Castle Dome & Pinto Valley: Field Guide to Turquoise from the Miami-Globe Copper Mines
Part of the Turquoise Mines field guides and The Southwest Jewelry Guide.
Mike Ryan II and Philip Chambless’s 2020 history places Castle Dome turquoise at the copper mine of that name at Globe, near Miami, Arizona, “right over the hill” from Sleeping Beauty, as Monty Nichols put it. 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. Where our other books disagree, the Field Notes say so.
Where it is
Monty Nichols, the Sleeping Beauty contractor, told Ryan & Chambless (2020):
“Castle Dome is right over the hill from Sleeping Beauty.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 183 [1]
Gene Waddell recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 164), that Castle Dome was a turquoise mine out of Miami, Arizona, not far from the Sleeping Beauty, and that his father worked at the copper mine there during World War II under a draft exemption, then sold the turquoise he picked up to dealers and traders in Gallup and Albuquerque. [1]
Copper first, turquoise second
Ryan & Chambless (2020) date the Arizona open pits:
“Beginning around 1950 the open pit at Bisbee, the Lavender pit, was opened as well as the open pit at Morenci and Castle Dome at Globe.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 160 [1]
Gene Waddell recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 164), that in the 1940s the copper, not the turquoise, was what mattered at these mines, so whoever picked up the turquoise could take it home; he also noted that not every Miami-area copper mine gave turquoise, since the Inspiration Mine produced only chrysocolla. [1]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 168), by the late 1950s more turquoise was reaching the market from the waste dumps of the Castle Dome, Kingman, Morenci and Bisbee copper mines, which made hard-rock turquoise mining elsewhere less attractive. [1]
Monty Nichols recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 183), that Castle Dome was mined and closed before he finished high school and before Sleeping Beauty got going, and that the only later Castle Dome stone came when Pinto Valley opened. [1]
Pinto Valley
Monty Nichols recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 183), that Pinto Valley turquoise came from the same location, farther down the creek, and looked very similar to Sleeping Beauty because it had the same geology, on the same copper vein running through the mountains and Globe. [1]
Hardy, the Browns and the Globe cutting trade
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 180), Leonard W. Hardy moved to the Globe-Miami area in 1949 and worked as a shovel operator at the Bechtel Company's Castle Dome copper mine before going into turquoise. [1]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 180), Hardy later held his own turquoise concessions at Kingman, Castle Dome and Sleeping Beauty, with a processing plant at Florence Junction, about 40 miles west of Globe. [1]
Marty Colbaugh told Ryan & Chambless (2020) how Hardy built his operation:
“Then Hardy went down and picked up the Castle Dome in Pinto Valley and Sleeping Beauty.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 184 [1]
Nila Brown recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 162), that Bill "Lucky" Brown found a supply of turquoise at Castle Dome, which led him to open a lapidary shop in Globe, Arizona, where he was soon custom cutting for many traders. [1]
Field Notes by Mateo James
Lowry (2010, p. 243) gives the dates “Castle Dome (1943) and Pinto Valley (1972).” Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 160) date the Castle Dome open pit to around 1950, and Gene Waddell (p. 164) remembers his father working at the copper mine there during World War II. The books don’t say whether these years mark the same thing, so I have given both.
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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 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
- 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: The World Story of a Fascinating Gemstone. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2010. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2010.