Western Montana

The secrets of the west have attracted people to Montana throughout history. Some came by train; others traversed the rugged landscape by horseback or covered wagon. And what were they coming for? The big sky, the land, the mountains? How about gold, silver, even Sapphires? There is a place in western Montana where still today anxious prospectors are plunging there screens into a trough of cloudy water and sifting though gravel and earth in search of the ever prized sapphire. And guess what, not only are they finding the brilliant gems, but you can too.
Situated between Butte, Hamilton, and Anaconda, Gem Mountain is a quaint and friendly family owned operation that enables “treasure-seeking visitors from around the world” to experience the thrill of discovering sapphires.

The drive to Gem Mountain itself was well worth my time. With a few routes to choose from (depending of course on where you’re coming from) my fiancé and I headed east from Hamilton, about 60 miles up Skalkaho Road, to find ourselves enthralled with the greenery, forested cliff sides, and the roaring Skalkaho Falls. When we arrived at Gem Mountain we weren’t quite sure what to expect.

There were small groups of people and individuals leaning over a huge trough of muddy looking water, smiling and laughing and shaking away at their gravel screens. They were obviously having a blast. Others were sitting quietly at tables dissecting their rock piles with fingertips and tweezers, and occasionally someone would shout with excitement to their mining partner, “LOOK!” as they examined their sapphires. Yes, they were actually finding real, genuine, pink, blue, green, and yellow sapphires. We were ready to give it a try.

The sapphire hunting takes place outside, but inside the facility is where you pay for your buckets of pre-mined gravel. We were told each bucket takes approximately 30-45 minutes to sift through. Some people bought one bucket, others a dozen, and then there were those who quoted “addictions” to the activity and were purchasing over a hundred buckets. That of course took them days to go though, and since we only had an afternoon we opted for two buckets, which ended up being the perfect amount for us and lasted about three hours.
The extremely kind and helpful staff gave us a quick tutorial on how to “wash” the gravel, and then showed us the most favorable methods of searching through the mound for the glassy rocks. Immediately we saw a couple of blue and pink sapphires on the surface of our gravel pile, and the excitement began. And I must say, though it was great fun looking for and finding the sapphires, the best part about it was the staff that came around frequently, offered help and advice, and just hung out with us, talking and joking around. All around us people of all ages, couples, friends, and families, were having such a great time.

When we were finished we had our findings inspected by the sapphire experts (free of cost as part of the service) for weight and quality. We ended up with a 95-carat bag full of tiny little sapphires that were low quality (uncuttable) and seven little stones that were of high enough quality we could have them heated and cut to become category gemstones.

Every once in a while, as posted on the ‘wall of fame’, someone finds a sapphire bigger then four carats, which is a big one, and definitely worth some bucks. But whether that big one is found or not, the entire experience was well worth our time!

Gem Mountain hours and info: gemmtn.com