Gravel mission turned out to be gem of a trip

I’m in love with gravel.

For the better part of a day last weekend I washed my gravel — buckets of it — gently rocking it back and forth. Then I carefully spread it out on a table and caressed it with tweezers, sifting through it for bits of what looked like colored glass.

My infatuation with each bucket of gravel was quickly dismissed, though, after I’d plucked out the potential gems. Then I swished the gravel to the ground, abandoning it for the next fresh batch.

Yep, I was at Gem Mountain near Philipsburg, searching for sapphires for the first time ever.

By the time we’d pored over five pails of rock (we bought seven but took two home) I had a teeny, tiny plastic bag with about 24 small stones. The gemologist, or whoever it is that you pay $5 to appraise your potential stash of sapphires, delivered the disappointing news that all of my sapphires were either too small or flawed.

My daughter and son-in-law had better luck, with three stones that were big enough to be made into jewelry.

It was a mesmerizing weekend in many ways. I was completely charmed by Philipsburg, and surprised at how much of the town’s historic district is still intact and has been beautifully preserved. We took in the vaudeville theater production at the 1891 Opera House Theatre, got some great food at a local cafe and, of course, spent time at the Sapphire Gallery and other gift shops loaded with local gems.

Perhaps the best part of the weekend, though, was wandering through the ghost town of Granite about four miles up Granite Mountain southeast of Philipsburg.

As we wandered through the mining town’s remains, largely stone foundations of buildings, and crawled around the still-impressive remains of the silver mill carved into the mountain, it was amazing to me how nature had overtaken the land again, with mature pine trees growing where streets and buildings were situated.

I kept wanting to close my eyes and imagine how bustling the town and mine would have been during their heyday in the 1880s. Like the scene in “Titanic” when the movie takes you from the sunken remains of the ship to its original glory as it left England on its inaugural but doomed voyage, I wanted that snapshot in time.

The company town of Granite was developed around the silver mine and grew to more than 3,000 residents before it literally emptied out overnight when the Sherman Silver Purchase Act was repealed in 1893, eliminating a government guarantee for silver purchases.

After our trip up the mountain, we were able to see old photographs of the town as it looked in the 1890s at the Granite County Museum in Philipsburg, which helped us put it all in perspective.

I’ve now decided I need to tour the rest of Montana’s ghost towns, something I’ve always wanted to do but never have.

The weekend excursion to Philipsburg and Gem Mountain was a great reminder of the history that abounds throughout Montana that’s there for the taking, just like those elusive sapphires.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.