Digging for Garnets

The WINs next moved on to Moscow, Idaho, pronounced Moscoe, not Moscow. Like all the towns we've been in, they have a nice Farmers Market.

One day, Patricia and I went to see Artisans at the Dahmen Barn, because I heard they had rusty stuff. Wow!

Steve Dahmen spent more than 30 years building the wheel fence, using over 1,000 wheels.

Patricia was more interested in the art studios inside the barn, but I just loved the wheels.

Can't you tell?

Later that day, the group went on a tour of the McConnell Mansion in town. It was built in 1886 by William McConnell, who would later serve as Idaho's Governor.

It wasn't big enough to be considered a mansion in my opinion, but it was nicely furnished.

But by far, my favorite outing was our trip to Emerald Creek Garnet Area. Peggy drove, and wanted to go the back way, which was shorter, but through forest roads. Whoops! When we got half way there, we found the road closed! Uh-oh...

Fortunately, I had my GPS along, and found a long way around it. We took another side trip to Bald Mountain Lookout.

The view from the top.

Finally, we made it! The Garnet Area is run by the Forest Service, where for $10 you can collect all the garnets you can find. These are Star Garnets, only found here and in India!

But it's a lot of work! First, you have to shake your dirt/rocks in a VERY heavy sieve, to try to get rid of most of the dirt.

Then, you take the remains over to the sluice, which washes the rest of the dirt away. Then you look for the garnet stones that look like the ones they showed you when you got there.

Peggy found a REALLY big one. But it costs $200 to get it out to see whether it's really worth anything. She's still thinking about it.

I found some little ones, but nothing even close to this.

On the way home, I decided to look for moose, and right away, I saw one. WOW! Everyone thought I was lying, but Peggy made a U-turn and we got some pictures.

It was a great day! I highly recommend it if you are in the area. There is an easier way to get to the Garnet Area from the east, which is the way we went home.