Turquoise!
Its distinctive blue color is a symbol of the Southwestern sky, yet Turquoise is found throughout the world in a range of colors and degrees of quality. Turquoise has been prized by ancient queens of Egypt and modern rock stars alike. Even Egypt’s King Tut’s fabulous burial mask included beautiful blue turquoise, its brilliant color unchanged over time.
Turquoise has been mined as early as 6000 BC, and has always had a magical aura about it. Early peoples of North and South America prized it, and prehistoric Native Americans mined it to use in ornaments. For Pueblo Indians and those in the Navajo Nation in New Mexico and Arizona, turquoise is a sacred stone, symbolizing the life-giving and healing powers of the Creator. The ancient Aztec people made death skulls intricately inlaid with hand-cut stones of Turquoise to serve as offerings to Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec serpent god. Turquoise was also worn by Europeans in the Dark Ages in the belief it would save them from falling from horseback.
Healing Properties
People throughout history have associated Turquoise with curative powers. It is known as the ‘master healer’, and emanates a purifying energy that is believed to dissipate negativity. Native Americans believed that Turquoise on a bow could make the arrow hit its mark every time.
Natural healers also believe that Turquoise serves to strengthen and align the body, improving our ability to communicate about emotions, improve our creativity and intuition. Turquoise improves meditation and enhances peace of mind. It has also been known to guide one through the unknown, protecting while promoting independent action.
From Persia to the Southwest
Turquoise got its name from the French word for “stone of Turkey.” Turkey was not only a source for the gemstone, but also part of the trade route that brought turquoise to Western Europe. For thousands of years, the finest and most intensely colored blue turquoise was found in Persia (Iran) (see photo), and “Persian Turquoise” was used to signify the very finest quality of the stone. However, as miners accidentally uncovered lodes of turquoise in the Southwest, they found that Southwestern Turquoise of quality that was just as fine as the Persian stones. Today, the highest quality turquoise is found in the Southwestern U.S., which is also the world’s largest producer of turquoise.
Turquoise is a mineral
Turquoise is composed of aluminum, copper, phosphorus, hydrogen, and oxygen. As a hydrated copper aluminum phosphate mineral, it is a good example of a typical phosphate because it is often vividly colored, but only average in hardness. On the Mohs’ Scale of Hardness Turquoise is a 5 to 6, with 1 being soft like talc and 10, the hardest, like diamond.
Turquoise is formed by percolation, or from deposits from water flowing down through openings in rocks. Thus, it is easy to see why it’s common to find a layer of Turquoise running along as veins or seams through rock (see photo).Sometimes, after an area is blasted, as in copper or other types of min ing, nuggets of Turquoise can be picked up by hand. It is very often found as a secondary mineral with copper, and most often in arid or semi-arid places, such as the desert Southwest or the deserts of the Middle East. It is also found in China and in Tibet, as well as countries such as Germany and Belgium.
Turquoise as Jewelry
Native American style Turquoise and silver jewelry, with Turquoise mounted in or near silver is actually relatively new. Some believe the “Southwestern-style” Turquoise jewelry was first made only around 1880, when a white trader urged a Navajo craftsman to make Turquoise and silver jewelry using silver coins. In the 1880s, miners 
uncovered large deposits of high-quality copper in Southwestern states, including New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. Because Turquoise is often found with copper, it is easy to see why copper mines in Morenci and Bisbee, Arizona, would one day produce Turquoise as well (see photos of the distinctive dark blue Bisbee and Morenci Turquoise).
New Mexico Turquoise: Mining 2000 Years Ago
The earliest known Turquoise mine in North America is the Cerrillos turquoise mine, about 15 miles south of Santa Fe, NM. Mining at the Cerrillos site actually began at least 2000 years ago, when Native American pueblo Indians used antlers and stones to dig up nuggets of turquoise. Today, visitors can take “The Turquoise Trail” to the Cerrillos Turquoise Mining Museum in Cerrillos, NM, where you can see tools, equipment, objects, and artifacts used in daily life during the mining era of Los Cerrillos. (Cerrillos in Spanish means hillocks, or small hills).
Until the 1920s, New Mexico was the largest producer of Turquoise in the U.S. However, today Arizona and Nevada have surpassed this and produce much more turquoise than does New Mexico. Today the once-famous New Mexico Turquoise mines in Cerrillos, the Burro Mountains, and Guadalupe Mountains, to name only a few, are largely economically depleted. The color of these stones ranged from sky blue to light to dark green, greenish-blue, pale blue, and fine sky blue.
Nevada Turquoise
Since the 1930s, Nevada has been a major Turquoise producer and until the early 1980s, the state was the leading producer of 
Turquoise in the U.S. Over the years, 75 to 100 different mines throughout Nevada produced large and small quantities of turquoise. Total production to date of rough turquoise in Nevada is estimated to be from $40 to $50 million.
Nevada Turquoise comes in a wide range of colors, from blue, blue-green, greenish-blue, greenish-yellow, and brilliant light or pale green, as in the Carico Lake mines.The mines often are named after the turquoise itself, so you’ll hear about Blue Creek, Blue Gem, Blue Jay, Blue Ice, Blue Warrior, Blue Moon, and Blue Thunder, for example. The Turquoise might appear as thin seams in rock or can be huge nodules—some have been as large as 150 lb. Nevada turquoise can be soft and porous or rock-hard material that can be polished to a brilliant shine.
Arizona Turquoise
Arizona has a number of mines, and in Arizona Turquoise ranks number one in terms of value forproduction and is also the state’sbest-known gemstone. Arizona also has some very large copper mines and since turquoise oftenoccurs with copper, turquoise is usually mined as a byproduct from these mines, usually by outside companies. Although the copper mines are usually worked with very large and extensive equipment, turquoise is extracted carefully using hand methods.
The world’s largest source of natural turquoise is found at the Sleeping Beauty Mountain Mine, near Globe, AZ. (See “Types of Turquoise”). The mine is named for its distinctive mountain, which looks like a sleeping woman. Sleeping Beauty Turquoise occurs without a matrix, that is, without veining with other minerals, and is especially noted for its brilliant blues, particularly its robins-egg or sky-blue stones.
Taking Care of Your Turquoise
The biggest hazards to turquoise are scratches, sharp blows, hot water, and household chemicals. Because it is a relatively soft stone formed with water, extreme exposure to water or light can change its color. Its relative softness compared to other gemstones can also make it susceptible to scratches. The pores of the stone will easily absorb body oils and other oils, which can cause it to yellow over time. Do not use an ultrasonic cleaner on your turquoise and avoid chlorine as well.
Carico Lake Turquoise
Carico Lake Turquoise is named after the location of its mines on an isolated dried-up lake bed in a high, cool area of Lander County, Nevada. Carico Lake Turquoise is famous for its clear spring-green color (see photos, below), which is due to the high content of zinc in the stones. Carico Lake stones are highly prized. Carico Lake Turquoise is also found in a dark blue-green color with a black or brown spider web matrix. The mine also produces rare pseudomorph clams. These are sometimes called “fossil turquoise,” but they are fossilized clams with their minerals replaced by the minerals that make Turquoise. As you can imagine, these fossils (see photo) are extremely rare.