Blue Eagle Turquoise: Field Guide to Lander County's Legendary Mine
Part of the Turquoise Mines field guides and The Southwest Jewelry Guide.
Mike Ryan II and Philip Chambless’s 2020 history examines the Blue Eagle, a mine near Tenabo in Lander County, Nevada, with a large reputation and almost no stone anyone can point to. Every statement below is quoted or paraphrased from their book, with page numbers, so you can check each one. Their book was published in 2020; anything described as current describes 2020.
The legend
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 122), Frank Morrissey's 1953 account said the Blue Eagle, near Tenabo in Lander County, produced turquoise worth about $500,000 from five glory holes. [1]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 123), a Nevada Bureau of Mines report later estimated the Blue Eagle at $1,000,000, a figure the authors think presumably came from Morrissey. [1]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 123), no one they know of has seen Blue Eagle turquoise, and the surviving children of Dick Edgar have no memory of a mine by that name. [1]
What the records show
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 124), county records show Ted Johnson locating the Blue Eagle Number 1 on February 2, 1942; Morrissey gave Blue Sky as another name for it, a claim located in 1965 with assessment work filed by Ted Johnson from 1966 to 1972. [1]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 124), the only known turquoise attributed to the claim's nickname, Rattlesnake, came from the collection of Lee Hammons. [1]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 124), the authors suggest the Blue Eagle's figures may reflect miners' habit of overstating small output, or the yield of several neighboring claims conflated into one, and they note that later Blue Eagle claims at Pilot Mountain in Mineral County have no connection to it. [1]
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How this page is sourced. We strive for accuracy: every factual statement above is quoted from or credited to the printed work listed below, with page numbers, and this page is continuously updated with new information as we read more of our library. See something we should correct? Contact us.
Sources
- 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.