This collection includes ten interviews detailing growing up in Garnet, Montana, during the early to mid-20th century, attending school there, and the mining economy of the town. The interviews were conducted from 1999 to 2003 by Darla Bruner, Dick Fichtler, and Valerie K. Schafer. The interviewees discuss the town’s dependence on mining and how people moved away in the 1930s and ‘40s as the mines closed. They also describe daily life in Garnet, their childhood activities, and the self-sufficiency of the town’s residents who hunted, fished, and gardened. The original interviews are held as Oral History collection OH 379 at Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana-Missoula.
This collection includes 10 interviews.
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Daniel P. Kohr Interview, January 18, 2002
Daniel P. Kohr
Daniel Kohr recounts how his parents moved to Garnet, Montana, in 1945 or 1946. He talks about them moving away from Garnet in 1951 only to return for the summers. He discusses his relatives who lived there. He describes helping his father, who was a ... Read More
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Frank Fitzgerald Interview, October 4, 1999
Frank Fitzgerald
Frank Fitzgerald talks about his childhood in Garnet, Montana, during the early 20th century when the mines were ceasing production. He recalls how his father, a miner, took many jobs, before the family moved to Hamilton, Montana, in 1918. Frank describes playing games with the ... Read More
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Lauris Robinson Interview, November 14, 2001
Lauris Robinson
Lauris Robinson recounts how his family moved to Garnet, Montana, in 1937. He talks about his father working in the mines and working part-time himself to help out the family. He describes attending school in Garnet from grades five to eight and recalls the games ... Read More
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LeRoy Robinson Interview, November 14, 2001
LeRoy Robinson
LeRoy Robinson describes moving to Garnet, Montana, in 1937 with his family, his cousin, Lauris Robinson, and his cousin’s family. Robinson recalls his father staking out a claim and screening mine dumps until moving the family to Drummond, Montana, at the end of the Great ... Read More
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Lester Robinson Interview, November 14, 2001
Lester Robinson
Lester Robinson describes growing up in a family of three boys and four girls. He talks about how the family moved to Garnet, Montana, in 1937. Robinson describes the construction of the mine tunnels, discusses what it was like to help his father in the ... Read More
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Lois M. Gates Interview, March 16, 2002
Lois M. Gates
Lois Gates describes her family’s move to Garnet, Montana, in 1935 where they lived until 1939. She discusses attending school there from grades three to six. She recalls her father working in the Nancy Hanks mine as well as other mines in the area. Gates ... Read More
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Mary Jane Morin Interview, October 4, 1999
Mary Jane Morin
Mary Jane Adams Morin describes her childhood in Garnet, Montana, during the early 20th century. She recalls her father’s many professions including owning and operating the Adams Mercantile in Garnet, mining, and doing timber work in the mine tunnels. She talks about her family’s holiday ... Read More
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Pat McDonald Interview, November 16, 2001
Pat McDonald
Pat McDonald recounts how his family moved to Garnet, Montana, shortly after he was born and then left when he was still a child. He recounts how he returned the summer of 1949 or 1950. McDonald describes the old buildings, especially Davey’s hotel, and talks ... Read More
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Sharon Baldwin Interview, August 1, 2003
Sharon Baldwin
Sharon Baldwin recounts the history of her Swedish grandparents who moved to Garnet, Montana, in 1902 and four of their five children while living there. She talks about her grandfather, Nels Seadin, who was a miner and became the postmaster after he got too old ... Read More
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Sharon Briggs Interview, November 16, 2001
Sharon Briggs
Sharon McDonald Briggs talks about her father, a miner in Garnet, Montana, and her mother, a schoolteacher. Briggs describes how her family moved to Garnet in the early 1940s, leaving after a year, then returning in the early 1950s. She recalls playing in Frank Davey’s ... Read More