Coloma is a

ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...

located in the area of the

Garnet Range The Garnet Range, highest point Old Baldy Mountain, elevation , is a mountain range northeast of Drummond, Montana in Powell County, Montana. A popular historic site, Garnet Ghost Town, is in the Garnet Range. Situated on Bureau of Land Manageme ...

Missoula County Missoula County is located in the State of Montana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 117,922, making it Montana's third-most populous county. Its county seat and largest city is Missoula. The county was founded in 1860. Missoula Coun ...

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

, United States. Little is known about the settlement, which appears to have been founded in 1893. Records of the period indicate high

gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold resources by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. However, with the expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface ...

activity from 1896 onwards, with an estimated $200,000 to $250,000 in gold being extracted. In 1916, there was additional activity when a mill was built on the site and additional surveys on the

ore veins In geology, a vein is a distinct sheetlike body of crystallized minerals within a rock. Veins form when mineral constituents carried by an aqueous solution within the rock mass are deposited through precipitation. The hydraulic flow involved i ...

were conducted, apparently without success. Additional

prospecting Prospecting is the first stage of the geological analysis (followed by exploration) of a territory. It is the search for minerals, fossils, precious metals, or mineral specimens. It is also known as fossicking. Traditionally prospecting reli ...

activity occurred between 1932 and 1950. As of 2009, the site was under archeological study by Dr.

Kelly Dixon Dr. Kelly J. Dixon is an Associate Professor of Archaeology at the University of Montana and a member of the College of Arts And Sciences at UM. Her main area of work is the American West, and she is perhaps best known for her work with the Donner ...

and a group of graduate students from the

University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fal ...

Notes

Ghost towns in Montana Missoula County, Montana Archaeological sites in Montana {{MissoulaCountyMT-geo-stub

See also

Notes