My last day in Montana.  I will be sorry to leave this lovely state.  We headed out in the morning for Gem Mountain, which is about 20 miles out of Anaconda, half-way between Butte and Missoula.  It was a lovely trip on scenic Highway 1, through narrow canyons and mountain passes, and high valleys surrounded by snowy peaks. 

Finally, we arrived in a small clearing by a rippling stream, with several tents set up and tables everywhere.  At the back of the clearing was a log building which housed the Gem Mountain store.  To one side was a huge slag pile with buckets full of grit in front of it.  For $14 you could purchase one of these buckets of dirt and pan for sapphires!  And that's what we did.  Mom and Dad bought one bucket and I bought one.  Then a nice man showed us how to pour the dirt and gravel mixture into a "pan" -- it was a rectangular sieve with a wooden frame about a foot and a half long with close-set wire netting on the bottom.   You lowered the sieve into a waist-high, freezing cold trough of water that was provided.  It was filled with freezing cold, muddy water, and we made it muddier as we lowered the trays into the water, shook them up and down lightly to settle the gravel down and spread it out.  This also caused the sapphires -- heavier than normal rock -- to settle to the bottom.   Then we rocked the trays from side to side to make a heap of rocks in the center of the tray, turned the tray a quarter-turn, and did it again.  And again.  Each turn helped move the sapphires to the center of the tray and the large rocks and grit to the outside.  I had to remove my hands from the water several times, because the cold made them hurt!   

When we were done panning, we took our trays to a picnic table covered with a thick rubber top and turned the trays upside down onto it.  As the last of the water drained off, we searched for any sapphires that had fallen to the bottom of the tray during the panning.  Then we slowly combed through the remaining gravel to find the rest. 

It was a long, slow process.  Pan the gravel, Drain the water, Comb the rocks for sapphires.  Repeat.  At the end of four hours, I had about 34 ounces of sapphires, and 5 of them weighted more than an ounce and were large enough to be cut for jewelry.  It was hard work, but I enjoyed myself immensely, in spite of the hot sun that burned my shoulders and kept me running back to the car for more bottled water!  I was glad to have a glimpse into this life of a placer miner.  Granted, we were mining for sapphires, not gold.  But it was a similar process, and not one I would personally want to do for any length of time.  If I'd lived in a boomtown, I would have run a grocery store and gotten rich selling supplies to the miners! 

We spent our last evening in Missoula, swimming in the hotel pool and eating our farewell meal at an Italian restaurant.  Goodbye Montana!  I hope to visit again soon.