Dave and I went to Philipsburg on Sunday Sept 5th (Labor Day Weekend). We had planned to go thru Philipsburg just stopping to have lunch and then continue on to the Gem Mountain Mine (SW of Philipsburg)
But, we never got out to the mine. We were so surprised by Philipsburg that we spent most of the day there.
Philipsburg, MT reminds me of what Park City was the first time I saw it back in the early 80's before they ruined it.
These dead trees were in someones yard in Hall, MT. Just south of Drummond, MT
They seem kinda creepy.
Dave and I ate at Doe's Cafe in Philipsburg, MT
It was an old Hotel and restaraunt before it was Doe's Cafe.
They made great malts and shakes from hard ice cream.
They have a sign that says they are the largest distributor of Wilcoxsons Ice Cream from Montana.
I had never heard of Wilcoxsons, but it was good!
Across the street is the Candy Palace. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but when I took a peek inside it was pretty impressive. I asked one of the clerks what this building had been before it was a candy store and found out that prior to the early 60's it was a hardware store. The second story walkway was added after it became the Candy Palace.
The Candy Palace had every kind of penny candy you ever had, could think of or never had.
I found some penny candy called "Squirrel Nut Zippers" Of course I had to try them. Because "What the hell could they be" Well, I think Dave best described them as "Bit O Honey" but not as good.
There was any flavor of taffy that you could think of and then some. The entire wall seen below was bins of taffy. They had hand dipped chocolates too. I had to get a sample. Of course...
At the end of Main St. is a shop with these saw buddies
I think this is supposed to be Smokey...
Sasquatch
This is looking up Main street
Dave and I didn't get to the mine, but we found another gem store that had a backroom where you could buy a bag of dirt and look for Saphires.
This guy sold us the bag and then washed it
and sifted it to position the Saphires on top.
Apparently the saphires are heavier than the rest of the dirt.
So after he shakes the screen, he flips it upside down on the table.
Sure enough, there they were, raw saphires.
We even found a couple of garnets too. Really tiny ones.
After we picked out all the saphires, we had them weighed.
We had about 7.68 carrats of saphires.
We could pay to get them heat treated to increase their color and clarity
And we could pay to have them cut.
Really neat looking buildings
At first when I saw this building I thought it was a school. But no it was the Jail.
On the south side of Main st we found the old High School.
On the North side of the High School is a childrens park. They designed it to look like the buildings in town. I thought that was pretty cute.
When Dave and I were getting ready to leave we saw a road sign that said Granite Ghost Town 4 mi.
So we decided to go see it. On the way up we came across this part of the old tramway.
The road up to Granite Ghost town is narrow and winding. There are many places that are one vehicle at a time.
Here are some of the old buidlings that are still standing.
This building below is the old Miners Hall
Apparently the front of this building was all windows.
Pretty impressive for the time.
The stone building below was the bank
I was surprised at how many remnants of houses/buildings there were.
These tractors all lined up are located South of Drummond, MT. Kinda cute. It was a good weekend.
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