Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1898-03-03

Worked by Indians Long Before the ART
val OF Columbus.
1t was announced not long since in
dispatches from Santa Fe. N. NJ. that
two large shipments of turquoise had
been made from that place. The ag-
gregate weight and reported value Of
the gems were very large, and 1t was
intimated that they came from locali-
ty In Southern Arizona never before
exploited. AS the American gem has
driven the Persian stone from the mar
ket by its equal II not superior quality,
and as the demand for turquoise is linn
tied, the alleged discovery, If true,
might exercise an important influence
on the price of these gems.
George F. Kunz, of Tiffany & Co.. the
leading gem expert Of the United
States, was asked about the quality of
American turquoise and the possibility
Of marked fall in price from large
shipments on account of recent discov-
cries. THE American gen." he said,
lis quite equal to the best stones i'm
ported from Persia. and in the opinion
of many buyers is superior. In color
ly these examples which come from
Grant County, which may be the locali-
ty referred to in the dispatches. These
stones are sold along side of and at the
same price as the imported turquoise
1t is significant however, that al
though discoveries have been several
times reported, no large amount of tur-
quoise has yet reached the large buy
ing houses in New York and Chicago,
where the gems would naturally be
sent in the ordinary course of business.
Heretofore the bulk of the supply has
come from the mines at Los Cerrillos,
on the Rio Grande, above Albuquerque,
N. M"
The mines at Los Cerrillos, referred
to by Mr. Kunz, have been worked con-
tinuously for several centuries, but the
output is small, and no method has yet
been devised to operate them on COM
mercial basis, although at least one at
tempt has been made. Los Cerrillos
is about twenty-five miles southeast of
Santa Fe, N. NJ, and near the Indian
village of Santo Domingo, on the Rio
Grande. The mine is an immense pit,
with rough and craggy sides, with
scanty growth of pines in the assures
of the rock. The excavation, which is
200 feet in depth and more than 300
in width, has been made in the solid
rock, thousands of tons of which have
been broken out. There are several
other pits in the vicinity of smaller
size. The rock is of volcanic origin
and is distinguished by it's white color
and decomposed appearance, from
those which compose the surrounding
mountain ranges. In appearance it
closely resembles tufa and kaolins or
potters' clay, and has suffered extern
sive alteration, probably on account of
the escape through it of heated vapors
and gases, which have completely de-
composed the original material and
formed new chemical compounds.
The most conspicuous and important
of these is the turquoise, which is
found in little veins and balls, called
nuggets, covered with a crust of white
tufa. All but a small percentage of
the turquoise is greenish in color, Of
ten intimately mixed with the matrix,
or surrounding rock and of no value
whatever to the jeweler. 1t is only
now and then that piece of sufficient
size to cut and of a fine blue color is
found. Blue-green stains are seen in
every direction about the mine, but
turquoise in mass is extremely rare
and many tons of rock might be brok-
en- up without yielding a single gem of
value. 1t is on this account that no
one has yet succeeded in making the
mine pay even the expense of operat-
ing it, although thousands Of dollars
we're sunk in the experiment in 1880.
At present the mines are worked in
a desultory manner by poor white men
in the neighborhood and by Indians.
The method is to build large fires
against the base of the rock, which
cracks off in large pieces when water
is thrown upon it. Much Of the tur-
quoise is ruined in the process, as the
gem will not stand great heat. What
is picked out of the seams
with sharp pointed pieces of iron and
sold to passing travellers on the rail
road, who often pay the Indian ped
dlers five times as much for a stone as
a jeweler would ask them for better
one.
The turquoise is distinctively the
American gem. The Navajo and Pue-
bio Indians of New Mexico and Arizona
value it as highly now as their ances-