskey proved a powerful anesthetic for Shorty. Apparently the liquor also clouded Mitchell's thinking. In the morning, the doctor rode off with Shorty's arm, intending to save it for dissection. Somewhere along the way, the drunken doctor lost the arm.

The stories didn't end entirely in 1870, when news of a strike on a place called Cedar Creek lured the majority of men away. Those who stayed still profited from placer mining. Families, too, found the slower-paced Beartown a tolerable spot for bringing up children. By 1879, a road linked Beartown to the Clark Fork River at the small station of Bearmouth. By the early 1880s, the tight-knit community built a 12'X16" schoolhouse.

Other Stories
Chinese Presence
Town of Garnet Named in 1897
Family Living in a Gold Mining Town?
Riches Fade
Saving Garnet Ghost Town
Kelly's Saloon
J. K. Wells Hotel
Davey's General Store
Ole's Tavern
Dahl Cabin
Blacksmith Shop
Garnet School
Jail
Miners Union Hall
Adams House
Honeymoon Cabin
Warren Park
Highlights from interview with Mary Jane Morin, June 11, 1999
Letter from Hills Bros. Coffee to Mrs. Adams



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Copyright © 2000, Garnet Preservation Association and Bureau of Land Management of Montana