Pilot Mountain turquoise comes from a cluster of deposits along the southern end of the Pilot Mountain Range in Mineral County, Nevada, east of the town of Mina. First mentioned in the late 1800s, the district's several deposits are sold under the general name Pilot Mountain, and its claims remain active under multiple owners.
"Pilot Mountain" is really a district, not a single hole in the ground. The Lowrys describe deposits first mentioned in the late 1800s about thirty miles east of Mina, along the southern end of the Pilot Mountain Range — a vast range of hills with several deposit locations. The best-known areas were originally called Moqui-Aztec and S. Simmons, and the claims are currently active and owned by multiple people. (LOWRY ~lines 12701–12722)
The neighboring Montezuma workings show how the naming works in practice: also known as Troy Springs, that area was worked in 1905 by William Miller, sold to the German-American Turquoise Company, and later worked by the Western Gem Company — its deposits sit about fourteen miles southeast of Mina at the southern end of the Pilot Mountains, and "there are several turquoise deposits in the area that are sold under the general name Pilot Mountain." One label, many digs. (LOWRY ~lines 12615–12627)
The stone's reputation on the bench is old and good. Rosnek and Stacey, writing in 1976: "Some of the best turquoise in the Southwest today comes from Pilot Mountain, Nevada — the same geological formation which has produced some of the other fine Nevada stones such as Lone Mountain and Battle Mountain." Ted Johnson, one of the Nevada turquoise men the Lowrys profile, owned and worked Pilot Mountain along with Number Eight — the same small circle of miners, again, behind the classic names. (ROSNEK ~lines 42238–42245; LOWRY ~lines 6713–6721)
Same formation, bigger name: Lone Mountain. Ted Johnson's other mine: Number Eight. District-name economics: Royston.
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