Dig-Dig #6: Americana

When staying at Gem Mountain, the closest town for showers and groceries is Philipsburg, Montana.

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A beautifully kept town, maintaining a robust balance between historical preservation and modern standards. It is refreshing to be able to easily imagine life a hundred years ago while lacking for nothing.

The Club Bar is the perfect spot for a drink on a hot afternoon. Very friendly staff and patrons, and we lucked upon "happy hour".

The locally-made Dump Truck Bock was light but full of flavour. Highly recommended.

Delicious thick beef stew at the Gem Mountain campground that night, accompanied by an adequate Zinfandel from Ravenswood.

The view from the dinner table.

On the way to Wyoming.

Afton, Wyoming: home of the world's largest elk horn arch.


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If you are driving down Interstate 15 in Utah with a trunk full of fish fossils and think you feel your front left wheel wobbling and start to fear that your '94 Escort Wagon with 205,000 km on it is telling you the trip is taking a bad turn, you could do a lot worse than to take exit 279 into Lehi and turn right. Big O Tires is there and ready to take a look while you wait.


It is hard to overstate how friendly, polite, professional and speedy the Big O crew were. Taylor, Blair and the whole team made the process painless and eased our worries, finding no mechanical faults in their thorough inspection. Someone around Lehi is bringing their kids up right. And someone knows how to generate a positive impression of a big-chain business, too. Big O charged a big 0$ for this greatly-appreciated service. Highly recommended.

Up next: an oasis in the desert, and a desert in the oasis.

Dig-Dig #3: Sapphire Video

Don't believe it's really that easy? Watch Chris, the very friendly owner of Gem Mountain, demonstrate the wash routine:



And now the flip:

Dig-Dig #2: Sapphires in Montana

Google Maps link to Gem Mountain.

Arriving at Gem Mountain in the late afternoon, we set up camp and made a great big dinner of pork cutlets and a Beringer White Merlot. It is hard to go wrong making a bright, flavourful rosé from well-ripened grapes, but this is where Beringer shows real determination. We can recommend this wine if you like sugar and hate your tongue. The pork was excellent, however, and we fried up some extra for the next day's sandwiches, hoping to eat them from a gunny sack by the crick, or something equally rustic.

Aya could hardly sleep in anticipation of the next day's activities: pulling raw sapphires from the pure Montana dirt.

Here's how it works:

You buy a bucket of alluvial gravel.

Pour a manageable amount into your screen.

Take the screen of dirt to the washing trough, which is filled with warm Montana river water. One of those adjectives is not accurate.

Using the two washing techniques demonstrated by the Gem Mountain staff, get the small pebbles to the center and the larger ones to the outside edge in a circular pattern. Heavier sapphires will sink to the bottom.

Flip the screen over in one smooth motion.

There. There. There and there. At least four sapphires of different colours in this batch. Did you know that rubies are rare red sapphires?


Sunday afternoon at Gem Mountain.

We looked through seven buckets of gravel before taking our collection into the office to have them assayed. A total of 95.56 carats on the first day!

First the sapphires are sorted by size.

Those above a certain size and without flaws are considered "cuttable". Heat treating will enhance the colour.

Anticipation.

The first day's cuttable sapphires, averaging almost one carat each.

We only went through three buckets of gravel in the morning of the second day but managed to find almost as many as the day before. Only one less cuttable gem and another eight that are "flawed but cuttable". We left them all to be heat treated and cut into whatever shape best suits each one. They'll show up in the mail in a few months after we have forgotten about them, bringing joy into a rainy winter's day.