The yogo sapphire is one of the rare and precious things that make Montana truly the Treasure State. Randy and Katie Gneiting have been mining this gem from Central Montana for about 30 years. Their ...

All his great expectations for that claim never came to pass, for Jake Hoover never struck that rich vein of gold he was seeking in central Montana. The consolation? That blue chatter of pebbles in ...

“I’ve always had a love of jewelry and gems,” said Phyllis Gunther. “I went over to Helena to the gem gravels and I decided I wanted to cut them myself. So, I bought a cutter and some books and taught ...

GREAT FALLS - Formed only one place on Earth, deep beneath the foothills of the Little Belt Mountains, yogo sapphires are the crown jewel of the Treasure State. Their crisp, blue fire, kindled at the ...

''Montana can be back on the map for producing some of the most beautiful sapphires in the world,'' he said. But Adair speculates that commercial yogo mining is over. ''It's too expensive to get the ...

''The demand is.'' A jewel in a haystack? Walt Teats, a goldsmith at the Yogo Sapphire Jewelry Co. in Great Falls, wants to see the state government work with mine interests to jump-start mining in ...