Historic and Scenic Philipsburg, Montana

This is the place to go for historic buildings, sapphires, and outdoor recreation.

Did we mention sapphires?

Shopkeepers applied paint so exuberantly to downtown Philipsburg that the place was a finalist twice in the Prettiest Painted Places in America contest. As we pass the gloriously ornate, turn-of-the century buildings, we're in full gawk, yet our pickup rumbles down the street without slowing. What can we say? When the stomach is on "E," we focus strictly
on eateries.

Aha! There before us is Doe Brothers Soda Fountain, and a sign in the window mentions soup, too. We scramble in and soon we're tucking into the perfect introduction to Philipsburg, a pasty. Classic lunch fare for miners a century ago, this pastry-wrapped beef, potato, and onion concoction is not only the very definition of hearty food, it shifts our thoughts to mining.

Mining, after all, is what's behind all those fancy buildings we see through the window. Alas, the booms in silver, manganese, and sapphires were followed by busts that dropped the town from a peak of 3000 people during World War I to the 900 or so residents of today. But that hasn't squelched P-burg. The energetic residents have restored their grand buildings, and baited them with everything from an over-the-top candy store to professional actors in the restored theater.

Sapphires Galore

The Sapphire Gallery across the street draws visitors from across the country with its unparalleled array of sapphires and rubies. Typically the shop has more than 3000 pieces of jewelry on hand.

We stare at a case of jewelry including yellow, green, and raspberry gems. Co-owner Shirley Beck explains that both sapphires and rubies are of the mineral corundum. Slight impurities make the corundum red (ruby), blue (sapphire), or many other colors (fancy sapphire). The Rock Creek deposit nearby is one that's noted for its many colors, although most are blue.

True do-it-yourselfers, we have to try a bit of sapphire "mining" ourselves. We could go to Gem Mountain southwest of town to rummage through a bucket of sapphire gravel, but on this chilly day we opt for the indoor version in the Mining Room of The Sapphire Gallery.

We pick a $25 bag of gem gravel, which a staffer dumps into a screened frame. She dunks it into a tub of muddy water, swirls it about, then hollers "Loud noise!" as she flips the screen of gravel onto our table with an ear-shattering clatter. Armed with tweezers, a pill bottle, and a look at a sample of what we're after, we search the gravel for sapphires.

Sure enough, we find a few little bluish chunks amongst the gravel. Later Beck goes over our finds with us. The two largest of the eight gem-quality stones we find are 1.2 carats. We go ahead with the next step, heat-treating the stones, but will decide on faceting and a jewelry piece later. Beck's co-owner Dale Siegford is a pioneer in heat-treating methods, which intensify the color and bring out the transparency.
Almost everyone finds at least one gem-quality sapphire per bag, but Beck and Siegford offer another bag if not. Once a Minnesota "miner" scored a 12.9 carat sapphire, roughly a $5000 piece, that's now set in a pendant.

Great digs at historic hotel

The whole process is fascinating, but the afternoon has slipped away. After a memorable chicken-fried steak at the Silver Mill Saloon, we slip away too, to our spacious room at The Broadway Hotel. The much-ornamented exterior of the Broadway, built in 1890, sports a cheerful combination of yellow, red and greens, and the wooden floor inside still shows marks where miners chopped wood for the stove.

Our Discovery Room is one-of-a-kind. Named for nearby Discovery Ski Area, it carries out a downhill sports theme with touches such as wooden skis affixed to the bed and armoire corners, bear paw snowshoes on the wall, and wooden sleds lined up in the corner.

At breakfast we chat with other guests in the large, rustic-elegant lounge. A family of five is off for fly-fishing lessons and two friends are traveling the scenic highway to Anaconda, where they will play the Jack Nicklaus-designed Old Works Golf Course.

As for us, we spend the morning shopping for antiques, giftware, and outdoor gear.

Chocolate aromas wafting from The Sweet Palace entice us into this Victorian candy store that offers an incredible 880 varieties. This is another Siegford and Beck business, and we spot Siegford at the taffy machine. Behind another counter Beck's daughter Heidi Evans points us to the current favorites: Moose Drool Truffles and humongous chocolate-nut clusters of various kinds, including "dinosaur eggs" with macadamia nuts. Taffy, chocolates, and caramels are made on the premises.

Tomorrow we're visiting the ghost town of Granite, so we stop at the Granite County Museum to see heyday photos and to pick up a walking map to Granite. Museum board member and volunteer Fred Lurie has much more to show us though. Our favorite is the mine shaft and drift built years ago by now-deceased miner Bill Schneider.

We enter the tunnel and look around in the dim light. Lurie points out a ladder on the wall, used for escape when blasting set off a flood. "Bill told me that many times he was up to his neck in water when he reached that ladder in his mining days," Lurie says.

A Historic Walking Tour through the National Historic District includes 50 buildings, most of which have been painstakingly restored.

The oldest continually operating opera house in Montana, the Opera House Theatre that seats 350, is one of the buildings in the National Historic District.

Visitors who need a live-theater fix strike pay dirt here. Rotating performances mean that on any summer weekend a theater buff could catch a play Friday night, a different one at the Saturday matinee, and a third Saturday evening!

Nearby attractions and recreation

We drive 10 miles to Georgetown Lake. The lake is popular with boaters most of the year and with ice fishermen in the winter. The rainbow trout and Kokanee salmon, bright in their spawning colors in September and October, make top-notch fishing fun. That evening we have dinner under antler lighting fixtures at the Philipsburg Cafe.

Next morning our pickup's high clearance is well-suited to the steep, eroding road to nearby Granite. (Not recommended for RVs.) Following our Granite Ghost Walk map, we wander about the crumbling ghost town partly owned by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. After heading back down to Philipsburg, we're ready for a hike as we drive west of town to Rock Creek, a renowned trout stream. This time we pass the fishing holes in favor of the pine-scented air at the Welcome Creek trailhead. A small rapids splashes below us as we walk the suspended footbridge to a pleasant trail beyond.

Later we drive along Rock Creek enjoying the scenery. Bands of bighorn sheep remind us of the elk we spotted this morning. And the moose we hoped to see.

We'll just have to come back to this sweet gem of a town. We reach into our supply of prime chocolates and smile, thinking of the happy prospect of another visit to Philipsburg.

Northwest Travel Magazine
September/October 2007

Story and Photos by Craig & Liz Larcom

Above: Shirley Beck discusses options for the sapphires a customer has found.

Below: A visitor surveys the scene from the suspension bridge over Rock Creek at Welcome Creek trailhead.