Facilities where tourists can find their own sapphire gems are available in two areas in Montana, the first along the Missouri River near Helena, and the second is at Rock Creek near Philipsburg, west of Butte. The adventure of finding your own sapphires out in the Montana hills is a fascinating and fun filled experience that is suitable for the entire family, including the kids.

The first gem-quality sapphires in the United States were discovered in the gravels of the Missouri River in Lewis and Clark County, Montana in 1865. The discovery is attributed to Ed Collins, a gold miner who was working on one of the gravel benches, or “bars,” just above the Missouri River near Helena. This find was followed by a number of other discoveries in the late 1800s, including Rock Creek in Granite County in 1892, and in Yogo Gulch in Judith Basin County in 1895.

While most of the sapphires produced from both Rock Creek and the Missouri River are of a pale color that is not particularly desirable for jewelry, gemologists have found that with special treatment to a red hot heat, the color of these gems is permanently altered to a much more desirable shade. With the advent of successful heat-treating techniques for the Montana sapphires, this gem material has gained a much greater acceptance in the gemstone industry. This enhanced acceptance has resulted in a significant increase in the market for and value of U.S. sapphires.

Digging your own sapphires on the Missouri River:

Currently there are up to seven operations on the Missouri River that produce sapphires commercially and/or operate a dig-for-fee area. Not all of these may be active in any one year. Perhaps the best-known Sapphire mine on the Missouri River which is open to the public is the Spokane bar mine. Digging your own sapphires is not free, but the costs are very reasonable.

Visitors will find sapphires in every color at the Spokane Bar Sapphire Mine. The natural Sapphire crystal structure is hexagon with triangle terminations which are often flat. The most commonly found color at the mine is a green-blue shade. While blue sapphire is the best known color, usually heat treatment is required to produce this type of color in the Missouri River sapphires. Ruby is a sapphire that is colored red, and it is one of the most prized gems of all.

The sapphires from the Missouri River gravels in Lewis and Clark County are a mixture of rough and pitted crystals showing well defined faces and completely rounded and smooth-surface highly stream worn pebbles. The majority of the material is pale blue or blue-green, with deep blue stones being quite rare. Stones also are found in pastel blue, green, pink, pale red, purple, yellow, and orange. Most of the stones recovered are less than 1/4″ in diameter, but material between a quarter and a half inch in diameter is not uncommon. Material greater than half an inch in diameter is rare. The largest known sapphire from the Spokane Bar was 155 carats, found by a man from Idaho – unfortunately it was not of gem quality. The largest gem quality sapphire which has been found was 50 carats. Other gemstones which can be found at Spokane bar (although very uncommon), are diamond, topaz, citrine, and ruby. Garnets of several varieties can be found; the largest on record weighed 40 carats.

Digging for sapphires at Rock Creek:

During the past several years, there has been only a single producer on Rock Creek. The gem mountain property has operated both a commercial recovery plant and a fee recovery area. The fee recovery area sold buckets of gravel for washing and also offered, for a predetermined fixed fee, the output of one day’s operation of the commercial wash plant.
At Gem Mountain, gravel dug by the mine owners is purchased and sorted for its sapphires. Every bucket is guaranteed to contain at least some sapphires. It is not necessary for the visitor to bring any equipment to the mine, as the facility provides everything a visitor needs to find their own Montana sapphires. Company staff teach how it is done, and do all the heavy lifting, so all the visitor has to do is show up and sift through the gravel to find the sapphires hidden in each bucket. From May 19th through October 9th, the Gem Mountain sapphire mine is open to the public seven days a week, from 9:00 am until 5:00 p.m. (from Memorial Day to Labor Day, evening hours are extended until 7 pm).

The process of recovering the sapphires from the gravel involves shaking a screen full of gravel under the water in the water troughs. The material must be well washed in order to clarify what sapphires or other gems are present. The water rinses away the clay and mud that hide the sapphires from view.

All sapphires are heavier than the general rocks in gravel so, as you shake the screen, the sapphires settle to the bottom. Once it is well washed and shaken, the screen is then quickly flipped over and dumped on a table. The sapphires that were on the bottom, are now on the top of the gravel, and you pick the gems out from among the gravels on your sorting table. Staff help new comers learn to screen the gravel and pick out the gems. Spotting the gems and collecting them is fun for everyone from the smallest child to the most serious rock hound.