Fox turquoise comes from the old Cortez claims in Lander County, Nevada — a prehistoric mining site that Dowell Ward purchased in 1941 and renamed the Fox Mine. Marketed under the names Fox, Green Tree, White Horse, and Smith depending on each area's color, it became one of Nevada's largest-producing turquoise mines and is counted an American Classic.
The ground was worked long before the claim books: the Lowrys record this as a prehistoric site originally worked by Native Americans. In the modern era, George Schmidtlein was the first individual credited with working it, management passed through Ed Smith and later his son Charles, and in 1941 Dowell Ward purchased the Cortez claims and gave the mine the name it carries today. (LOWRY ~lines 12010–12029)
Ward was, in the Lowrys' words, "a very colorful man who advertised and marketed his claims under the names of Fox, Greentree, Whitehorse, and Smiths, depending on the colors that each area of the mine produced." That marketing instinct is half the story of American turquoise: one deposit, four trade names, each tied to a color range. It worked — the mine became "one of Nevada's largest-producing turquoise areas," and "today, the Fox Mine is an American Classic." (LOWRY ~lines 11997–12029)
Fox stone shows up in documented masterwork, too. In Dubin's account of the Yazzie family, rings by Bessie Yazzie from about 1975 are set with Fox turquoise — bench-level evidence that the mine's production was in the hands of Navajo smiths through the boom years. (DUBIN-GW ~lines 4266–4275)
For the marketing-name pattern across Nevada, compare Blue Gem and Stormy Mountain. Bessie Yazzie's teacher and family story runs through Lone Mountain. Grading context: turquoise color and grading.
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