A Ghost Town Named Marysville

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Up the road north and west from Helena is the old mining town of Marysville.  Ron and I always enjoy seeing these old places and imagining what it was like to have lived there in the town’s hey day.

In 1876, a Thomas Cruse discovered gold and named the town after his hometown of Drumlummon Ireland.  Later it was thought that he renamed the town after the first woman who arrived in the town, Mary Ralston.  In the 1880s and 1890s Marysville was a bustling mining town of three thousand residents, and was the center of gold mining in Montana.  The total gold production from the Mine is thought to have been $50,000,000.  Today Marysville is a ghost town with a few residents.   

Overview of Marysville

We spent time driving up and down the old dirt streets where a few residents were out doing weekly outside chores and some work was being done on several buildings in town.  There is a local restaurant in town but it was closed this early in the day.

Town Buildings

Houses and a Barn

Old vehicles

There are numerous other ghost towns within driving distance of Helena, but our time here is almost up so it will have to wait for another time.