Montana State Park of the Week Milltown State Park

Granite Ghost Town State Park showcases remnants of this once thriving 1890s silver boomtown that bears stark witness to Montana's boom-and-bust mining history.

Hector Horton first discovered silver in the general area in 1865. In the autumn of 1872, a prospector named Holland discovered the Granite Mine. Then it was relocated in 1875.

The Granite Mine was the richest silver on earth, and if it wasn't for a delayed telegram, it might have never been discovered.

The miner's backers thought the venture was hopeless and ordered an end to its operation. Still, due to the delayed telegram, the miners worked on, and the last blast on the previous shift uncovered a bonanza, which yielded $40 million in silver.

In the silver panic of 1893, word came to shut the mine down. The mine was deserted for three years. Never again would it reach the population it once had of 3,000 miners.

Today there is no one living in the camp. The state park preserves the Granite Mine Superintendent's house and ruins of the old miners' Union Hall, which have been included in the Historic American Buildings Survey.