The Good-Time Ghosts

Once Kerry tried to fool what he referred to as "the good-time spirits of Garnet." On a fine September afternoon he and his six-year-old son Nathan left town, then sneaked back four hours later hoping to catch the ghosts unaware.

"We were pretty sure that no living people would be in town that evening, so we thought the spooks would appreciate the quiet," he explained. "For nearly an hour we waited silently in the shadow of a big ponderosa pine, and then the clamor began. We heard just a little at first, a few laughs and some glasses clinking together. And then came the sounds of rough ragtime piano music.

"Nate asked who was making all the ruckus, so I said, 'Let's go find out.' We walked down the hill, and just as we got to the building, the noises stopped. Nate was confused and began to cry, and I felt pretty uncomfortable myself, because once again I realized that I wasn't dealing with a material threat."

An amateur scientist, Kerry has a theory that may help explain the sounds emanating from the deserted saloon. "I believe that the many crystalline formations in the Garnet Range might somehow receive radio waves and that the dense mineral deposits in the area might act as speakers," he explained. "The miners drove many long metal shafts, rods, and pipes into the quartz formations for ventilation and water removal, and these may also act as antennae. Perhaps the sounds from the saloon are resonating from this mixture of quartz, other minerals, and the metal shafts. If the town of Garnet really is a big radio receiver, the music and voices are audible because they are real and could probably be recorded."

Kerry once tried to do just that with a microphone attached to a small tape recorder, but it picked up only background noise. He believes that better equipment probably would have recorded the sounds more clearly. "Of course, I suppose it's also possible that the music and voices really are coming to us from the past," he said. "Or perhaps the spirits of Garnet are in there celebrating their lost way of life, when the town was a booming mecca for the miners of the last Montana gold rush."

As plausible as this theory may be, Kerry has none to explain the mysterious caller whom he heard walking up to his cabin and knocking on the door just before midnight. When Kerry opened the door no one was there, and the only footprints in the snow were those leading up to the porch—but none leading away.

© Article copyright Pruett Publishing.