Montana is full of beautiful mountains, lakes, and of course people. BUT did you know that Montana is also the home to beautiful gems? Yes, this is true! In fact, the Montana Yogo Sapphire is the ONLY gem from North America that is included in the Crown Jewels of England, so the story goes.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
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First off, what is a Yogo Sapphire? Cleverly named Yogo after the Yogo Gultch where they are primarily found, the gemstone is made from traces of iron and titanium. The Yogo Sapphire was first discovered during gold mining in 1878 but was kind of shrugged off, as most people were more excited about the gold. Finally, in 1894, they realized, "oh these blue pebbles are actually sapphires!"

By Montanabw - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18013727
By Montanabw - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18013727
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Since their discovery in 1894, the Yogo has been worn by first ladies and is rumored to be in Princess Diana's engagement ring.

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Getty Images/WPA Pool / Pool
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In the 1980s, the company that was in charge of the Yogo Sapphire mining at the time marketed it as the only guaranteed "untreated" sapphire, making it even more desirable for the rich at the time.

To this day, they claim that there are 28 million carats of Yogo Sapphires still in the ground at the Yogo Gulch. Now if this is true...there just may be some digging in my future. How cool would it be to find one?!?

Even though major mines are currently inactive, general hobby miners are still looking for this Montana rarity daily.

cc: Wikipedia

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