Montana Trip
June 2005
Jay Bates
jaybates@rcn.com

Page 2

With the warming sun peaking through the clouds in the morning, we headed over to Calvert Hill to look for various mineral specimens. Robert Campbell and I worked some seams of epidote crystals in quartz. We were able to find some specimen crystals of blue beryl or aquamarine. We were also able to pry loose a few nice epidote crystals. Others found garnets, agate, and other minerals.

Aquamarine Crystals

Calvert Hill Pit

The wet weather cleared somewhat the following morning and we headed to Crystal Park to dig quartz and amethyst crystals. On the way, we passed a large herd of Rocky Mountain elk. Everyone found some crystals, but no one found any real pockets. We did find some large crystals of a couple inches in length. In the afternoon the thunderheads built up and the rains returned. Lee and I headed to the Elkhorn Springs Hot for a well deserved hot soak and a hot restaurant meal for a change. Lee was tired of eating the meals I cooked and the unpleasant affects of beans. Others headed to Coolidge and other ghost mining towns in the local hills.

Quartz crystals from Crystal Park.

The next morning we headed to Gem Mountain to screen for sapphires. From seven buckets of gravel I got 80 carats of sapphires including 20 carats of facetable stones. In the afternoon Lee and I along with Bob Kozak went to Coolidge for a tour of the ghost town, mine and remnants of the mill.

We found old blasting caps on the tailings at Castle Mountain. Very dangerous.