If you have not had the chance, I highly recommend you do this...
Plan a trip to Western Montana. While you are here, take a detour through Philipsburg, MT, and then head about 10 miles up the Skalkaho Pass Highway (much more of a paved cattle trail than a highway) to Gem Mountain and do a little sapphire mining!! Go to www.gemmtn.com to check out their site!
Gem Mountain is one of the only places in the state where you can screen gravel and find your own sapphires, garnets, and rubies. (Rubies are simply red sapphires, by the way. Just in case you didnt know...)
When you arrive, this is what you will see...You buy buckets of gravel for $12. A bucket is about 2.5 gallons and takes roughly two or three hours to screen thuroughly. You are provided tables to sift on, tweezers, a vile to keep your treasures in, and a huge water trough to wash your gravel. Experienced 'screeners' are on site to teach you how to wash the gravel and the 'shanke-n-bounce' needed to make the gems, which are more dense than that surrounding rock, to settle to the middle of the screen. There is also a gem shop, gift shop, picnic area, and grandeous mountains to keep you entertained.
Its amazing that some little colored rocks like this....
Can turn into this!
Ive come here my entire life and it is a routine weekly trip for me and my family. I encourage everyone to come experience it for yourself. Bring a picnic lunch; Bring the family; Get a little dirty...Who knows...you may come way with a few hundred dollars (or, if your like me, a few thousand...) worth of gems that you and yours will treasure forever.
If you want more information about www.gemmtn.com or about www.recr.com, call Clint at 800-977-7058.
That's beautiful! I'll have to put that on my list of places to take my family!
~Renae
Clint,
I spent a month in Glasgow, MT one summer, beautiful country, big sky!!!! Hey, here in Arkansas we have a diamond mine and it looks just like your pictures, a plowed field, but there are alot of diamonds found there. It is in Murfreesboro.
Renae -- Yes you do!! There are several things to do right near there also...including a gold rush mining ghost town about 40 miles away. Bring some hiking shoes and a camera!!! :-)
Mary -- Isnt that the diamond mine where people can dig for diamonds by hand?? I think I saw a blurb on the Travel channel about it...Gonna have to put that on my list of things to do with my family. I will call ya for a tour! :-)
Kevin & Monica...Absolutely you do! Come up on a weekend and theres a good chance we will be there. Ive been going there since before the days of the commercial mine that is there currently. And when you are all done, head to Phillipsburg and have the good folks at the Sapphire Gallery grade your finds...then swing through the Sweet Palace for a nice sugary treat. Its tradition in my house. Maybe that expains my expanding waistline. hehe
"Our retail store and gravel wash trough full of Montana sapphires will open for the 2008 season on or about May 14. Come see us again then when we will open for another season of sapphire hunting."
I cant wait!!!! My sapphire picking fingers are itching already! In fact, I have already planned a day trip on opening day so that I can get first crack at the wash trough...lol! (Its a drug...Im addicted) LOL!
Clint, My husband and I really want to do this - we love treasure hunting. Do you really find good stones? We think this looks like blast!
Dawn -- it is a very good time! and yes...you do find very good stones. My last trip up, my daughter found a 4.3 carat stone. Cut down, it will yeild a stone that will weigh around 1.2 carats...worth around $1,200.