![Montana PBS Producer Gus Chambers documents with archeologist Erika Karuzas and volunteer Steve Waylet as they search for the Taft cemetery near the Idaho-Montana border. (Kathleen Woodford/Mineral Independent)](https://hagadone.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/ARTICLE_180829990_EP_-1_GXYKHOYDHWQH_t1170.jpg?5cc718665ab672dba93d511ab4c682bb370e5f86)
Montana PBS Producer Gus Chambers documents with archeologist Erika Karuzas and volunteer Steve Waylet as they search for the Taft cemetery near the Idaho-Montana border. (Kathleen Woodford/Mineral Independent)
August 22, 2018
Stories this photo appears in:
![Taft mountains hold 'secret' of missing cemetery](
https://hagadone.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/ARTICLE_180829990_AR_0_ATYXQBAVCWBF_t160.jpg?773850a9d7421baff2f792d5b4bd28ce20373d52
)
August 22, 2018 4 a.m.
Taft mountains hold 'secret' of missing cemetery
The mountains surrounding the legendary saloon town of Taft, Mont., holds a silent grip on its deceased residents. As the massive fires of 1910 swept through the canyons of Mineral County, the blaze took the town with it, including the cemetery. A cemetery with wooden markers which turned to ash and disappeared. Now, nearly 110 years later, the search is on to find the 72 buried souls lost to a century of forest growth and erosion.