Burro Mountains (Tyrone) Turquoise: Field Guide to the Azure Mine
Part of the Turquoise Mines field guides and The Southwest Jewelry Guide.
The Burro Mountains, near Tyrone in Grant County, New Mexico, are home to the Azure mine, which Pogue in 1915 said had been worked more extensively than any other American turquoise mine. This page is built from Joseph E. Pogue’s The Turquois, published by the National Academy of Sciences in 1915. Every statement below is quoted from it, with page numbers, so you can check each one. Anything Pogue describes as current describes 1915, not today.
The district and its ancient workings
Already in 1915, Pogue described the district in the past tense:
“Deposits of turquois, formerly of importance but now largely exhausted, are situated among the Burro Mountains, Grant County, near the southwest corner of New Mexico.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 55 [1]
Pogue (1915) on the ancient workings:
“Turquois was mined in this region in prehistoric times; excavations and heaps of debris, containing stone implements and coiled pottery, mark the site of the ancient operations, and have determined the location of some of the modern workings.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 55 [1]
At the nearby prehistoric workings, Pogue (1915) wrote:
“In the prehistoric workings, numbers of stone hammers were found. They are made of the local altered granite, in some instances even containing turquois, and are of rounded form from 4 to 8 inches or more in diameter; evidently they were used without a handle.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 56 [1]
The Azure mine
Pogue (1915) repeated the standard discovery story of his day:
“John E. Coleman, locally known as “Turquois John,” is generally accredited with the first modern discovery of turquois.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 55 [1]
Of the Azure mine, opened in 1891, Pogue wrote in 1915:
“It has been operated in modern times more extensively than any other turquois mine in this country, and its stones are the equal of the Persian gems.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 55 [1]
Pogue (1915) on the Azure's great find:
“In 1893 the famous “Elizabeth pocket” was entered, which produced more high-grade turquois than any single deposit on record.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 55 [1]
Pogue (1915) gave the size of the working:
“The deposit has been worked by an open cut, measuring about 600 feet in length, 100 to 200 feet in width, and 60 feet in depth, with tunnels at several levels.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 55 [1]
Pogue (1915) on where the best stones lay:
“The nuggets yield the finest gems and are generally found where the feldspars have undergone the most extensive alteration.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 56 [1]
Pogue (1915) recorded the mine's guarantee:
“The cut gems of good quality are marked on the under side with a circle and guaranteed to retain their color.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 56 [1]
Pogue (1915) recorded that in 1908
“a new deposit of turquois was opened about 150 yards east of the old Azure mine, after the yield in the latter had considerably diminished.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 56 [1]
How the turquoise formed: the 1915 debate
According to Pogue (1915, p. 62), Zalinski in 1907 proposed that Burro Mountains turquoise formed where two sets of solutions mingled: one rising along fractures parallel to the vein walls supplied the phosphoric acid, while another, coming from the vein's footwall, supplied the copper. [1]
Pogue (1915) quoted Graton of the U.S. Geological Survey on the deposit:
“The formation of the turquois is undoubtedly related to the intrusion of the quartz monzonite porphyry, as also the accompanying kaolinization and pyritization.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 62 [1]
Writing in 1915, Pogue reported that Paige's then-recent study disagreed with Zalinski:
“Paige reviews the mineral associations and geologic relations of this mineral and concludes that the evidence weighs heavily in favor of an origin in the zone of weathering; alumina, phosphoric acid, and copper having been derived from feldspar, apatite, and disseminated copper ores of the country rock.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 62 [1]
From the Library: Branson, Turquoise: The Gem of the Centuries (1975)
1975 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1975, not today.
Sixty years after Pogue, Branson's 1975 map of Southwest turquoise localities (Branson 1975, p. 31) still marked Tyrone, beside Santa Rita and Hachita, keyed to his p. 51. [3]
From the Library: Chambless & Ryan, Turquoise in America, Part One (2021)
2021 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2021, not today.
