sapphire mining in georgetown lake, montana

After yellowstone, we stopped for a yummy buffalo burger at a little drive in right outside of yellowstone---seriously good.  Then we headed to montana to try our hand at sapphire mining. I told shawn we were gonna find a good one:)  we bought a coffee can of gravel 1st at the store in town and sifted through it.  we found a good many, mainly because the people "salt" the gravel with tiny sapphires to begin with.  Then, because we wanted a more genuine experience, we drove up the mountain near the actual mine and bought a big bucket of gravel to sift through.  We actually found a good many sapphires, but only a few that would be worth anything.  They have to be a particular size and without flaws in order to cut and heat treat them.  We ended up finding a sapphire that was about 1.5 carats!!  It'll be around .5 carat after it gets cut and treated and worth around $400-$500:)  I really enjoyed mining and hope we can go sometime back home.  The girl at the mine said, "they have sapphire mines in the carolinas, don't they?"  I said, yeah, i think so, but this isn't the reason that we're in montana. we got to tell them all about our road trip and of course everyone thought it was too cool:)