Our original plan was to leave the Boulder, Colorado area for Eugene, Oregon on July 5th. After a flash of questionable brilliance, I proposed that we leave on the fourth instead. Surely there would be almost nobody on the road. My wife was hesitant. She does love her fireworks and didn't want to miss the community fireworks display. We decided that surely there would be fireworks wherever we stayed the first night and headed North on I-25 through Wyoming, within a few thousand yards of the Battle at the Little Bighorn and then turned west toward our Oregon destination.

At about 4:30 in the afternoon, we reached Bozeman, Montana and begin trying to find an open room. Luck on the first try!! While checking in, I asked whether they had a fireworks display; lucky break number two! Not only did they have one but it was in the open field right next to the motel. All we had to do was step out the door to watch the show.

As it began to get dark in the beautiful Montana mountains, we awaited the show. Townspeople started pulling in , surrounding the field. It was getting pretty dark and there were lots of little fireworks going off in the field, thanks to the poeple attending. Certainly this was not what they considered the town fireworks show?? We watched a while and, having had a long drive, decided to turn in, after all, Roman Candles and sparklers only hold your attention for so long. My daughter excused herself first claiming the bathtub. A couple of minutes later, we followed.

We had not been in our room for 30 seconds when we heard the first BIG boom. Back out we rushed, the daughter being a little late so that she wasn't the show rather that the observer. We sat for about 30 minutes watching the wonderful display. The finale was magnificent. The people were charming and welcoming and the setting was unparalleled.

On the morning of the fifth, we set our sites on Helena, Montana, the home of the Montana Sapphire. Our research had found a place called the Spokan Bar Sapphire Mine where you could pay and hunt for your own sapphires. We had high hopes for a monstrous sapphire that someday would become a beautiful ring.

We reached Helena mid morning and began trying to determine where the mine was located without much luck. We stopped at a gas station. Never heard of it. Then off to a convenience store- no luck there either------ until right as we started to leave. A volunteer firefighter who had overheard our question was familiar with it and gave us directions "as best as he could remember". We followed his directions headed out of town on small roads, some gravel. Doubt was mounting when we saw a small wooden sign at an intersection; Spokane Bar Sapphire Mine and an arrow pointing North.

I'm not sure what we were expecting as we drove up the the little shack with broken down cars scattered here and there and a dog wandering out to greet us. To the left was a beautiful view of the Missouri River which had deposited the gravel from which the sapphires are pulled. The store was surrounded with washing stations to clean and sort your gravel and several people were busy doing so.

Upon entering the shop, we were pleasantly greeted by Deb and presented with our choices. We could mine our own out of the pit up the hill or we could buy anything from a small bag to a large bucket of "concentrates" to sort through. Also for sale are fnished stones from the site as well as bags of garnet gravel and other specimens. For the kids they have an aquarium wher you pay a small fee and the kids can scoop a fibished stone out of the sand. There are many different stones that pop out of there. For those of you who are wondering, there is no guarantee. You can, however, purchase "enhanced" buckets that guarantee that you will find something. We chose to start by going up the hill and digging our own.

Set the scene. Remember what day it is? Ah, yes. It's the 5th of July. July is located in the middle of the summer, the HOT season and it was hot! Remember my description of the the arrival----- it didn't include trees so if you were picturing the piney woods of Montana---wrong. With the help of one of the staff members, we filled our bucket with sifted gravel for washing back at the shop.

Deb was a good teacher and we were soon washing our mine gravel. There are a number of possibilities that may turn up in your screen. First, the sapphires, which come in and array of colors and range anywhere from one half to 10 carats and larger. The most common are the yellow-green, followed by blue, pink, and even rare yellow sapphires. In addition you can find gold, garnets, rubies (red sapphires), topaz, citrine, moonstones, hematite nodes, and fossils. Our bucket gave up a few small green sapphires and a nice little moonstone. Not overwhelming but still fun and, after all, it was our first "wild" sapphire. We then purchased an additional bucket of concentrates. I'm not much for enhanced so we went with the luck of the draw.

Education point- Our first bucket was sifted mine gravel. The second was concentrates. There is a big difference!. The staff at the Bar use machinery to dig gravel out of the pit and run it through a trommel that removes the lighter material and most dirt, thereby increasing your chances of finding the sapphires. Thus- more chances per bucket.

Once we plowed through the second bucket, we had just under thirty small sapphires that were of facetable quality. The mine supplies you with the name of a person that they use to facet the raw sapphires. You can send them to him. He ships them off to Taiwan and you get them back in about three months. Cost is reasonable.We got back several in the 1/3 carat range (see photos). As an aside, I have to admit I got a little lazy. They said that the sapphires were heavier so I got the wild idea of panning the concentrates. I had my pan in the car so I decided to give it a shot. When the drill instructor, I mean screening instructor saw me panning, he just about had a coronary. Evidently sapphires aren't THAT heavy.

So it was- a wonderful day at the Bar. We left Helena and spent the night in Coeur-D-Alene before heading down the Columbia to Portland and then Eugene. western Oregon is nice in it's own desolate way but the Columbia is impressive for someone who has rarely seen a large waterway. I only continue the story to urge you to stop at one more spot. As you drive along the Columbia you will reach the Dam at the Dalles. Stop there! It is well worth going down below the water level and seeing the large magificent Salmon, Steelheads, and other fish move up the fish ladders. We saw many fish as long as my leg, a fisherman's dream especially for someone who has always caught stocker trout about 12 inches long.

For those interested in the Spokan Bar, I urge you to go to their web site at www.sapphiremine.com. You can order mining gravel to be shipped to your home and have fun with it there. I usually get a bag every Christmas to play with and this last year, although one of the least productive bags in numbers, I pulled a 2.3 carat garnet and an absolutely spectacular 3.58 carat blue sapphire that will cut close to a one carat finished stone. The mine is only open during the warm months so check out the web site, subscribe to the newsletter and go see them. You will have a blast and the stories you tell will become part of your Treasured Pasts.