Kingman Turquoise: Field Guide to the Mine Behind the Default American Blue
Kingman Turquoise — A Stone Study
← Part of the T.Skies Turquoise Mines Identifier
Real Kingman turquoise from a private collection, photographed in the T.Skies studio: six sets that show how wide the range runs, from green with golden matrix to bright blue spiderweb, the deep brown we call Ceremonial and the white-webbed Water Web. Tap any stone to see it up close.
Green with gold and orange matrix
Deep blue with dark matrix
Bright blue spiderweb
Sky blue with golden matrix
Ceremonial: chocolate brown with turquoise speckles
Water Web: bright blue with a fine white web
Documented stone examples from a private collection, photographed in the T.Skies studio. Not for sale individually — shown for reference. © Turquoise Skies Inc.
Kingman is the hardest turquoise in this guide to identify by eye, and the reason is uncomfortable: it is the mine that defined what most people picture when they picture American turquoise. Lowry writes that Kingman’s blue, together with similar hues from Sleeping Beauty, “made this color of turquoise the most common ‘look’ of any American turquoise.”1 A look that common is a look that is easy to imitate, and its name gets borrowed for turquoise that never came from the mine.
More Kingman turquoise examples
Real stones from the T.Skies archive, photographed by us. Tap any stone to see it up close.
Where it comes from
The turquoise is a by-product of open-pit copper mining in the historic Mineral Park area near Kingman, Arizona, in the Cerbat Mountains of Mohave County, at an elevation of about 3,300 feet. Lowry records two main areas of deposits — Aztec Peak (also called Turquoise Mountain) and Ithaca Peak — and notes that the area has produced turquoise “in prehistoric and modern times.”1
Chambless independently confirms the same two features through a D. B. Sterrett / U.S. Geological Survey figure captioned for Mineral Park, Ithaca Peak and Aztec (Turquoise) Mountain, and a second Sterrett figure listing the Ithaca Peak claim-holders.2 Two books, two authors, same geography — this is one of the few places in this guide where we have genuine two-source corroboration rather than one source restating itself.
Our sources disagree about who found it, and when
We are not going to resolve this for you, because our sources do not resolve it between themselves.
Lowry states simply that Kingman was “discovered by James Haas in the late 1800s.”1 Chambless is more careful and reports the disagreement rather than settling it: James W. Haas “is generally credited with the modern day discovery” of the Mineral Park deposits sometime between the mid-1870s and early 1880s — but Haas himself, writing in Mining and Scientific Press in 1902, claimed he made the discovery “about twenty-eight years ago,” which points at about 1874; Sterrett’s 1906 report gives 1885; and Kunz first reported the discovery in 1885, crediting samples brought by Bernard Moses.2
So: the modern discovery is credited to Haas, and the date is contested between roughly 1874 and 1885 by three separate accounts, one of them Haas’s own. Any page that gives you a single confident year for this is choosing one of three and not telling you.
Working of the deposits long predates all of it. Lowry records production in prehistoric times, and Chambless reports specimens showing evidence of having been worked and a large number of stone hammers found in the area.2
The town, briefly
Mineral Park was founded in 1871 near the camp of Chloride. In 1882, while surveying the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad route, Lewis Kingman put his name on a settlement about fifteen miles to the southeast. By 1887 Kingman had become the county seat; Mineral Park had restaurants, hotels and its own newspaper, its post office closed in 1912, and it is now a ghost town.2
The turn-of-the-century commercial era is documented in some detail — Joseph G. Doty of New York and Haas photographed at Turquoise Mountain on 1 June 1901, the Aztec Turquoise Company working the same date, men working under Haas’s direction, the Southwest Turquoise Company incorporated in 1903 with Charles Sherman engaged to manage the mines.2 In November 1902, McNulty wrote to Parker that he had heard the Aztec Company was making large shipments from Kingman.2 That is a second-hand report in private correspondence, and we give it as one.
