The “Utopia” gold mine is a hand tools only operation located on unpatented claims somewhere in the State of Montana.  The gold is contained in glacially deposited placer gravels, somewhat reshaped by meltwater and occasional runoff from frog stranglers.   These shots were taken at the top of the digs in 2009  and 2010.   Our excavations extend approximately 600 feet down the drainage from this point.

     The right image shows a rock discard pile with a view, which the Forest service said is too large and should be leveled.  When I suggested that the purple peckered ewok (a previously unknown insectivorous avian variety) was nesting in the pile, they decided to let it remain because if anybody ever saw one it would become an endangered species.

    The mine produces mainly coarse gold:  bright flakes and nuggets, with the largest found so far weighing more than 1.5 ounces.  A 1.3 ounce nugget was found in September, 2011 by Gloria Edden.   The photos on the left show "mine run", and the nugget on the right weighs about 16 pennyweights (.8 ounce). 

     The deposit was discovered around 1980, and we have been conducting a “hand tools only” operation seasonally (summerly) ever since.  Presently, there are three partners, L to R:  Amos Knapstad, Dave Edden,  and Yours Truly.  Here are some brief biographical remarks and a little about how we came together.

     I was one of several original owners, and eventually acquired 100% of the mine which is now shared with my two new partners Amos and Dave.   My day job was community college math instructor (first in Brooklyn, New York and now in the suburbs of Houston, Texas), and I used the summers to escape to Montana and dig off my frustrations.  I retired on May 31, 2015, and may devote more time to developing this passion into a real money-making venture or give it to the GPAA. 

On the left Dave and I are looking for sapphires at the Gem Mountain sapphire mine, and relaxing with a friend in his back yard. 

  One morning I was washing buckets of dirt in a stream below the mine.   I had hit a rich pocket, and was picking nuggets out of a micro-sluice every few seconds – about three ounces of them were in a stainless bowl next to me when I was approached by a somewhat irked redneck.  “You are fouling up my coffee water – don’t you know there is a cabin down below?”  I replied, “No.  Look in the bowl.  Want to join me?”  The Eddens and I have been friends ever since.  That's Dave and his wife Gloria on the right  She is saying: "Dang!  That one's bigger than mine!"

     Dave Edden is an experienced hard rock miner who was forced to retire when the mine he was working in was closed by its corporate owner.  Gloria and their son James also work with us. 

  I have collected corundum specimens (rubies and sapphires) for many years, and one of the World’s legendary sapphire deposits (“Yogo Gulch”) is located in central Montana.  In the 1980's I had the chance to visit the site and meet Amos Knapstad, a “Sapphire Villager” who had digging rights on the mineralization.  That acquaintance grew into an alliance for rock and fossil hunting, and now gold mining.

     Amos not only hunts gems and fossils (left:  in the Green River shales, Wyoming) but he is also an expert faceter.   My wife’s engagement ring contains a clean (VSI?)  nearly 4 carat pale green round brilliant Missouri River sapphire he found and cut.   From his pictures, it is not hard to see why he has been a “shopping mall Santa” on more than one occasion.

Here is how we looked in August, 2012.  Left to right: Amos, Gloria and Dave, son James, and my hirsute alter ego.  Note the bird in the herb garden - a good example of what local people do during the long, cold Montana winters.

   In the past, our operation has been “hand tools only”.  We dig dirt, screen out the larger rocks, and transport buckets of screenings to a wash site, usually the Eddens’ back yard.   There is no water where the gold is mined, and that is probably why it is still there.

     The truth is this is hard work, and breaks and comic interludes are a necessary part of the daily routine.  We do it for the love of the game, and when the gold pays for the beans and the beer it's a great season!

     The final separation is done in a gold pan.  My collar is up because the state bird of Montana is the mosquito.  At the mine, the oversize gravels, bedrock traps, and sidehills are “shot” with a metal detector.  Most of the large nuggets are found in this manner.  From her expression, I think Gloria found a small one.

     Our friends Jim and Debby Nelson seem to be thinking:  "Where's the beef?"  When you want your steaks well done, you have to wait!

Nobody can accuse us of being extravagant or wasteful.   I did actually eat that entire 4 pound steak after a hard day's work.  Our accomodations in town are pristine, the campsite has few amenities, and we do have some interesting challenges every now and then.  The bear picture was taken by Gloria in her back yard.  I took the snow shot in Elliston, eight miles to the east, in the month of August!    

     Security in the winter is provided by several feet of snow.  During the mining season we employ local sentries (ground squirrels and chipmunks, left).  Compared to our dreams of golden riches, their wages are peanuts (right)!!