The gold mining business stayed profitable for a time in and around Garnet. The Nancy Hanks Mine produced about $300,000 worth of gold. But after 1900, it was becoming more difficult to produce the gold. By 1905, Garnet's population had dwindled to about 150, as many of the mines had been abandoned. Then in 1912, a fire destroyed many of the buildings housing businesses.
Besides the gold running out and fire doing damage, one more little ole incident was going to soon crop up to pull the population away. In 1917, the United States got its self in a situation called World War I. Now even more of Garnet's meager remaining residents began to make an exit, seeking defense-related jobs.
True to the course of days gone by, Frank Davey stayed on in Garnet and ran the store even though most of the miners were gone, their cabins standing vacant. But by the year the war started some $950,000 had been taken from all of Garnet's mines.
In 1934, with the First World War in the past, Garnet was revived when President Roosevelt raised gold prices up to $35 an ounce. Miners began coming back and moving into the old abandoned cabins. By 1936, there were 250 people living in the old mining town. But, as in the past, it would not last.
Just as the First World War had drawn people away from Garnet, so did World War II. Making mining even more difficult was the wartime restriction on the use of dynamite.
Garnet's post office closed at last, in 1942. Now only a very few people remained in Garnet. Among them, of course, was Frank Davey who died there in 1947, while walking to one of his mining claims. After his death, the amount of his assets was figured. They did not amount to enough to cover the cost of burying him.
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