More Montana

As I was heading west from Billings, Montana, I caught an interesting tourist pamphlet about a gem mining place near Yellowstone National Park. I needed to procure a "fun" gift for my friend Reggie back in Oregon, so I thought this might do it. She had previously strongly hinted she'd like some Black Hills gold. Meh. Gold.

Now gems...sapphires, in this case, is more my style.

As I got closer to Yellowstone, I briefly toyed with the idea of adding that to my itinerary. Majestic mountains attract me for some reason, and I that is another place I haven't seen since 1959. I decided Yellowstone really deserves an in-depth look, not a simple drive-through, so that passing thought passed away.



This was the place! Gem Valley!

It's not much to look at, just a shop building, parking and 'play area' for digging through gravel. (See their website) Not just any gravel, but gravel trucked in from the actual mine in another part of Montana. This location provides a good trap for tourists on their way to Yellowstone.

Now don't get me wrong. In spite of it being an ambush for your hard currency, it is an interesting travel diversion that actually requires you to do some hands on activity.

There were lots of families there, with their kids eagerly looking through handfuls of wet pebbles to find those elusive sparkly sapphires and garnets.

I talked to the gal at the inside counter about what the deal was in finding the gems, and she was eager to provide me with answers to every question I could think of. She showed me samples of both raw gems (to be able to recognize them) and others that had been cut and faceted. They even had some jewelry featuring their gems, which were also available for purchase. In addition, they even provided contacts for gem cutters that could cut gems you found, and jewelers that could mount your stones in their custom designs. Now how many people wear gems that they themselves found? That'd be a hellava souvenir, no?

I ended up getting a plastic bucket of dirt for Reggie. She can sift through that to find her 'sparkly rocks'. Who knows. Maybe she'll find a 19-carat sapphire, like these folks did. (Click on link for story).