Bisbee Turquoise: Field Guide to a Top-Five Collectible
Bisbee Turquoise — A Stone Study
← Part of the T.Skies Turquoise Stone Study: turquoise mines
Real Bisbee turquoise, photographed in the T.Skies studio. Sky blue to deep teal stones with chocolate-brown, reddish and dark gray matrix. Tap any stone to see it up close.
Deep teal-blue Bisbee cabochons with dark gray and white matrix; the large stone shows layered blue-green tones
Light sky-blue Bisbee cabochons with a chocolate-brown web running through the pale blue
Bisbee stones with heavy chocolate-brown host rock framing patches of pale blue
Teal-blue Bisbee cabochons with mottled brown and reddish matrix
Bisbee cabochons from clear robin's-egg blue to stones with golden-brown and reddish matrix
Real Bisbee turquoise, photographed in the T.Skies studio. Shown for reference. © Turquoise Skies Inc.
Bisbee is the one mine in this guide that Lowry says “every collector in the world should be able to identify.”1 It is also the one where our two independent sources describe the stone differently — and that disagreement is more useful to you than either description alone.
More Bisbee turquoise examples
Real Bisbee turquoise from the T.Skies archive, photographed by us. Tap this stone to see it up close.
Where it comes from
“The now-iconic Bisbee turquoise came from open-pit copper mining operations in Bisbee, Arizona” — Cochise County — and specifically from the ‘Lavender Pit’ area, about 1,200 feet within the Cole Shaft.1
Schiffer, independently, also puts the best material at the Lavender Pit: the Bisbee mine “has been an important producer of dark blue turquoise… Here, the best quality comes from a section of a copper mine known as the Lavender Pit.”3 Two books, two authors, same pit and the same base colour. That is real corroboration.
Our two sources describe the matrix differently
This is worth slowing down on, because most pages state it flatly and only one of the two descriptions.
Lowry calls Bisbee “a classic for its unique smoky- and lavender-colored matrix and deep blue color,” and restates it later: the turquoise mined at Bisbee “is famous for its smoky- or lavender-colored matrix.”1 That is one book saying the same thing twice, which is not the same as two books agreeing.
Schiffer describes it as “dark blue turquoise with black or red veining.”3
Smoky-lavender and black-or-red are not the same description. We are not going to pick one for you. What both agree on is the deep blue base and the Lavender Pit as the source of the best material, and those are the two things you can rely on. Expect real Bisbee to vary more than a single-sentence identifier suggests.
The waste-dump story, corroborated twice
“Initially, in the late 1950s, the copper miners collected the uncovered turquoise deposits during their daily copper-mining duties or from along the waste dump, and then they sold it to turquoise dealers on the open market.”1
Chambless corroborates this from an entirely different direction — in his own preface, describing a colleague whose father had driven trucks taking turquoise-laden muck to the dumps at Bisbee.2 Two books, two unconnected accounts, same story. This one is safe to rely on.
“In the early 1970s, Bob Matthews acquired a contract with a copper mining company to exclusively collect and sell the turquoise.”1
On the tailings: Lowry writes that the large overburden from this production “is still located at dump-site #7,” and that “turquoise legend says” there is still much Bisbee turquoise within it.1 We reproduce that as legend because that is the word Lowry uses for it.
Bisbee also turns up in the jewellery record: Bedinger plates a cast bracelet set with Bisbee turquoise.4
Why it is collected, and why it is graded on its own scale
Lowry places Bisbee among “the top five collectible turquoises in the world,” and records that Americans list “Number Eight, Bisbee, Lander Blue, and Lone Mountain” as the best.1 The Indian Arts and Crafts Board brochure likewise names Bisbee among mines “highly regarded for the color, matrix, and history” of their turquoise5 — noting again that this is not an independent voice.
A practical consequence collectors miss: Bisbee has its own grading system. Lowry writes that it is important to develop knowledge of each classic mine because “Bisbee, Number Eight, Persian, and other famous mines each have their own grading system,” and that “a high grade Bisbee cabochon’s color and matrix are graded differently from a high-grade Number Eight cabochon.”1 A grade is not portable between mines.