Then the bust: Chambless records that in the Mineral Park area the companies stopped work and the turquoise market went dormant for a number of years.2 That is the 1900s–1910s collapse, not a statement about the mine today.
The period figures are clear on the page: by December 1901 over $27,000 had been spent on development and equipment (Chambless & Ryan 2021, p. 136), and in May 1903 the Southwest Turquoise Company was incorporated with a capital stock of $500,000 (Chambless & Ryan 2021, p. 137).[2]
How it became famous, and how it got treated
The modern reputation is a marketing story with a name attached. The area “became world famous for turquoise when Leonard W. Hardy marketed it during the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s.” The Duval Corporation’s open-pit operations originally leased the turquoise rights to Hardy, and since then the Colbaugh family has controlled those claim rights for several generations.1
Hardy matters for a second reason, and it is one a buyer should know. He was a shovel operator at the Castle Dome open-pit copper mine in 1949, went on to lease both the Kingman mine at Mineral Park and the Sleeping Beauty, and in the 1950s and 1960s “developed the beginning treatment processes, which became known as ‘stabilized’ turquoise, for the Kingman turquoise mine and others.”1 The first recorded sighting of treated Kingman is 1961, by the cutter Clive Edgar of Manassa, Colorado, at Charles Gregory’s cutting shop in Albuquerque.1
Schiffer, independently, describes the Kingman mine as having produced “light to dark colored turquoise and a great deal that is treated.”3 Treated Kingman is not a modern scandal; it is most of what the mine has sold for sixty years, and the honest question is whether a seller tells you.
What to match on
Blue of the “most common look,” usually over a predominantly white matrix — Lowry writes that Kingman and Sleeping Beauty “mostly have a natural white matrix.”1
Keep Lowry’s “mostly.” Chambless publishes a photograph captioned Kingman black web turquoise (cobweb) from a private collection.2 A black-web Kingman exists. “Kingman equals white matrix” is a rule of thumb that will make you reject real stones.
The fraud, stated plainly
This is the part of the Kingman story a seller has the least incentive to tell you, so we will. Lowry: “Mexican turquoise has been misrepresented and sold as Kingman turquoise since before the 1970s.”1 He adds that Mexican mines can produce turquoise “almost a perfect match to the more famous Kingman, Sleeping Beauty, and Morenci mines,” and that China’s Ma’anshan produces “blue turquoise similar to the American mines at Kingman and Morenci.”1
Lowry’s own remedy is documentary, not visual: a buyer who wants a Classic Mine stone “needs to get a written guarantee of the mine source.”1 That lines up exactly with the Indian Arts and Crafts Board’s advice to get the artist’s name and Tribal affiliation, the mine of origin, whether the stone is natural, stabilized or treated, the place of purchase, the price, the date, and the seller’s business address — in writing.4
Current status
We do not know, and neither does our shelf. The most recent reference work we hold is Lowry, published in 2010. It records the Colbaugh family holding the claim rights as of that date. It does not say whether the mine is open, closed, or producing today, and nothing else in our reference books does either. Holding claim rights is not the same as producing, and we are not going to convert one into the other for you.
As Lowry puts it, “which mines are active can change year to year depending on whether someone invests the money to reopen an old mine or discovers a new one.”1 Treat any “current status” claim about Kingman — including one on this page if it ever appears — as dated.
From the Library: Pogue, The Turquois (1915)
1915 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1915, not today.