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 21), Felix Vogel was the first superintendent of the Azure Mining Company and retired from that post in 1901. The New York jewelers Meyer D. Rothschild and Gyulo Armeny were investors and officers; Armeny, also a pen manufacturer, put together the claims the company mined northwest of those Thomas Parker had accumulated. They use these records to correct a Depression-era WPA oral account (p. 20) that had Vogel and his partners arriving in 1903. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 29), William P. Blake's December 1898 paper to the Arizona Archeological Association listed the Burro Mountains, with Cerrillos, among the well-known New Mexico mines showing evidence of Native mining. [2]
Chambless & Ryan (2021) open their Burro Mountains chapter by setting the district against Cerrillos:
“In many ways these companies would surpass the quantity and the quality of turquoise coming from Cerrillos.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 73 [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 73), the Mimbreno Mogollon culture (A.D. 850-1350) was reported to have mined turquoise in the Burro Mountains, and early accounts credit Robert and John Metcalf with coming across the old turquoise and copper workings in 1871, though conflict in the area then prevented any mining. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 95), John Coleman and William Foley filed the Calaite claim, on the site of the old Indian turquoise mine, on November 15, 1890; although they kept up the annual filings, nothing indicates they worked it for turquoise to any measurable degree. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 75), Foley and veteran miner Nicholas C. Rascom located a second claim, the Persian, on December 3, 1890, about a mile away near the Chief of the Burros copper mine; it sat on a buff-colored dike and held a fine network of thin turquoise veinlets, with small dots of deeper blue in places. [2]
Chambless & Ryan (2021) give the company's founding charter:
“The Azure Mining Company was incorporated under the laws of the State of New York on October 9, 1891 for the "operation of turquoise mines and the mining, cutting, and selling of the products thereof."”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 79 [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 79), the Azure's shareholders were New York jewelry-trade figures (Gyulo Armeny, Louis and Moses Kahn, Samuel H. Levy and Meyer D. Rothschild), and while the ATC at Cerrillos borrowed $250,000 in bonds, the Azure Mining Company appears to have been financed from the start solely by its shareholders' equity, which the authors credit for its greater financial stability. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 90), M.W. Porterfield and his mining partner Nick Rascom were largely responsible for assembling the claims that Gyulo Armeny brought into the Azure Mining Company, and Porterfield received $14,000 for his claims. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 80), the Azure Mining Company began mining in late 1891 and produced significant amounts of turquoise until about 1905; production slowed after that, and by 1910 there was no more output. [2]
Chambless & Ryan (2021) credit superintendent Felix Vogel's 1893 find at the southwest end of the open cut:
“Located at the southwest end of the open cut, this area produced more high-grade turquoise than had ever been discovered to that point in U.S. recorded history.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 80 [2]
Chambless & Ryan (2021) describe the Azure stone:
“The color was mostly a deep blue, slightly translucent, and with hardness above 6 on the Mohs Hardness Scale, making it an ideal gemstone for jewelry.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 81 [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 80), the right proportion of copper was the key to Azure color and hardness: too much pushed the color toward green, while too little gave pale, inadequately hard turquoise. [2]
On the size of the pocket itself, Chambless & Ryan (2021) write:
“This single pocket, occurring near the surface, measured 150 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 50 feet deep.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 81 [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 81), the face of the cut advanced 50-80 feet a year until the "Santa Fe" cut reached 1,000 feet long, 60 feet wide at the bottom, 150 feet wide at the top and 75 feet deep; in its day it was the largest turquoise mine in the world. [2]
Chambless & Ryan (2021) record how the mine graded its stone:
“For turquoise to be graded first-class, both vein material and nuggets were flawless and of good color and quality. Second-class was any blue stone worth shipping plus any turquoise with matrix.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 83 [2]
On the pocket's place in the market, Chambless & Ryan (2021) write:
“The quality of color and hardness of turquoise from the Elizabeth Pocket contributed to southwest turquoise replacing Persian turquoise in the U.S. market.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 83 [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 83), total sales of high-grade turquoise from the Elizabeth Pocket are estimated at between $2 million and $5 million, sold between 1891 and 1914. [2]
Chambless & Ryan (2021) explain why a color guarantee mattered:
“The softer the stone, the more readily it absorbed oils and changed color, usually blue to green.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 85 [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 85), the Azure Mining Company registered its ring trademark in February 1894, and by 1898 its guarantee included a notarized statement from Meyer D. Rothschild; the authors note the guarantee was offered when the Elizabeth Pocket had only just begun producing and not enough time had passed for fading to show. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 86), Fayette Jones reported in 1904 that companies engraved a mark on the back of their stones: A for the ATC, X for the Gem Turquoise and Copper Company, T for the Toltec Company, a separate mark for the Himalaya Company, and the O of the Azure; apparently only the Azure extended a guarantee that the stone would not change color. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 86), marked stones from the period must still exist with the mark hidden in the setting, but as of 2021 the authors had been unable to locate any known examples. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 86), Azure sales are estimated at more than double those of the ATC's Tiffany mine at Cerrillos, the second largest producer of the period. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 86), Tiffany and Co. was probably the period's largest single buyer of turquoise, but Charles Tiffany was invested only in the ATC at Cerrillos, as a bondholder and stockholder, and neither he nor the firm ever operated a turquoise mine. [2]