And one line that tells you something real about how the market values provenance: “a stabilized Bisbee stone is more desirable than a stabilized Kingman stone of similar grade because the Bisbee Mine is more rare and famous.”1 Mine provenance survives treatment.
Current status
Our sources imply it has ended and never say when.
Lowry writes about Bisbee turquoise consistently in the past tense — it “came from” the open-pit operations, it “produced” its colour and matrix, and the overburden from that production “is still located” at the dump site.1 The tense implies production has ended. No source we hold states a closure date, and we are not going to infer one from grammar.
So the honest statement is the narrow one: the turquoise came from open-pit copper operations at Bisbee, our sources describe that production in the past tense, and they do not date its end.
As Lowry puts it, “which mines are active can change year to year depending on whether someone invests the money to reopen an old mine or discovers a new one.”1
From the Library: Branson, Turquoise: The Gem of the Centuries (1975)
1975 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1975, not today.
Writing in 1975, Branson described the top grades this way:
“The best grades are the deep, intense blue, with slight transparency and a dark reddish-black mottling or veining.”
— Branson (1975), p. 32 [6]
According to Branson (1975, p. 32), the matrix was the tell: an unusual type, very characteristic of Bisbee, that sometimes formed wisps or veils through the stone. [6]
According to Branson (1975, p. 32), most Bisbee was then too hard and compact to be treated or stabilized, but a quantity of treated Bisbee was already being sold in his day. [6]
From the Library: Chambless & Ryan, Turquoise in America, Part One (2021)
2021 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2021, not today.
Chambless & Ryan (2021) on how Bisbee stone first reached the market:
“The Lavender Pit open-pit copper mine started up in Bisbee in 1950, and soon turquoise from that area found its way to the market, not through active mining efforts but via the lunch pails of Phelps Dodge copper miners who surreptitiously picked up the stone they found in the waste overburden removed from the pit.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 186 [2]
As of 2021, Chambless & Ryan reported:
“The mines at Bisbee, Morenci, Castle Dome, and Sleeping Beauty are all closed, with little prospect of any turquoise ever again coming from those areas.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 187 [2]
From the Library: Lowry, Turquoise: The World Story of a Fascinating Gemstone (2010)
2010 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2010, not today.
According to Lowry (2010, p. 107), the Bisbee Mine was one of two mines with turquoise deposits documented deeper than the average mine, at over 1,000 feet. [1]
According to Lowry (2010, p. 224), turquoise mined at Bisbee is famous for its smoky- or lavender-colored matrix. [1] Lowry (2002, p. 45) also records the names "smoky Bisbee" and "lavender" for its matrix. [12]
According to Lowry (2010, p. 231), the Bisbee mine produced a unique high-grade colour and matrix pattern that every collector in the world should be able to identify as Bisbee turquoise. [1]
According to Lowry (2010, p. 232), Americans list several mines as the best, including Number Eight, Bisbee, Lander Blue and Lone Mountain. [1]
From the Library: Bahti, Silver + Stone: Profiles of American Indian Jewelers (2007)
2007 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2007, not today.
According to Bahti (2007, p. 175), Navajo silversmith Jack Tom credited the success of his early pieces, shown from 1974, to fine turquoise, naming really good Lone Mountain spiderweb and Bisbee as stones he said you no longer found as of 2007. [7]
From the Library: Schiffer, Turquoise Jewelry (2008)
2008 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2008, not today.
Schiffer (2008, p. 31) illustrated a Navajo bracelet set with what she called "Slagpile Bisbee" turquoise, circa 1965; on p. 30 she dated a bracelet with an oval, egg-shaped Bisbee stone to circa 1950s. [3]
From the Library: Turnbaugh, Indian Jewelry of the American Southwest (2007)
2007 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2007, not today.
