Day 4 - Phillipsburg – Part 3 – Final Installment

The reason we originally ventured out to Phillipsburg, which is in the middle of nowhere, is that Pat's sister had told us about going to a sapphire mine. Well, that sounded interesting, so we stopped into the Gem Mountain mine to see what it was about. Boy, did I get hooked when that first tray of gravel was flipped over exposing several light blue spheres that looked like glass beads.

Needless to say, purchasing one bucket wasn’t enough. This is our fourth trip to Gem Mountain and Pat is quite good now at the shaking and tapping technique that helps the sapphires settle to the bottom of the screen.  When the screen is flipped over, the little gems usually sit right on top, glistening in the sun.

Can you find the sapphires in this picture?

Montana is well-known for its blue-green sapphires. However, what we didn’t know before our first trip to the mine is that sapphires actually come in a wide variety of colors, in addition to the blue-green. There are pinks, purples, yellows, whites, and dark blue stones too.  

The largest cuttable stone that we have ever found was about six carats, which cut to an oval stone of 2 carats. I’m still hoping for that elusive 12 carat stone… if not this trip, then maybe the next time.

When I bring up the subject of making another Gem Mountain trip, Pat usually says, “Don’t you have enough sapphires already?”

Well, that is a silly question to which I always respond, “I will never enough sapphires!” That, and the intrigue of finding these little treasures keeps us coming back for more.

One bonus for driving out to the mine site (They do have a store in town where you can sift gravel) is that they have a free campground for customers. There are no ammenities other than a flat place to park and a picnic table, but that is the camping we like best anyway.

After a hot day of treasure hunting, it is great to not have to travel further. And, we usually have a cold growler from the Phillipsburg Brewery waiting for us at camp.

This trip we saw the Starlink satellites streaming across the night sky on both nights. No bear or moose sightings, but the satellites were pretty cool.

We didn't find any huge sapphires this trip, but we'll send about 40 carats of stones in for heat treating. And then for the long wait to see how they turn out. They have a long que here at the end of the season, so we won't get them back until next year.

Time to head to the next treasure site!