Writing in 1915, Pogue quoted Sterrett's description of the Mineral Park deposit near Kingman: it
“appears that some of the turquois may have formed directly from kaolin by the addition of phosphate and copper stains, for specimens are found that show a gradation from good turquois to soft semiturquois and to copper-stained kaolin”
— Pogue (1915), p. 61 [5]
Pogue (1915), citing Kunz, put the first find earlier than the 1885 date given elsewhere:
“Turquois was discovered near Mineral Park prior to 1883, when some good stones were obtained.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 45 [5]
Writing in 1915, Pogue described the district's slow start:
“In common with many other western deposits, however, the occurrence was known and worked by prehistoric Indians. In 1886 several claims were located, but the district remained undeveloped until fortunate prospecting in 1898 revealed promising deposits of gem material.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 45 [5]
Pogue's 1915 description of the Mineral Park stone and its matrix:
“The best material obtained has a rich, deep-blue color and takes a good polish. The matrix stones afford pleasing contrasts of dark-blue turquois against the dark brown of limonite or the gray of quartz or porphyry.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 45 [5]
Pogue (1915) also recorded an early use of the rock itself:
“Prior to 1899 blocks of the blue-veined turquois-bearing rock were shipped to New York to be worked into pedestals, mantels, and other objects.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 45 [5]
On the ancient workings, Pogue wrote in 1915:
“Prehistoric excavations, consisting of small pits filled with rubbish, and several tunnels nearly 20 feet long, were found on the southern side of Aztec Mountain. A quantity of stone implements were discovered in the workings, and represent the means whereby the ancient Indians extracted their supply of the precious stone.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 46 [5]
From the Library: Branson, Turquoise: The Gem of the Centuries (1975)
1975 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1975, not today.
Branson (1975) pictured a squash blossom set with treated Kingman and captioned it:
“Squash blossom with treated Kingman turquoise has a transparent too-blue look.”
— Branson (1975), p. 8 [6]
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. 29), William P. Blake described evidence of Native mining near Kingman in Mohave County, Arizona, in a paper he presented to the Arizona Archeological Association in December 1898. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 130), after Haas re-acquired the claim he sent samples to Tiffany's in New York. Chief Gemologist Kunz judged the material all right but likely to be better at greater depth, and when digging deeper did not improve it, Haas stopped working the claim. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 130), Haas also sent samples to buyers in France, Germany, Switzerland, England and Belgium. Each found some fault (too light, too dark, too green), yet each offered to buy only three or four pounds. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 130), in 1887 Sarah Althea Hill-Terry and G.W. Bowers located the Emerald, Blue Gem and Crown Jewel claims on the southern slopes of Turquoise Mountain, but they never worked them and let the claims lapse. [2]
Chambless & Ryan (2021) quote Haas on how hard the stone was to sell:
“I sent stone to parties north, south, east and west to advertise it.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 130 [2]
Chambless & Ryan (2021) name the biggest obstacle of the time:
“Perhaps the most difficult hurdle for the turquoise from Mineral Park was that it contained much matrix that was not in favor at that time.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 130 [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 132), Joseph G. Doty had been sole agent of the American Turquoise Company at Cerrillos until its bondholders removed him in 1899. Haas had given a promoter a $10,000 lease and bond on the Turquoise Mountain claims, and Doty's name turned out to be on the signed papers. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 133), citing Haas's stepson John L. Riggs, Charles Sherman had staked claims all over Ithaca Peak. Doty bought Sherman's claims on the western side, borrowing the $1,000 down payment from Mrs. Haas, and the Aztec Turquoise Company grew out of that deal. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 135), the Aztec Turquoise Company was incorporated on June 29, 1900, with offices in New York City. Under Haas's supervision it soon began shipping, and the Mohave County Miner reported that by October Doty was shipping 25 pounds of turquoise a week. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 135), by July 1902 Ed McNulty had left the American Turquoise Company's Cerrillos operation to become superintendent of the Aztec mines, taking over from Haas. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 136), the Mining and Scientific Press reported in December 1901 that an 800-barrel cistern had been cut into the rock to hold rain and snowmelt for the work, that 22 men were working under Haas, and that over $27,000 had been spent on development and equipment. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 137), the Los Angeles Herald reported in May 1903 that the Southwest Turquoise Company was being incorporated with a capital stock of $500,000, with Sherman managing the mines and W.J. Tarr the Los Angeles shops. Its main producer was the Ithaca claim. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 137), around 1904 Sherman sold his last claims on the east side of Ithaca Peak to Edward E. Peck and George Burkhardt for $5,000. The pair sold the better half to Frank L. McCracken and George Bell of Denver for $6,000 and formed the Los Angeles Gem Company. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 138), Bell and McCracken's Arizona Turquoise Company was incorporated in 1908, with offices in Denver and sales in New York; its main claim was the William Tell. Smaller operators also worked at Mineral Park, but the Aztec, Southwest, Los Angeles Gem and Arizona companies were the principal competitors. [2]
Chambless & Ryan (2021) quote John Riggs on the copper ore around the Mineral Park turquoise mines:
“Hence the principal detriment to the Turquoise, too much copper.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 139 [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 143), after the turquoise market collapsed in 1910, production stopped. Doty had died in 1907, and the Aztec Turquoise Company was dissolved on September 24, 1910. [2]
As of 2021, Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 143) wrote that turquoise known as Ithaca Peak, Turquoise Mountain and Kingman all comes from the Mineral Park area first mined during the Great American Turquoise Rush, and that it continues to be mined. [2]
Chambless & Ryan (2021) date the Kingman open pit:
“The Duval Corporation began open-pit mining at Kingman in 1963-64.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 186 [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 186), the copper companies saw little value in sorting turquoise from waste rock and instead leased out the turquoise concession to remove it from the waste dumps. [2]
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 187), Leonard W. Hardy won the turquoise concessions at Kingman, Castle Dome and Sleeping Beauty, and by his obituary's account the Hardy Turquoise Company was producing over half of world production by the early 1970s; his Kingman partner Chuck Colbaugh then went into business for himself. [2]
As of 2021, Chambless & Ryan reported:
“Colbaugh Processing continues as the largest turquoise producer in the United States, under the leadership of Chuck's grandson Marty and his son Josh.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 187 [2]
Chambless & Ryan (2021) also record:
“Today the only remaining turquoise concession in Arizona is at Kingman with the Colbaugh family.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 187 [2]
Chambless & Ryan (2021) give the natural/treated gap in rough prices as of 2016:
“In today's market, (2016) the price per pound for natural Kingman rough runs from $450 for low-grade to $3,500 for high-grade, and a range for treated rough of $25 for low-grade to $1,500 for high-grade.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 182 [2]
From the Library: Lowry, Turquoise: The World Story of a Fascinating Gemstone (2010)
2010 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2010, not today.
According to Lowry (2010, p. 226), Kingman's blues, together with Sleeping Beauty's similar hues, made this colour the most common look of any American turquoise; he credits James Haas with discovery in the late 1800s. [1]
According to Lowry (2010, p. 227), Leonard W. Hardy made the area world famous for turquoise in the 1950s, '60s and '70s under a turquoise lease from the Duval Corporation's open-pit operation, and the Colbaugh family has since controlled the claim rights for several generations. [1]
Lowry (2010) separates Turquoise Mountain from Ithaca Peak:
“When the blue and green vein and nugget formations of this area are shaped and polished, they generally produce a beautiful spiderweb matrix.”
— Lowry (2010), p. 244 [1]
According to Lowry (2010, p. 244), Turquoise Mountain was originally named Aztec Peak or Aztec Mountain, and its stone has a distinctive look marketed separately from the Kingman blues of nearby Ithaca Peak. [1]
According to Lowry (2010, p. 230), several Mexican mines can produce turquoise that is almost a perfect match for Kingman, Sleeping Beauty and Morenci; on the next page he adds that Mexican turquoise had been misrepresented and sold as Kingman since before the 1970s. [1]
From the Library: Kunz, Gems and Precious Stones of North America (1890)
1890 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1890, not today.
Kunz (1890) recalled the first Mineral Park stones he saw:
“In 1883 the author saw a series of finely colored specimens, which had been obtained at Mineral Park, Ariz., and brought to New York city.”
— Kunz (1890), p. 60 [7]
As of 1890, Kunz described the deposit:
“They had been taken from three veins, varying in thickness from 1 to 4 inches, about 100 yards apart, running almost parallel, and traceable for nearly half a mile.”
— Kunz (1890), p. 60 [7]
Kunz (1890) also reported signs of earlier working:
“This deposit showed evidences of having been mined by the Spaniards, and a large number of stone hammers was found, indicating that it had also been worked by the Indians.”
— Kunz (1890), p. 60 [7]
From the Library: Schiffer, Turquoise Jewelry (2008)
2008 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2008, not today.
Schiffer (2008, p. 27) illustrated a three-strand necklace with turquoise "bear claws" made with stabilized Kingman mine turquoise, circa 1970. [3]
From the Library: Turnbaugh, Indian Jewelry of the American Southwest (2007)
2007 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2007, not today.
Turnbaugh (2007, p. 88, caption) illustrates a Navajo woman's cuff-bracelet-style watch set with three natural seafoam turquoise nuggets from the Kingman mine, one of several turquoise watch bands they described as popular both on and off the reservations in the late 1980s. [8]
From the Library: Bassman, The Beauty of Navajo Jewelry (1997)
1997 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1997, not today.
Bassman (1997) pictured a bracelet with Kingman stones:
“Stampwork with two Kingman turquoise stones made by Wilson Padilla.”
— Bassman (1997), p. 21 [9]
Bassman (1997, p. 35) pictured Kingman turquoise cluster work by four makers: a watchband by Wilford Nez, a ten-concha belt by Sam Nez, a bracelet made in 1978 by Mary Ross and a belt buckle by Eddie Spencer. [9]
Bassman (1997, p. 56) pictured a bracelet with twisted rope, stampwork and an appliquéd silver leaf with six-stone Kingman turquoise, made by Tom Bahe. [9]
Bassman (1997) also pictured a bola tie:
“Stampwork with a Kingman turquoise stone set in a shadow box, made by Thomas Nez.”
— Bassman (1997), p. 57 [9]
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.
Ryan & Chambless (2020) quote the Southwest Turquoise Company's 1908 catalog on its Mineral Park matrix:
“The stones are like beautiful dream pictures and no two are alike.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 28 [10]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 28), the same catalog's claim that its "cobweb turquoise" surpassed all others in its markings is perhaps the first reference to what, as of 2020, was considered the most desirable and expensive turquoise, the dark web deep blue. [10]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 28), the Mineral Park companies were the first shift of turquoise ownership and marketing from the east coast to the west coast: the Southwest Turquoise Company and the Los Angeles Gem Company were both based in Los Angeles, and they were the first to target the developing tourist trade. [10]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 105), several of the companies active at Mineral Park moved their base to Los Angeles and turned to Nevada for turquoise, and there was little to no turquoise production at Mineral Park between 1910 and 1940. [10]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 105), Kingman turquoise, like the turquoise from Arizona's other big copper mines such as Morenci, Bisbee and Sleeping Beauty, did not become a factor in the market until the 1950s. [10]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 161), Guy D. Atlee, superintendent of the Arizona Turquoise Company's William Tell claim on Ithaca Peak, kept mining in the Kingman area for many years, including turquoise at the William Tell, and his son Richard remembered mining turquoise there as a boy in the 1940s. [10]
Richard Atlee recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 161), that his father shipped William Tell turquoise to New York and Germany and was very selective about what he brought down; he later sold his claims to the Duval Copper Corporation, and Hardy got his contract from Duval and began stabilizing the chalk and low-grade rock. [10]
Richard Atlee, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020), gave an old miner's verdict on what followed:
“Turquoise hasn't been the same since the muckers took over from the real miners!”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 161 [10]
Marty Colbaugh recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 166), that his grandfather, S. A. "Chuck" Colbaugh, already held the contract for the Kingman turquoise rights in 1962 and mined for two years before Duval began taking down Ithaca Peak; after that, blasted rock went through a crusher onto conveyor belts, and workers with gloves and five-gallon buckets picked the turquoise off before the final crusher. [10]
Marty Colbaugh recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 166), that large amounts came out in 1962, output ran heaviest from 1964 to 1966, wound down around 1970 to 1972, and stopped when the copper mine closed in 1973, by which time most of Ithaca Peak was gone. [10]
