Granite Mountain Mining Company Office

Constructed about 1885, this two-story building was one of the first structures in Granite and housed the brick vault still seen there. The office handled payroll for the men who worked at the Ruby Shaft and the two mills on the hill across the road to the north. Newspaper articles of the day told of men being paid entirely in silver coins and of merchants threatening to burn any paper money they encountered. The first three superintendents of the Granite Mountain works were Charles D. Mclure, Frank L. Perkins, and Captain John L. Plummer, and the first dividend from the mine was paid shortly after Plummer became superintendent in 1885. Later, Superintendent Thomas Weir had a 16-foot by 16-foot hot water plunge, drying room, and reading room built for workers of the Ruby Shaft Mine to help prevent miners from contracting pneumonia caused by leaving the mine in wet work clothes. Just to the right of the brick vault, a large shallow hole marks the site of the Buskett Mercantile Co. General Store, a major business in Granite owned by the Granite Mountain Mining Company.

Montana · United States