Saint Marie is a different kind of Montana Ghost Town. The ‘town’ in Valley County is largely left-over and abandoned structures that were formerly part of a thriving Air Force Base near Glasgow.
The base operated from 1957 until it was finally shut down in 1976, leaving the remnants of the disused community largely deserted. It can still be reached along Highway 24, 15 miles north of Glasgow.
There have been a few reports from unwitting visitors who stopped off or drove through this abandoned town that it brings about a case of the ‘willies’. This is not exactly surprising when you consider that in historical terms, it was still quite recently that this community was home to more than 7,000 residents.
The people who made up the community largely consisted of military personnel and their families. But when the base closed down for good the population began to dwindle rapidly, although there were reports that the majority simply upped and left.
This left just a small pocket of hardcore residents numbering not more than a couple of hundred. These locals decided to stay on in a section of the original community, leaving the remainder of the former town with its ‘deserted’ status.
Thus many unwitting visitors to Saint Marie may get a distinct feeling that they have somehow slipped directly into some kind of Twilight Zone or zombie scenario when approaching or arriving in the town.
The entire landscape is also as flat as a pancake, which is uncharacteristic of the majority of Montana terrain and adds to the bizarre nature of this entire area.
Certainly, there is something spooky about this place—a feeling which becomes more evident when you pass through the former neighborhoods surrounded by uninhabited, deteriorating homes and other structures.