Marty Colbaugh recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 167), that in the 1960s his grandfather worked with L. W. Hardy, mining the turquoise and sending it to Hardy in Globe to process and sell; the two fell out and Hardy began mining at Kingman himself. With about 550 people working at the mine, turquoise was so common that gas stations and grocery stores in Kingman took it as payment. [10]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 180), Leonard W. Hardy was born in Bumble Bee, Arizona, in 1911, moved to the Globe-Miami area in 1949 to work as a butcher and then as a shovel operator at the Castle Dome copper mine, and opened his own turquoise trading operation in 1952. [10]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 180), in the early 1960s Hardy began working with Chuck Colbaugh, who held the turquoise concession from Duval at its Ithaca Peak Mine; Hardy later got his own concessions at Kingman, Castle Dome and Sleeping Beauty, with a processing plant at Florence Junction, and in the 1970s boom was called the Turquoise King, selling mostly treated turquoise by a process he had obtained while working with Colbaugh. [10]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 180), at the height of the boom Hardy grossed $10 to $15 million a year, while official government figures showed total production at just over $5 million, a gap the authors put down to under-reporting by miners. [10]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 181), Hardy and his wife Geraldine were sentenced in 1977 to probation and fined for tax evasion; Hardy sold his company to Sterling Foutz in 1985 and died in 2003. [10]
Monty Nichols recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 182), that Hardy had been partners with Marty Colbaugh's grandfather, and that when they split at Kingman one took what came off the belts and the other what came out of the mine. [10]
Marty Colbaugh recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 184), that his grandfather put the business into suspension on retiring in 1970, his father Martin A. Colbaugh restarted it in 1973, and Marty took it over in 1986. [10]
Marty Colbaugh recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 184), that when his grandfather retired the concession passed to Hardy, who then added the Castle Dome in Pinto Valley and Sleeping Beauty and ran them all at once. [10]
Monty Nichols recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 181), that he and his partner Marty Colbaugh later won the Kingman Turquoise contract and were still actively mining turquoise at Kingman when he spoke to the authors. [10]
John Chaney recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 223), that in the early 1970s the Santo Domingo heishi makers he dealt with got their turquoise from a South Valley trader known as Runt Swafford, who bought treated turquoise from L. W. Hardy in Kingman, and that it was never enough and not the best. [10]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 237), Chinese jewelry manufacturers of the 1980s found it easier and cheaper to buy treated turquoise from American companies than to process their own, and much of it was Kingman and Sleeping Beauty, valued for the consistent sky-blue of stabilized chalk material. [10]
Russell Twiford III of RT Research Corporation recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 237), that as Chinese orders grew to thousands of kilos he bought 50 tons of Kingman turquoise from Mrs. Hardy after she and Mr. Hardy separated. [10]
As of 2020, Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 275) reported that Kingman Turquoise, run by Marty and Josh Colbaugh, was the last full-time commercial turquoise mining company in the United States, while most other mines, nearly all in Nevada, were worked by small-scale miners. [10]
Marty Colbaugh told Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 276) that he set out to push American turquoise, specifically Kingman, so the company's hats, shirts and advertising say Kingman Turquoise rather than Colbaugh Processing. [10]
Marty Colbaugh recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 277), that in one year the mining cost of recovering turquoise ran about $1,200 a pound one month, about $2,500 a pound a few months later, and then $15 to $20 a pound for a few months, depending entirely on what the ground was producing. [10]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 278), Marty Colbaugh of Kingman Turquoise developed the Colbaugh Process for treating turquoise. [10]
The mine glossary in Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 346) describes Kingman turquoise as coming from a copper mine on the old Mineral Park mines. It lists the lease as going to Chuck Colbaugh, then to L. W. Hardy, and as of 2020 to Marty Colbaugh and Monty Nichols. [10]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 346), Ithaca Peak in the Mineral Park district was the site of many claims from 1890 to 1910. It later became the Duval Corporation's open-pit copper mine, with a turquoise salvage lease to Chuck Colbaugh and L. W. Hardy. [10]
From the Library: Stacey, Turquoise Blue Book and Indian Jewelry Digest (1975)
1975 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1975, not today.