Turnbaugh (2007, p. 77, caption) describes a contemporary bracelet signed "FP" that encircles a devil's claw seedpod:
“High-quality Bisbee turquoise and silver applique are combined to make this unusual piece.”
— Turnbaugh (2007), p. 77 [8]
From the Library: Bassman, The Beauty of Hopi Jewelry (1993)
1993 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1993, not today.
Bassman (1993, p. 11) pictured a cast bracelet from the 1970s by Preston Monongye set with four Bisbee turquoise stones. [9]
From the Library: Bassman, The Beauty of Navajo Jewelry (1997)
1997 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1997, not today.
Bassman (1997, p. 55) pictured an overlay and stamped textured silver belt buckle and bola tie set with Bisbee turquoise made by Lee A. Yazzie. [10]
From the Library: Ryan & Chambless, Turquoise in America Part Two: 1910–1990 (2020)
2020 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2020, not today.
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 55), a May 8, 1906 Bisbee Daily Review article, picked up by the Arizona Daily Star, reported George H. Marcher in Bisbee for the Pacific Gem Company of Los Angeles, negotiating with miners to buy malachite, azurite, peridot, turquoise and other stones in the rough. The authors call it perhaps the first reference to Bisbee turquoise, consistent with the Phelps Dodge policy of letting miners keep the "lunch box" turquoise they found while mining copper. [11]
Ryan & Chambless (2020) give the Lavender Pit's working life:
“The Lavender Pit, named after Harrison M. Lavender, general manager of Phelps Dodge, was in production from 1950 until 1974.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 160 [11]
On where Bisbee turquoise formed, Ryan & Chambless (2020) wrote:
“Bisbee turquoise, recognized for its distinctive blue color and matrix occurred only in one mineral formation, the Glance Conglomerate, which was closer to the surface and in one area of the pit.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 160 [11]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 160), almost all the turquoise found at Bisbee came out in the first two to three years of mining and went into the dumps, chiefly Dump Number 7, and at South Bisbee. [11]
Gene Waddell recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 165), that before Bob Matthews nobody held the turquoise rights at Bisbee; miners went over the dumps and brought out hundreds of pounds, and at one time his family's backyard in Globe held as much as a ton of mixed-grade Bisbee. [11]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 172), mining at the Copper Queen in Bisbee began in 1877, and by the time production ceased in the mid-1970s one of the largest open pits ever dug had been created, with over 2,000 miles of tunnels under the surrounding hills; after World War II, equipment able to move the huge overburden made open-pit mining pay, and there was turquoise in those overburden dumps. [11]
Ryan & Chambless (2020) rank high-grade Bisbee with the American classics:
“High-grade Bisbee, with Lone Mountain, dark-web Number 8, and Lander Blue, has long been the most desired and most expensive turquoise.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 172 [11]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 173), Phelps Dodge had let underground miners keep ancillary minerals, but open-pit benching made stopping heavy equipment to pick up turquoise a safety hazard, and as demand rose in the late 1960s and early 1970s, trespassing on the dumps to steal turquoise created security problems for the company. [11]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 173), Marr Matthews contacted Phelps Dodge and met Lavender Pit superintendent Henry Clark in December 1971; the lease she and Bob Matthews signed on February 2, 1972 let them mine turquoise in the waste dumps and in the pit itself, paying $5 per pound for the rough regardless of grade. [11]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 174), the Matthewses concentrated on high-grade, had it cut and made into jewelry in Durango, and sold it at their shop on the edge of the pit under the trademarked name Bisbee Blue; Cecil and Jo Ann Mickelson lived in Bisbee from 1974 to 1976 to help with the mining. [11]
Ryan & Chambless (2020) quote Bob Matthews in the Arizona Republic of March 3, 1978:
“The Bisbee Mine is about gone.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 174 [11]
Martin Davis recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 177), that Matthews's miners jackhammered the turquoise vein in the Glance Conglomerate wall below Lowell and took out the safety benches, damaging the road at the pit's edge; the pit was then condemned for further mining and Matthews was restricted to a hole in the Number 7 dump for his last years there. [11]
Martin Davis recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 176), that in 1982 he and Alan Lumbus dug a chalk pocket at the contact zone in the Lavender Pit and sold the material by the pound to Otis Flowers and Dale Osborn's stabilizing plant; he estimated that a couple thousand pounds of Bisbee from that one deposit was stabilized and put on the market in about 1984. [11]
Martin Davis recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 177), that more than a couple of tons of Bisbee chalk came out of one later hole, much of it with rusty iron-orange and dark to black chocolate-brown matrix, adding that people say no black matrix came out of Bisbee, but that is mostly what that hole produced. [11]
