Acouple of weeks ago, Terry and I joined a local gem and mineral club. It cost $15 to join and you get access to several mining claims the club owns.
One claim is about 15 miles from our house. After church, we went to check it out. A friend of ours knew how to get there so we met him and drove to the parking area. Then we had to hike in about a mile to the claim.
The area was full of holes and craters where people had dug over the years looking for sapphires.
Terry said this would be the best place to dig:
After you get a bucket full of gravel, you sift in these screens.
Close supervision is important.
And we found some! 5 sapphires and one garnet. Looks like one may be good enough to cut into jewelry.
Click on the picture for a better view.
And a bonus. Before we left, I put some of the leftover sand into a bag and brought it home. When I panned it in the creek, I found about 20 flakes of gold. I added it to the other gold found over the past couple of years:
