Sapphire Hunters

In mid-October, Desiree and I joined our friends, Tad and John, for a day of digging sapphire gravel at the Helena Mineral Society sapphire mine.  The mine is just off the shore of Hauser Lake and must be accessed by boat.  We met at the boat ramp of Devil’s Elbow Campground and piled into John’s boat for the short ride to the mine.

We arrived at the sapphire mine with a plan to process our diggings down to gravel and fines and then haul some of that home for sapphire hunting at a later date.

Desiree and I worked a compacted bank of cobbles atop a shelf of bedrock.  After filling five-gallon buckets with material, I classified that down in a sifter and partially filled a couple heavyweight bags with gravel to haul home for processing at a later date.

Though enjoyable, our day at the mine proved to be a lot of work.

Yesterday afternoon, Desiree set up shop in the warmth of our sunroom and hunted for sapphires in some of the material we hauled home.  I can’t think of a better way to spend a chill winter day.  Best of all, we found a decent garnet and a few lightly colored sapphires.

Our Finds from Yesterday

Desiree Scratching Material from the Bedrock

Desiree and Tad Classifying Material

—Mitchell Hegman