John Hartman recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 179), that Bob Matthews and Cecil Mickelson hauled the Bisbee rough to Durango, ran it through cement mixers, sorted it on Matthews's ranch, and sold rough and cut stones in Gallup and Albuquerque, to Navajo jewelers and to jewelers' suppliers. [11]
John Hartman recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 180), that he later bought the remainder of the Matthews and Mickelson Bisbee, over a thousand pounds, and that it was mostly low-grade scraps with perhaps three hundred pounds of high-grade. [11]
Richard Graeme, former Vice President and Chief Geologist of Phelps Dodge, wrote in an appendix to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 325) that Phelps Dodge and the other companies at Bisbee, from 1880 until the mines closed in 1975, let miners freely collect and take home the minerals they found underground, but that turquoise was excluded from that policy. [11]
Graeme, writing in the appendix to Ryan & Chambless (2020), dated the first find:
“The first turquoise found at Bisbee was between 1952 and 1953 with the stripping for the development of the Lavender Pit Mine.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 327 [11]
Richard Graeme, in an appendix to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 328), described the first material, from the deeply weathered conglomerate on the pit's east wall, as a pale blue, often powdery stone, and wrote that its quality improved markedly as the pit was deepened. [11]
Richard Graeme, in an appendix to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 326), explained why collecting in the Lavender Pit was so dangerous: the turquoise-bearing unit was weak and could collapse without notice. Shovel operators set buckets of turquoise aside to grab between trucks, truck drivers spread their loads on the dump to pick through them, and the company fired more than one person for illicit collecting. [11]
Richard Graeme, in an appendix to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 335), wrote that over the next twenty years many thousands of pounds of turquoise of variable quality were collected, most of it illicitly by the mine workers, and that most of it went to a growing lapidary market; few mineral specimens were saved because the lapidary value was generally higher than what collectors would pay. [11]
On the famous Number 7 dump, Richard Graeme, in an appendix to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 327), explained that it was built on top of the old Sacramento Pit dumps, with limestone and Glance Conglomerate stockpiled on its north side, and wrote that he would suspect some turquoise remains on its north-facing slope. [11]
Richard Graeme, in an appendix to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 332), called it a local myth that turquoise came from the neighbouring Sacramento Pit: turquoise-bearing Glance Conglomerate was used to backfill that pit, which gave the wrong impression. [11]
Graeme, in the appendix to Ryan & Chambless (2020), on where the stone was actually found:
“As continued mining showed, turquoise from the Lavender Pit was to be found only in the non-ore-bearing Glance Conglomerate on the east wall of the pit.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 334 [11]
Richard Graeme, in an appendix to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 334), wrote that in 1957 and 1958 only very modest amounts of turquoise were found while a sulfide orebody was mined on the 1200 level of the Cole Mine. He called it a mineralogical curiosity rather than a source of cutting material, and noted that variscite was found a couple of hundred feet away. [11]
Richard Graeme, in an appendix to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 331), gave his opinion that Bisbee turquoise formed late. On his account, supergene solutions carried the aluminum, copper and phosphorus from the oxidizing Sacramento stock complex down into the porous Glance Conglomerate after the Basin and Range tilting of about 17 million years ago, and much of that activity may be under a million years old. [11]
Richard Graeme, in an appendix to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 330), wrote that the Glance Conglomerate at Bisbee filled a deep canyon cut into the limestone, running from the surface down about 200 to 250 meters, almost seven hundred feet, and that the turquoise ran all the way through it. [11]
Describing a specimen with brown matrix, Graeme wrote in the appendix to Ryan & Chambless (2020):
“This is probably more similar to what you think of as Bisbee turquoise where you are starting to get the brown matrix”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 334 [11]
Richard Graeme, in an appendix to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 334), described the material most sought after as turquoise that replaced pebbles in the conglomerate, with abundant quartz both as inclusions and as a partial rim around the turquoise. [11]
Graeme recalled, in the appendix to Ryan & Chambless (2020), a specimen given to him in 1967 by Smithsonian curator Paul Desautels:
“He told me that the very best Bisbee is as good or equal to the very best from any place in the world.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 334 [11]
From the Library: Lowry, Turquoise Unearthed: An Illustrated Guide (2002)
2002 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2002, not today.
