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A Field Guide to Southwest Jewelry · by Mateo James

Blue Gem Turquoise: Field Guide to Battle Mountain's Blue-Green Classic

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Blue Gem turquoise comes from claims about six miles south of Battle Mountain in Nevada's Bullion District, in Lander County. The mine became famous for stones that mix blue and green in a single cabochon, and it produced some of the largest quantities of turquoise in all of Nevada from the early twentieth century until the early 1980s.

Mateo's Field Notes

The site was worked long before any claim was filed — the Lowrys record it as a prehistoric mining area — and in the modern era the ground sits inside an open-pit copper and gold operation. What made Blue Gem matter to the jewelry trade was timing and volume: it was, per Lowry, "a great influence during the infancy of the Indian jewelry industry in the mid-twentieth century," and it kept producing into the early 1980s. Rough from these claims went out to lapidaries who cut hundreds of thousands of cabochons, and a striking share of first-half-of-the-century jewelry carries Blue Gem stones cut into perfect ovals, rounds, and squares. (LOWRY ~lines 11679–11707)

The ownership roll reads like a who's-who of Nevada turquoise: Lee Hand, Doc Wilson, and Lem Edgar all held these claims, with the Elquist family the last-known miners. The workings have carried the names The Contention, Pedro Lode, Turquoise Tunnel, and Battle Mountain. Doc Wilson worked Blue Gem alongside Number Eight and Lone Mountain — the same handful of miners moved between the mines that became the American classics. (LOWRY ~lines 6693–6707, 11701–11707)

You see Blue Gem constantly once you know to look for it in period photographs. Rosnek and Stacey caption a circa-1935 Navajo bracelet whose "gradations in the color of the stone are typical of turquoise from the Blue Gem mine," an entire selection of early-1930s Zuni channelwork where "the turquoise is all Blue Gem," and a 1930s squash-blossom necklace with unusual "pine cone" blossoms set with Blue Gem stone. Dubin likewise documents 1930s squash-blossom pendants in silver and Blue Gem turquoise. This was the working stone of the pre-war bench. (ROSNEK ~lines 11700–11704, 31399–31410, 25359–25362; DUBIN-NAIJ ~lines 26811–26816)

Collector's Handbook: How to Recognize Blue Gem Turquoise

  • Color tells: Blue Gem and Royston are the two Nevada mines Lowry singles out as "famous for their turquoise's mixture of blue and green colors" — often both in one stone. (LOWRY ~lines 11607–11613)
  • Cut tells: Early- to mid-twentieth-century jewelry set with Blue Gem often carries stones cut into precise ovals, rounds, and squares — the signature of the commercial lapidaries who bought its rough by the ton. (LOWRY ~lines 11695–11701)
  • Where you'll meet it: Documented heavily in 1930s Zuni channelwork and Navajo work of the 1930s–1950s, including squash-blossom necklaces. (ROSNEK ~lines 31399–31410)
  • Mine status: Historic producer; documented production ran until the early 1980s, and Rosnek's 1976 note that "most of these mines... are not now in operation" already applied to the older workings. The ground today is a copper and gold open pit. (LOWRY ~lines 11681–11695; ROSNEK ~lines 37781–37785)
  • Name caution: The Easter Blue mine in Nye County "has also been called Blue Mountain and Blue Gem" in the trade — when provenance matters, ask which Blue Gem, and get the mine source in writing. (LOWRY ~lines 12536–12548)

References

  • Lowry, Joe Dan, and Joe P. Lowry. Turquoise: The World Story of a Fascinating Gemstone. Gibbs Smith, 2010. ~lines 6693–6707, 11607–11613, 11679–11707, 12536–12548.
  • Rosnek, Carl, and Joseph Stacey. Skystone and Silver: The Collector's Book of Southwest Indian Jewelry. Prentice-Hall, 1976. ~lines 11700–11704, 25359–25362, 31399–31410, 37781–37785.
  • Dubin, Lois Sherr. North American Indian Jewelry and Adornment. Harry N. Abrams, 1999. ~lines 26811–26816.

Related Entries

Doc Wilson's other mines: Number Eight and Lone Mountain. For the blue-green color family, compare Royston turquoise. Color context: how turquoise is graded.

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