Hunting for Sapphires

Tucked away in Montana is a small town called Philipsburg. Bob’s mother lived in Anaconda not far from Philipsburg. So whenever we visited Anaconda, when my children were small we would drive to Philipsburg. We would then drive about 22 miles out of Philipsburg to a mountain called Gem Mountain. At Gem Mountain we could hunt sapphires by paying for bucketfuls of gravel from Gem Mountain. Gravel by the bucketful would be washed, screened then dumped out on wooden tables where my kids would hunt for the treasure of sapphires. They have wonderful memories of doing this as children. Today sapphire hunters just have to go to Philipsburg to the storefront of Gem Mountain (Montana Sapphire Company) where they do all the work for you. You can still look through the dirt at the store…or you can do like we did. We ordered sapphire gravel and we go hunting for sapphires in the comfort of our home…the grandkids love doing it.