According to Lowry (2002, p. 6), most turquoise deposits lie no deeper than one hundred feet, but in modern open-pit copper mines such as the Lavender Pit at Bisbee, turquoise had been found as deep as two thousand feet. [12]
According to Lowry (2002, p. 45), Bisbee turquoise was a significant by-product of the huge Lavender Pit copper mine, which had closed by 2002. [12]
From the Library: Stacey, Turquoise Blue Book and Indian Jewelry Digest (1975)
1975 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1975, not today.
Nancy Hammack, writing in Stacey (1975, p. 6), counted Bisbee among the Arizona turquoise mines she believed the prehistoric Hohokam had access to, alongside Kingman. [13]
David L. Neumann, a Santa Fe dealer whose El Palacio article the 1975 Turquoise Blue Book reprinted, on the Bisbee turquoise of his day:
“In 1967, the major mine at Bisbee uncovered good turquoise. This material is characterized by deep intense purplish blue color with dark brown matrix.”
— Stacey (1975), p. 71 [13]
Neumann (reprinted in the 1975 Turquoise Blue Book) on who could collect it:
“Bob Matthews is the only man franchised by the mine to search the dump for turquoise-laden rocks.”
— Stacey (1975), p. 71 [13]
A 1975 caption on Bisbee at its best:
“When Bisbee blue is right, it will rival the best Persian for the quality known as the "Zat"”
— Stacey (1975), p. 71 [13]
Field Notes by Mateo James
The matrix disagreement in the second section is the most useful thing on this page and it is the thing most likely to be missing from any other page you read about Bisbee. If someone tells you flatly that Bisbee means smoky-lavender, or flatly that it means red veining, they have read one book. The deep blue and the Lavender Pit are what two books agree on; the matrix is where they diverge, and a real Bisbee stone is allowed to look like either account.
This page places the miners' first collecting in the late 1950s, while Chambless & Ryan say the Lavender Pit started in 1950 and that turquoise soon reached the market in the miners' lunch pails. The two accounts put the start of the trade several years apart. I tend to side with Chambless & Ryan.
I notice Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 55) point to a 1906 newspaper report of a Los Angeles gem buyer purchasing rough turquoise from Bisbee miners, which they call possibly the first reference to Bisbee turquoise. Elsewhere on this page the lunch-pail trade is dated to the Lavender Pit years after 1950. Our sources do not connect the two, so I have left both on the page.
This page said none of our books dates the end of production at Bisbee. Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 172) now do: copper production ceased in the mid-1970s. Their interviews also show turquoise coming out after that, with Bob Matthews telling the Arizona Republic in 1978 that it was about gone and Martin Davis recalling stabilized Bisbee chalk reaching the market around 1984. So the copper and the turquoise did not end on the same date, and I have kept both.
