Bannack and Garnet. This is really two sets, the first made in 2008 and the second in 2010, both during our annual visit to Montana. The American West is full of "ghost towns," many of them mining towns that died when the mineral petered out, or became too expensive to extract. The two towns here, Bannack and Garnet, were both hard rock gold mining towns. Gazing into the unseeing eyes of the old buildings I tend to get sad; there was life here once, and it seems gone. Yet, they are not truly gone so long as we do not forget them, and the places and things they left behind give us priceless insight into how they lived. There are no ghosts, but there are 'spirits,' and they are here still.