Hidden Treasure (Cheyenne) Turquoise Mine, Monte Cristo Mountains, Nevada
Part of the Turquoise Mines field guides and The Southwest Jewelry Guide.
Mike Ryan II and Philip Chambless’s 2020 history traces the Hidden Treasure, also worked as the Carrie and the Myers and Bona and known in 2020 as the Cheyenne, in the Monte Cristo Mountains of Nevada. 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, and how it was found
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 60), citing Ted (Charles T.) Johnson in the 1976 Turquoise Annual, John B. Gilbert and his family came to Nevada and located the old Carrie silver-lead mine in the Monte Cristo Mountains, east of the Candelaria Mountains, in 1892. [1]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 61), the old Gilbert camp lay about seven miles northeast of Coaldale, with the turquoise mine about a mile from it; Morrissey credited John B. Gilbert and H. P. Thompson with first discovering the Carrie claim, also known as the Hidden Treasure, in 1897, when there was little demand for turquoise. [1]
Ted Johnson told, in an account published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 61), how John's son Fred Gilbert first recognized the stone when he saw turquoise in the window of a Goldfield jeweler. [1]
Owners and names
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 61), in 1907 H. M. Myers and Charles A. Bona leased the mine for silver-lead but worked it for turquoise, so the Hidden Treasure became known as the Myers and Bona Mine; they let the lease lapse, and the Gilbert sons Fred, Herman and Logan took it back, though turquoise mining did not resume until the 1920s. [1]
Ryan & Chambless (2020) date the Johnson era:
“Ted Johnson and his father purchased the mine from the Gilberts in 1922.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 61 [1]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 61), as of 2020 the claim was called the Cheyenne and owned by Jesse and Tom Robbins, who believe a spring and old camp beside it are where the Gilberts camped while working the silver claim. [1]
Field Notes by Mateo James
I notice the authors describe 1922 two ways. In Part One, Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 189) say the Gilberts let the claim lapse and Emory and Ted Johnson relocated it in 1922; in Part Two, Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 61) say Ted Johnson and his father purchased it from the Gilberts that year. Lowry (2010, p. 236) instead has William Wilson claiming the Monte Cristo deposits in 1951. I have left all three on the page.
See all the turquoise mines we profile, across the Southwest and beyond.
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.
- 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.
- 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.