Crescent Peak Turquoise: Field Guide to Nevada's Sky-Blue Mountain Mine
Crescent Peak turquoise comes from a site in Nevada about forty miles east of Halloran Springs, which lies near Baker, California (Chambless & Ryan 2021, p. 145); the Toltec company's related operations at the Stone Hammer area were in San Bernardino County, California. The Toltec Gem Mining Company worked both locations in the early twentieth century, marketing non-matrix sky-blue stones through fine trade catalogs — and the operation's lead shareholder met a violent end at a California rail depot in 1903.
From the Library: Pogue on the Toltec and Simmons workings (1915)
1915 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1915, not today.
Pogue (1915) recorded an 1898 report whose discoverer is the same George Simmons:
“turquois was reported from Nevada, 18 miles east of Vanderbilt, Cal. The locality was discovered by George Simmons, and an ancient “village site” and stone tools were found.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 51
On the California side, Pogue wrote in 1915:
“The Toltec Gem Mining Co. owns three groups of claims known as East Camp, Middle Camp, and West Camp, within a few miles of each other.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 46
According to Pogue (1915, p. 46), the Stone Hammer mine took its name from two aboriginal stone hammers found when T. C. Bassett prospected a turquoise vein there in 1897.
Pogue (1915) described the ancient workings of the district:
“The remains of the ancient mining operations are very abundant. They appear as saucerlike pits from 15 to 30 feet across and of half that depth, many filled with debris, and scattered over an area 15 miles long by 4 miles wide.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 47
Pogue (1915) also passed on a 1909 report from Searchlight, then in Lincoln County:
“a discovery of turquois was reported at Searchlight in Lincoln County, where a stone weighing 320 carats and worth $2,600 was claimed to have been found.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 51
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) settle the name and place:
“The Crescent Peak Mine, also known as the Simmons Mine, is located in Clark County Nevada.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 147 [2]
They add a warning for anyone reading an old label (Chambless & Ryan, 2021):
“This turquoise is often incorrectly referred to as Searchlight.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 147 [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 147), the patent issued to the Toltec Gem Mining Company on June 15, 1908 covered eleven claims on 220.28 acres, the largest group of turquoise patent claims ever issued in the United States, and the mine lay mainly on two claims, the Aztec and the Right Blue. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 145), George Simmons recognized the stained quartz as possible turquoise because he had seen similar material years earlier in the Burro Mountains of New Mexico. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 145), Simmons sent samples to the Denver lapidary William Kley, who put him in touch with another German lapidary, William Petry, whom Simmons hired to set up a lapidary shop at the mine. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 146), after Simmons failed to find backers in New York and London, the New York diamond dealers Charles F. Wood and his brothers John B. and Elmer Wood, with the lapidary John Lamont and Simmons, formed the Toltec Gem Mining Company in late 1897 or 1898. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 161), period press reports claimed Tiffany and Co. owned and worked the Crescent Peak mines, which in fact belonged to the Toltec Gem Mining Company. [2]
Chambless & Ryan (2021) set the Toltec apart from the Arizona matrix sellers:
“In contrast to the marketing efforts of the companies working in the Arizona Mineral Park area, the companies primarily involved in California and Nevada continued to base their production and marketing efforts on the old established turquoise look, the classic non-matrix, sky blue turquoise.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 166 [2]
Of the Toltec's 1905 catalog, Chambless & Ryan (2021) note:
“Turquoise was referred to as the "true aristocrat" of gemstones.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 167 [2]
A 1905 Toltec advertisement reproduced by Chambless & Ryan (2021) pitched the stone against Persian material:
“A little lower in price than the Persian Turquoise and a little better in quality”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 169 [2]
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. 66), little happened at Crescent Peak after the turquoise market collapsed in 1910-1920; in 1920 Mrs. G. Jordon and J. H. Stone began working what the Las Vegas Age called the "Tiffany Mine" near Crescent, and they sold it to C. F. James, who by a 1922 report had invested $10,000. [3]
Ryan & Chambless (2020) follow the lease chain:
“James either sold or leased the property to K. D. Enterline who was working the mine by 1924 and sending turquoise to Los Angeles for cutting.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 66 [3]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 66), Enterline was badly burned in a house fire in 1925, and by 1927 he had leased the property to Dan Foley. [3]
As of 2020, Ryan & Chambless (2020) summed up the mine:
“This is another example of a turquoise mine full of promise but short on commercially viable product. Although Crescent Peak continues to produce small amounts of turquoise, it has pretty much faded from the story by the end of this first period.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 66 [3]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 66), the unnamed Nevada mine owner whom Herman Schweizer asked to cut stones for his 1899 tourist-jewelry scheme was probably William Petry, then cutting stones for George Simmons at Crescent Peak. [3]
A 1937 list of Nevada turquoise properties reproduced by Ryan & Chambless (2020) recorded:
“The Morgan Mine in the Crescent district of Clark County owned by Charles Johnson of Nipton, California located a mile and a half south of the old camp of Crescent. Turquoise occurs in veinlets in monzonite which is cut by rhyolite.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 87 [3]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 87), the same 1937 list recorded the Smithson-Phillips and Toltec mines in the Crescent district, three and a half miles south of Crescent, as worked in prehistoric times. [3]
Field Notes by Mateo James
The Toltec Gem Mining Company's 1905 catalog described their stones as "perfectly matched flawless, pale blue turquoise beads" — a promotional description that Chambless preserves as evidence of the period's marketing vocabulary. Non-matrix sky blue was the commercial ideal of the Turquoise Rush era, and Crescent Peak output fit that profile.
George Simmons was the principal shareholder. William Petry served as lapidary, working with the Denver Kley family. The production numbers from 1900 were estimated at $20,000 to $28,000 — substantial for the period.
What distinguishes this mine's history is the Barnwell incident. Chambless documents that on October 15, 1903, George Simmons was murdered at Barnwell, California — the railhead serving the mining operations — by a former foreman named William L. Miller. Miller was subsequently found not guilty by reason of insanity. The violence cut off the principal management of the Crescent Peak-Halloran Springs operation at the peak of the turquoise rush.
Collector's Handbook
What to look for: Non-matrix, sky-blue stone is the characteristic output documented in primary sources. The Toltec catalog's emphasis on matched, pale blue beads suggests the deposit favored clean, consistent material.
Recognition tells: Crescent Peak and Halloran Springs stones appeared in early-twentieth-century catalogs under the Toltec brand. Period pieces from pre-1905 are historically plausible.
Honest mine-status hedge: Post-1903 operational status — after Simmons's death — is not well documented in available primary sources. This appears to have been primarily a Rush-era operation.
Related mine guides: Pages for Bisbee, Sleeping Beauty, Number Eight, Cerrillos, Royston, Kingman, Lander Blue, and Morenci mines are coming soon to this field guide.
An earlier version of our opening line could be read as putting Halloran Springs in Nevada. Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 145) place Halloran Springs about 40 miles west of Crescent Peak, near Baker, California, and Pogue (1915) also treats the Toltec's East, Middle and West Camps as California deposits. I tend to side with Chambless & Ryan: Crescent Peak is the Nevada mine, and Halloran Springs is its California neighbor.
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.
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References
- Chambless, Philip. The History of the American Turquoise Industry, Ch. 7.
- 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 as of 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.
- 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.
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