The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-09-04

Spanish crown were taken.
The turquoise has been brought here to
be cut into Jewels and to be forwarded to
New York. The turquoise is worth from
So to SIS carat in the rock, but great
deal of the turquoise is not tit for cutting.
This is the only genuine turquoise mine,
so it is stated, In this country, the only
other one in the world being IN Persia.
Three buttes rise near the site OF the ia
nous mine, the approximate height above
the sea being 800 feet.
The beautiful turquoise is attracting a
good deal of attention. One of the own
ers said in regard to it and the mine:
This mine was discovered in the early
| part of the sixteenth century, and worked
by the Spaniards, who then controlled
New Mexico, as part OF the republic OF
| Old Mexico.
underlying the three little hills, cover
ing an area of about $50 acres, this valu-
| able sky-blue gem is found in narrow
seams of white tale, between porphyry on
one side and iron and copper stained rock
on the other. In the primitive days that
| the SpaniardS worked this mine they built
brush fires against the hard walls, which
when cooling would crack and crumble,
when the squaws and bucks of the Pueblo
| tribe of Indians, who were used as slaves
in those days, would carry off The waste
in rawhide buckets strapped to their
| shoulders, climbing from an excavation
|
of the body OF small pinyon trees with the
short branches left to serve for steps. Prob
| ably the largest excavation of this sort
! ever made IS on the south slope of the
| Castillian Turquoise hills. Some tins in
the seventeenth century, tradition informs
US. these Indians gophered so far
under one OF these buttes, without TIM
bering their aperture as is done in mod
ern mining, that the side of one of the
hills slid in and caught seventy-fve to
hundred of the Pueblo slave miners, skele-
| tons of which are occasionally found to
] this day as proof that a number persisted
in this way.
| Zone gem taken from this mine was
found SO large, of so perfect a. cerulean
and without a single flaw, of an excep-
| tional degree of hardness, that it was
placed in the Spanish crown, and is said
| to be the finest jewel OF its kind ever found
in any turquoise mine.
'tSince the disaster in which so many
Indian slaves persisted 1t has been i'm
possible to induce any OF the Southwest
ern tribes to go under ground in any kind
| of mine, but they all for some reason
reverence the stone. They cali it 'Chachi-
ouita' (chah-chee-we-tah), and will trade
| anything they have, even to their squaws,
for this most precious of all stones to them,
as the tradition has been carefully handed
down to the present generation. for
which there is some good proof for its
foundation.
1.-The easiest and most profitable trades
the white men can make with the Pueblos,
| Navalos or Mescalero Apaches for their
fine blankets, ponies and hammered silver
| is with the refuse, off color and dawed
| turquoise that has no intrinsic value in
the Jewel market. These Indian blankets
command value of from So to 500 each,
according to size and fineness.
I'm the 800 years that this famous mine
| has been worked manV millions have heaO
| spent in its development.
"Some years ago Tiffany & Co. undertook
the operation of sinking large and deep
| working shaft, but spent more than they
took out. Then others have followed the
old workings, sometimes successfully but
more often to a loss. For years Tiffany &
Co. have controlled the output of the gem
| stones, which are rare and costly.
! MANY people have the impression that
this peculiar stone changes color from sky
blue to a green when exposed to light
and water. The true gems are found only
| in g narrow seam of the rocks in white
| tale, where they are formed by lime, of
! which turquoise is chiefly composed,
colored by copper and hardened by water.
Even large percentage of these are often
too green to be valuable or are hawed.
Sometimes from fifty pounds OF stones it
| is impossible to get even one fine gem.
Those stones that change color may be of
the right hue when mined and without a
flaw, but when subjected to use turn green
ish. This class of turquoise comes from
the hard rock away from the tale or lime
seam and is valueless except for trading
to Indians.
Few people know real gem turquoise,
not even the jewellers who mount them.
The correct color is that delicate tint of
sky blue that often appears on the horizon
at sunset, and free from streaks or
flaws. Turquoise mining is expensive
and very uncertain. The gem stones are
rare and expensive, but wear forever if
properly selected and cut. There are very
few expert judges OF this jewel and very
few lapidaries who understand cutting
and polishing them. George F. Kuntz OF
Tiffany g. Co. in New York is possibly the
best authority on this stone in America.
Recently the present owners opened an
exceptionally large strata of turquoise in
one of the old workings and have sent
few pounds of the stone in the rough to
Sam Sonepfeld, a lapidary of this City, to
put on exhibition and cut into jewel shape
at his booth at the Mechanics Fair, after