On an 1893 newspaper report tying Tiffany to the Burros, Chambless & Ryan (2021) conclude:
“The ATC had no claims in the Burros, and no evidence exists that Charles L. Tiffany ever invested with any of the leading companies that mined turquoise in the district over the next decade.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 88 [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 89), Melvin W. Porterfield and his brother William C. came to Silver City from Illinois in 1887-1888 and ran the Porterfield Drug Company; M.W. is best remembered for his interest in local turquoise mining. [2]
Chambless & Ryan (2021) on Porterfield's role at the 1904 World's Fair:
“At the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, he managed the New Mexico exhibit, which had as its centerpiece a replica of a Porterfield turquoise mine.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 90 [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 94), Sterrett reported in 1906 that the Porterfield Turquoise Company had extended its shafts, with turquoise along a belt about 300 feet wide and 600 feet long producing a large quantity of good-quality stone. [2]
Chambless & Ryan (2021) on why the Porterfield venture stalled:
“Unfortunately, the timing of the ambitious expansion of the Porterfield Turquoise Mines Co. enterprise corresponded with a drop in the market, partly due to declining interest in turquoise jewelry but certainly made worse by the financial collapse of 1907 and the recession that followed.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 94 [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 99), on February 5, 1898, W.C. Porterfield and his wife Maggie sold their half interest in the Calaite to Thomas S. Parker's Occidental and Oriental Turquoise Mining Company for $12,500, giving Parker's group complete control of the claims, which became known as the Parker mines. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 100), a July 1901 Silver City Independent notice reported that the new Gem Turquoise and Copper Company, with offices at 23 Maiden Lane, New York, had secured the Parker mines: nineteen claims, six turquoise and thirteen copper. [2]
The same 1901 notice, quoted by Chambless & Ryan (2021), added:
“It was from this property that the turquoise which was presented to Mrs. McKinley at the time of the presidential reception at Deming in May was taken.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 100 [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 95), Parker ultimately made his fortune in copper, selling the Burro Chief Copper Company to Phelps Dodge for $2 million, though his goal had been a dominant turquoise company. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 125), the Azure Mining Company's first seven months in the Burro Mountains only paid expenses, which explains why it also acquired claims at Courtland, Arizona in 1892: it wanted a backup source of turquoise in case the Burro claims did not produce. After the Elizabeth Pocket was found, it no longer needed one. [2]
Chambless & Ryan (2021) on the Azure's selling point:
“During The Great American Turquoise Rush, the Azure Mining Company used an effective marketing campaign when they guaranteed their trademarked gemstones would not change color.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 182 [2]
Chambless & Ryan (2021) sum up the district after the rush:
“The copper-rich ores of the Burro Mountains finished turquoise mining there.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 184 [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 184), Thomas Parker sold his claims to Phelps Dodge in 1909 for $2 million; the company town of Tyrone later became a ghost town and its site was destroyed by the Tyrone open-pit copper mine, which began operating in 1969. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 184), the Azure Mining Company kept its claims after the boom; Gillerman reported them sold to Phelps Dodge in 1959, yet the company was voluntarily dissolved in 1956, and Homer Milford suggests the claims passed through someone else first. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 184), Robert H. Weber reported in the 1976 Turquoise Annual that turquoise exposed by the open pit was being mined under contract by James Hamilton of Silver City as Tyrone Turquoise, sold as coming from the Tiffany mine, a use of the name the authors call unauthorized and purely for marketing. [2]
Field Notes by Mateo James
Pogue passes on the 'Turquois John' story, with Coleman finding old workings in 1875 and locating the first claim. Chambless & Ryan say the claim 'was not located and recorded until 1890' and call the story a myth. I tend to side with Chambless & Ryan.
See also the other New Mexico districts: Cerrillos, Hachita and Jarilla, and our overview of New Mexico turquoise.
Pogue (1915) gives the Azure open cut as about 600 feet long and 60 feet deep. Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 81) say the Santa Fe cut eventually reached 1,000 feet long and 75 feet deep. The two accounts disagree on the size of the cut. I tend to side with Chambless & Ryan.
How this page is sourced. We strive for accuracy: every factual statement above is quoted from the printed works 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
- Pogue, Joseph E. The Turquois: A Study of Its History, Mineralogy, Geology, Ethnology, Archaeology, Mythology, Folklore, and Technology. Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. XII, Part II, Third Memoir. Washington, 1915. Public domain. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions in 1915.
- 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.
- 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.