Montana Gemstones
In Montana, it pays to keep your head down.
by Alex Strickland
There’s blue. And then there’s blue. In Big Sky country the deepest, brightest most gripping blue isn’t overhead, but rather underfoot. Montana, the Treasure State, is home to many fine gemstones, but perhaps none more compelling than the Yogo Sapphire found in the Little Belt Mountains near Lewistown.
“For lots of people, that blue just sucks their soul right in,” says Stephanie Vander Veen, owner of Missoula’s Chalet Jewelers. The Yogo Sapphire is the purest in the world, she says, and the only one that doesn’t have to be heat-treated to turn blue. “They come out of the ground clear and blue,” she says. “It makes the sparkle very crisp.”
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Jewlery courtesy of Miller's Jewlery
Photo by Michael Blevins
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“Cornflower” blue is the term used to describe the most sought after and valuable Yogos, though their color can range from the deep blue to lavender.
The Yogos, not to be confused with other Montana sapphires, are only found in one area of the Little Belts, the product of a “dike” in the earth’s crust that was superheated deep in the earth and thrust up until it was close to the surface. The blue coloration is the result of corundum being heated with a small amount of titanium and then put under intense pressure.
The first Yogo discovery is credited to gold prospector Jake Hoover, a friend of Charlie Russell, according to the book, Yogo: The Great American Sapphire by Stephen M. Voynick.
Hoover filled a cigar box with blue pebbles from Yogo Creek in 1895 and sent them to Tiffany & Co. in New York to have them identified. Instead of getting his pebbles back, Hoover got a check for $3,750.
Since then mines in the Yogo dike have changed hands many times, with one of the longest runs held by a British enterprise, resulting in many of the stones heading overseas. The late Princess Diana’s engagement ring shone with the distinct blue of a Yogo sapphire.
“People come in and ask for a ‘Yugo’ like Princess Di wears,” Vander Veen says, laughing. “Or they sometimes pronounce it ‘Yogi,’ like the bear.”
Whatever the pronunciation, the popularity of the Yogo sapphire has not waned in Montana, where it is sought after for all kinds of jewelry and more than a few engagement rings. “Maybe people met in Montana or got engaged here, and so they want something distinctive,” she says.
Missoula jeweler Barney Jette has noticed a similar affection for the Yogo in engagement rings. “They are unique,” he says. “We sell quite a fair number of Yogo for engagement rings.”
And those rings fetch a fair price, with top quality Yogos occupying the same price range as fine diamonds, according to both Vander Veen and Jette.
Ironically, despite the top quality of the Yogo, its popularity remains minimal outside of Montana, largely due to the lower cost of heat- treated sapphires from Asia or elsewhere. In fact, Vander Veen said that after the publication of Yogo: The Great American Sapphire in 1987, she was visited by a “delegation” of men from Hong Kong in her shop.
“They were asking very specific questions,” she says. “They wanted to find out about quality and supplies.” Vander Veen said the visitors maintained they were simply tourists, but she suspects they were feeling out the industry and trying to determine if their market share was in danger.
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Yogo Sapphires 1925 Ross Toole Archives
Courtesy of Maureen and Mikee Mansfield Library
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“They’re still not very well known to the general public,” she says, adding that customers who have purchased Yogos from her shop have gone back East where jewelers didn’t believe the stone they were seeing was naturally blue.
And that popularity doesn’t look to be booming anytime soon. The last active commercial Yogo mine closed in 2005, though Vander Veen predicts mining will likely resume.“It’s just not an economically viable thing right now,” she says. “That has happened a lot in the history of the mine.”
But Yogos aren’t the only sapphires in the state; Montana’s others are lumped into the term Montana Sapphires. They can be found from Helena to Darby all along the—no surprise here—Sapphire Mountain range.
Montana sapphires are usually “Coke bottle green,” according to Vander Veen and have to be heat-treated like all other sapphires in order to gain the bluish tint that is most popular. And, she says, even stones that have been heat-treated retain a “second color,” which for Montana sapphires is usually green and for Yogos is purple.
