These 5 Unbelievable Ruins In Montana Will Transport You To The Past

Located in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest near the ghost town of Glendale, these kilns are over 100 years old. The kilns were used between 1881 and 1900 to reduce 11,665 acres of pine trees down to 19 million bushels of charcoal.

Head down I-15 South from Great Falls and you’ll eventually reach the remains of St. Peter’s, Montana’s oldest mission. Pictured here around 1908, this was the first mission established by the Jesuits east of the Rockies in what is not Montana. There’s not much of it left, but you can still see a little white church that has remained intact.

Glendale was once home to almost 2,000 people during the mining boom of the 1880s. Built around a silver smelter, this ghost town near Melrose was a civilized place with schools, stores and churches.

Jared Gaylord was once the superintendent of local mining operations. The former town that was named after him sits south of Whitehall on the Jefferson River. The only access to the site was over a long steel bridge that was wiped out years ago, but you can still see the smelter remains from across the river as well as a kiln from 1896.

Located near Elkhorn Hot Springs, Coolidge is another former mining community. You’ll see lots of dilapidated buildings as you walk through the woods, and it’s easy to imagine how life here used to be.