Hachita turquoise comes from the Little Hatchet Mountains of southwestern New Mexico, about seven miles from the town of Old Hachita in the Eureka Mining District. Worked in prehistory and rediscovered by prospectors in the late 1880s, the district's hillsides — especially Turquoise Mountain and Howell's Ridge — are still being mined today.
Hachita is Spanish for "little hatchet," and the mines sit in the Little Hatchet Mountains about eighty miles south of Silver City, in what is now Hidalgo and Grant counties. The Spanish had reported old turquoise diggings here, but the area stayed sparsely worked — this was Apache land, and, as Chambless and Ryan note, the Apache response to those who didn't respect that was fierce. The Eureka Mining District was established in 1877, and in the latter 1880s Con Ryan and Sterling Burwell reopened ancient workings they believed to be "precious Aztec or Spanish metal mines." As at Cerrillos and the Burro Mountains, the first claims followed the prehistoric miners' lead. (CHAMBLESS ~lines 5400–5470)
The boom here was brief and honest about itself. W.E. Hidden — who stopped for several weeks in 1892 to open the prehistoric diggings — concluded: "The isolation of the place, the scarcity of water, and the [scarcity] of fine turquoise prompted me to cease work there altogether." A federal report still allowed "that stones to the value of $20,000 have been extracted." The American Turquoise Company bought in, and J.G. Doty wrote his wife from Hachita in January 1896: "I never expected to find as good stone here as we get at Cerrillos, but I do think I shall be able to get, and very soon, a large quantity of stone that will be market[able]." Even H.H. Topakyan, the New York rug merchant and representative of the Shah of Iran, held the Persian, Kevorkian, and Topakyan claims nearby. By 1897 it was clear the quantity and quality wouldn't warrant serious investment — the nearest rail line was over forty miles away. (CHAMBLESS ~lines 5550–5745)
The Lowrys pick the story up on the ground: three main hillsides have produced turquoise, with the most production from Turquoise Mountain and Howell's Ridge (Gunsight Ridge). Azure, Cameo, Aztec, Robinson-Porterfield, and High Lonesome are among the names used to market the area's stone, and the largest production came when the Himalaya Mining Company controlled the claims. Today the High Lonesome and Gunsight Ridge areas are actively mined — Philip Chambless himself, with John Huntress and partners, mines along Gunsight Ridge. (LOWRY ~lines 13120–13156)
The New Mexico rush ran through Cerrillos and the Burro Mountains and Tyrone. Hidden's next stop after Hachita was the Jarilla Mountains.
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