This page now has three start dates for the Bisbee turquoise trade. Lowry puts the miners' first collecting in the late 1950s. Part One (Chambless & Ryan, 2021) has the Lavender Pit starting up in 1950, with turquoise soon reaching the market. In the Part Two appendix, Richard Graeme, Phelps Dodge's former chief geologist, dates the first turquoise to 1952 and 1953, when the ground was being stripped for the pit. I tend to side with Ryan & Chambless, and Graeme's is the most specific of the three dates.
The opening of this page, following Lowry, puts Bisbee turquoise in the Lavender Pit area, about 1,200 feet within the Cole Shaft. Richard Graeme, who ran geology at Bisbee, keeps the two apart. He says the Lavender Pit's turquoise came only from the Glance Conglomerate on the pit's east wall, and that the Cole Mine's 1200 level produced only a very small amount, in 1957 and 1958. Those are not the same account. I tend to side with Ryan & Chambless.
The same authors give two depths for Bisbee's deepest turquoise: "as deep as two thousand feet" in the Lavender Pit in their 2002 guide (Lowry 2002, p. 6), and "over 1,000 feet" in their 2010 book. The two figures do not strictly contradict each other, but they are different numbers, so I show both.
How this page is sourced. Every factual claim above is drawn from the printed reference works listed below and is footnoted to the book it came from. Where our sources disagree we say so and do not pick a winner; where they are silent we say that too, rather than filling the gap. Nothing on this page comes from general web knowledge.
We strive for accuracy. This field guide entry is compiled from the published references cited below and is continuously updated with new information from the artists, their families, and the community. See something inaccurate, or hold documentation on this mine? Get in touch — corrections are welcomed and credited.
Back to the Southwest Jewelry Guide.
Sources
- Lowry, Joe Dan, and Joe P. Lowry. Turquoise: The World Story of a Fascinating Gemstone. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2010. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2010.
- Chambless, Philip, and Mike Ryan II. Turquoise in America, Part One: The Great American Turquoise Rush, 1890–1910. Revised first edition. Callais Press, 2021. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2021.
- Schiffer, Nancy N. Turquoise Jewelry. Revised 4th ed. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2008. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2008.
- Bedinger, Margery. Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers. First edition. Cited at the book level for a single plate caption recording a cast bracelet set with Bisbee turquoise — the only mention of any mine in this guide anywhere in that volume.
- U.S. Department of the Interior, Indian Arts and Crafts Board, consumer brochure on the Indian Arts and Crafts Act and turquoise (GPO document gpo58769). Independence note: this brochure states that the Board “collaborated with Mr. Joe Dan Lowry, of the Turquoise Museum” to produce its turquoise information. Joe Dan Lowry is the lead author of the Lowry volume above, so where the two agree that is one voice speaking twice and not independent corroboration.
- Branson, Oscar T. Turquoise: The Gem of the Centuries. Santa Fe: Treasure Chest Publications, 1975. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1975.
- Bahti, Mark. Silver + Stone: Profiles of American Indian Jewelers. Tucson: Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2007. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2007.
- Turnbaugh, William A., and Sarah Peabody Turnbaugh. Indian Jewelry of the American Southwest. Foreword by Barry M. Goldwater. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2007 (copyright 1996 and 2007; first published 1988). ISBN 0-7643-2577-9. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2007.
- Bassman, Theda. The Beauty of Hopi Jewelry. Photography by Gene Balzer. Walnut, California: Kiva Publishing, 1993. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1993.
- Bassman, Theda. The Beauty of Navajo Jewelry. Photography by Gene Balzer. Walnut, California: Kiva Publishing, 1997. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1997.
- Ryan, Mike, II, and Philip Chambless. Turquoise in America, Part Two: 1910–1990. Callais Press, 2020. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2020.
- Lowry, Joe Dan, and Joe P. Lowry. Turquoise Unearthed: An Illustrated Guide. Photography by Mark Nohl. Tucson, AZ: Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2002. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2002.
- Stacey, Joseph, ed. Turquoise Blue Book and Indian Jewelry Digest. Arizona Highways Collectors Series. Phoenix: Arizona Highways (Arizona Department of Transportation), 1975. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1975.
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