Gem Mountain Philipsburg — Attraction in Philipsburg

My wife and I (native Montanans living elsewhere) have been visiting Philipsburg almost every year for 35 years, "mining" sapphire gravel purchased at different stores and entities over the years as mines and stores changed hands. For the last 12 years or so, we have been visiting the Gem Mountain gallery and buying/washing sapphire gravel from Travis and his crew.

Unlike other locations around Montana - and in Philipsburg - we have never felt like we have been shorted while looking through the buckets and bags of gravel. Many other locations run their sapphire-bearing gravel through sluices or screen and wash it, which DOES produce a "cleaner" experience - but also leaves open the possibility that your purchased gravel has been "cherry-picked" for larger stones as part of the sluicing and washing process. I can guarantee that practice happens elsewhere - but not at Gem Mountain.

Whether you purchase bags to go, buckets at the gallery, or buckets at the mine itself, we have ALWAYS been satisfied that we have been given "real" gravel that has been unpicked. Some buckets and bags have turned up 10-12 carats of raw sapphires; others have run as high as 65 carats, with an average (over the years) of about 15-20 carats. When roughly 1/3 to half of that is "gem quality" that is a pretty good deal for a $45 purchase (as of 2024). Your mileage on any given day may vary, as they say, but that is our experience over many years.

We have always collected the stones from our 3-4 bags and buckets per year, and in 2021 had our first collection sorted, heat-treated, and faceted - resulting in over 220 carats of beautiful gems. We have made custom rings, earrings, and pendants from these gems, and their value collectively has far outweighed the cost of buying the gravel, heat treating the gem-quality stones, having them cut, and making unique jewelry (see pics).

At Gem Mountain, we have ALWAYS received top-notch treatment from all of the staff. Of course, they now know us and we are glad to have conversations with them - but I have never seen them treat anyone else as anything but a friend. Our finds certainly vary from bucket to bucket and year to year, but we have never felt short-changed or dissatisfied by a "bad" bucket or day. Hey, it's all a chance - but over time, we have had HUGE success in getting some absolutely beautiful stones... and we have always felt welcome and had fun doing so.

There are other places in Philipsburg to get gravel - we go to those as well from time to time - but nothing beats Gem Mountain, in my opinion, for finding stones and having fun doing it. We have just received our most recent "motherlode" of treated stones - some 870 carats of unsorted stones - and are in the process of sorting out about 250 stones to be faceted for more jewelry. We decided to heat-treat all of our stones so we can use some of them as raw, "imperfect" stones in jewelry this time around.

Our largest find so far was a 6.69 carat (uncut) stone of perfect clarity and an amazing green color - we can't wait to see that one faceted! But we have literally hundreds of 0.5 to 2 carat faceted stones to choose from when making jewelry - and ALL of those have come from Gem Mountain.

Give them a try. Every bucket and bag is a crapshoot - but I'd say the odds have been in our favor almost every time. Never disappointed! And Travis and his crew are truly gems at...

I have been here a few times. Both trips I had a wonderful time. Twice I have had sapphires faceted for me. However, this past order that I placed and just recently received was quite disappointing. For money per stone that a customer pays, you would expect to get what you wanted. That was not the case with the largest stone in my order. I was told that the stone did have a flaw in it, but the flaw was on the outside edge which could easily be cut away when faceting the stone. I had insisted that all stones in my order were "rounds", just like the last order that I had placed. The stone which was originally a 3.17 ct came back and Oval cut weighing in at .90ct. The stone also had a huge crack which looked like air bubbles in the stone, this greatly changes the reflection the stone has. I would not use this stone for any jewelry pieces. I've dealt with customer service for this issue. After multiple back and forth emails they gave me two options, none of which seemed like winners. I am now stuck with a stone that I wouldn't even gift away. Go elsewhere for your...

We bought two buckets of gravel for $40 each to sort through and found several cuttable stones. Our second bucket had an unusually high amount of sapphires, so be aware that your mileage may vary.

They charge reasonable prices and make it straightforward to find sapphires. It was absolutely thrilling to find gemstones. The gravel was raw, muddy, and brown at first, not loaded with polished stones like some tourist destinations do to make people feel special.

The way the gravel is sorted by the attendants pushes almost all of the sapphires to the top of the gravel pile when the sieve is flipped onto the table. This makes for a great experience, because multiple sapphires are usually visible before starting the longer part of the hunt.

If you'd like your sapphires/garnets cut, they are currently experiencing a one year wait because of how many customers...