GRANITE
Established Town: 1884
Peak Population: Approximately 3,000 (early 1890's)
Present Population: 0

Nicknamed "Montana's Silver Queen," Granite had its hey day in the early 1890's. It is located on Granite Mountain, just four miles from Philipsburg.

Eli Holland is said to have found a piece of high grade ruby silver while following a wounded game animal (deer or elk) in 1872. A shallow shaft was dug on the outcropping. Nothing was done at the site for over five years until Charles McLure found a piece of the silver ore on the shaft dump and thought the prospect showed promise. He traveled east to St. Louis where he obtained capital to begin exploration and development of the property.

The town eventually became a thriving city which boasted as many stores and commercial establishments as any other modern city at that time in Montana. One of the most famous buildings in Granite was a large Miner's Union Hall with a pool parlor and club area on the first floor and an office, a library, a large dance floor, and an auditorium space on the second floor. The second floor was called the "Northwest's Finest Dance Floor." Quite often the auditorium played host to mineral shows, melodramas, and vaudeville. Some of the other amenities Granite offered were 18 saloons, a thriving red light district, a roller rink, a hospital, five doctors, a school, four churches, several banks, a water system, named streets, and several homes for the more than 3,000 inhabitants. However, there was no cemetery. All of the bodies were internned in the Philipsburg Cemetery because the ground was so rock infested in Granite that a grave could not be dug.

In 1893, the U.S. Congress repealed the Sherman Act resulting in lower silver prices, and on the morning of August 1, 1893, within 24 hours of the repealment, many men, women, and children came down the mountain in search of new homes. Because of the swiftness of the move, most of their worldly possessions remained on the hill behind them. Only 140 people remained in Granite one year later, in 1894.