Treasure

Yesterday, that girl and I spent the better part of our afternoon gleaning for sapphires.

Hunting for sapphires is much like picking huckleberries in that your mind clears out all rubbish and troubles and focuses entirely on the task at hand.

Between gold and sapphires, it is no accident we are known as the Treasure State.

The gravel and fines we processed came from Gem Mountain Sapphire Mine of Philipsburg, Montana. 

The first gem-quality sapphires discovered in the United States were found in 1865 along a Missouri River gravel bar located within a dozen miles of my present day home.  In 1991, following a rainstorm, I actually chanced on a respectable green sapphire glinting in the piles of stone and earth we excavated to build our home.

Lewistown, Montana, is famous for blue Yogo sapphires.

Posted is a photograph of our found treasure I captured with my smarter-than-me-phone.

  --Mitchell Hegman