This cabin was originally named after the Wills family, which owned a cabin on that spot during the turn-of-the-century. In fact, Red McDonald built this cabin in the 1930’s and stayed to mine the area for quite some time. His relatives moved to the area, and created a large extended family community in Garnet from the 1930’s to the 1950’s.

Red McDonald’s family mined together in the area: his father, George McDonald and George’s wife Muriel, and his brother Pink McDonald. Pink met and married Jennie Olson, of Potomac, Montana at one of Garnet’s mines, and they began a family in Garnet in the late 1940’s. Their children included Pat McDonald, Sharon (nee McDonald) Briggs, and Doug McDonald. Jennie Olson’s mother, Margaret Olson Cummings, and her sisters had all moved out to Garnet as well, and raised their respective families there: Bob and Aggie (nee Olson) McMahon, Clarence “Frog” and Violet (nee Olson) Therriault, and Jack and Chrissy (nee Olson) Kohr.