The other official state gemstone of Montana, besides the Yogo, is Montana Agate, famous for its translucence and strange and distinctive formations. Agate’s milky white or clear body is often highlighted with what appears to be blooms and shapes injected into its core. Some look to have whole forests of pine trees strung across their surface while others may have bird outlines or, Vander Veen swears, a perfect smiley face.
It’s the surprise of what could be inside and the variety of shapes that draw many people to Montana agate for jewelry and hobby. “It used to be kind of a retired person’s hobby,” she says. “People would come in and show us these incredible stones, which of course weren’t for sale.”
Montana Agate is found along the length of the Yellowstone River corridor in eastern Montana, a product of the ancient inland sea that once covered the area, according to Tom Harmon’s book on Montana Moss Agate, The River Runs North.
Thousands of years of lava and ash spewing from what is now Yellowstone National Park encased forest after forest, leaving small pockets of space where the trees weren’t totally demolished. When rains came after the time of intense seismic activity, silica-water seeped into the cracks and pockets forming the beginnings of agate, the book states.
Today, the highest density of Montana Agate can be found between Custer and Sidney in the far-eastern portion of the state.
Jim Harmon of Harmon’s Agate and Silver in Savage has been harvesting agate “since I could,” he says. His father, Tom, has been in the agate business 37 years and runs the family business with his wife, daughter, son and daughter-in-law. Jim said that because Montana Agate is in an alluvial deposit it can’t be mined, just looked for.
“Certain times of the year are better than others,” he says. “Right after ice-out and after the June rains are best.” He can spot the gems by the look of their dark crust or the waxy looking surface of agate already broken in tumbling down the river.
Harmon’s deals primarily in Montana Agate, selling one of a kind jewelry, collector quality gems and rough agate. “You don’t see as much agate jewelry as you used to,” Jim says. “Back in the ’50’s and ’60’s there was a manufacturer in South Dakota that dealt only in Montana Agate; now you see stuff from small businesses like ours.”
Those one of a kind pieces are found throughout Chalet Jewelers. Vander Veen shows a belt buckle with large pieces of agate mounted on it that resemble landscape paintings, complete with trees and lakes. Another piece she has behind the counter glows with a late-summer, forest-fire, smoke-induced, sunset-red hue.
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Yogo sapphire mines 1925
Courtesy of Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library |
And while Montana Agate may not sparkle and gleam like other gems—they are considered semi-precious stones—they do hold a certain appeal for those who work with them. Someone like Vander Veen’s husband Ron, a gem cutter, is the first person to see what unique shape is held inside the unassuming rock. “It’s the thrill of seeing things no one has ever seen when they cut it open,” Vander Veen said. “It’s a rush.”
The business of gemstones and jewelry is also a rush for Vander Veen, who married into the business when she and Ron wed when she was 17. “It’s a happy business,” she says. “People around the world use jewelry to commemorate life.”
And if you’re going to be a jeweler, the Treasure State isn’t a bad place to be. People wander into Montana’s gem stores with stones they have found and want appraised or cut. Good places to look are along fresh road cuts or in areas known to produce gemstones.
Some gem resources:
Chalet Jewelers
2996 N. Reserve
Missoula, MT 59801
1-888-549-5771 or
406-549-5771
www.chaletjewelers.com
Barney Jette Jewelry Design
228 North Higgins
Missoula, MT 59802
www.barneyjettejewelry.com
406-721-1575
Gem Gallery
402 East Main St.
Bozeman, MT 59715
406-587-9339
www.gemgallery.com
Harmon’s Agate and Silver, Inc.
124 4th Ave. N.
Savage, MT 59262
406-776-2373
www.harmons.net
Miller’s Jewelry
2 East Main
Bozeman, MT 59715
406-586-9547
www.millersjewelry-mt.com
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