Nancy Hammack, writing in Stacey (1975, p. 6), counted Kingman among the Arizona turquoise mines she believed the prehistoric Hohokam had access to, alongside Bisbee. [11]
From the Library: Woodward, A Brief History of Navajo Silversmithing (1946)
1946 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1946, not today.
Writing in 1938, Woodward (1946) listed Mineral Park among the sources of the Indian trade:
“From the Mineral Park Mines, Arizona, situated in Mohave County twenty miles north from Kingman, is obtained a soft grade of greenish-hued turquoise.”
— Woodward (1946), p. 45 [12]
From the Library: Adair, The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths (1944)
1944 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1944, not today.
According to Adair (1944, p. 199), around 1940 the best grade of turquoise reaching Gallup and the surrounding region came largely from Nevada, with a smaller quantity from Colorado. [13]
Adair, writing in 1944 from fieldwork of 1938 to 1940, ranked the Arizona stone of that era below it:
“Inferior stones are obtained from the vicinity of Kingman, Arizona, and also from mines in the southern part of Arizona.”
— Adair (1944), p. 200 [13]
Field Notes by Mateo James
Kingman is the name most likely to be on a tag that is wrong, and not usually because anyone set out to lie. It is the default American blue, it has been mined and marketed at volume for seventy years, and material that looks like it comes from at least two other countries. That is why we frame our own sourcing the way we do: most of our turquoise comes from American mines such as Kingman or Royston, or from Campitos in Mexico. “Most” and “such as” are doing real work in that sentence — the list is not exhaustive, and we would rather say so than publish a tidier claim we cannot stand behind.
Pogue dates the first run of claim locations at Mineral Park to 1886. Chambless & Ryan name three claims, the Emerald, Blue Gem and Crown Jewel, located in 1887. The two books are one year apart on what looks like the same early staking. I tend to side with Chambless & Ryan.
Chambless & Ryan date Kunz's first report of the Mineral Park find to 1885, but in his own 1890 book Kunz wrote that he saw finely colored Mineral Park specimens in New York in 1883, which fits Pogue's 'prior to 1883' further down this page. I tend to side with Chambless & Ryan.
Lowry (2010) and Chambless & Ryan's Part One (2021) both put the Kingman turquoise concession in Leonard Hardy's hands. In Part Two (2020), Marty Colbaugh remembers it the other way round: his grandfather held the contract from 1962 and brought Hardy in to process and sell. Richard Atlee, in the same book, says Hardy got his contract from Duval. This is one family's memory against two histories, and I have left both on the page.
Lowry has Duval leasing Kingman's turquoise rights to Hardy first, and Part One calls Chuck Colbaugh Hardy's partner who went off on his own. Part Two turns that around. Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 180) write that Colbaugh held the Duval concession at Ithaca Peak when Hardy started working with him in the early 1960s. I tend to side with Ryan & Chambless.
Ryan & Chambless, on this page, record little to no turquoise production at Mineral Park between 1910 and 1940. Woodward, writing in 1938, listed the Mineral Park mines among the sources of soft greenish turquoise for the Indian trade. I show both, and I tend to side with Chambless & Ryan where they cover a point.
Ryan & Chambless (2020) write that Kingman turquoise did not become a factor in the market until the 1950s. Adair, writing in 1944 about the trade he saw between 1938 and 1940, already names the vicinity of Kingman as a source of the cheaper stones reaching the Southwest's silversmiths. I show both and leave the reader to weigh them.
How this page is sourced. Every factual claim above is drawn from the printed reference works listed below and is footnoted to the book it came from. Where our sources disagree we say so and do not pick a winner; where they are silent we say that too, rather than filling the gap. Nothing on this page comes from general web knowledge.
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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Sources
- 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.
- 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.
- Schiffer, Nancy N. Turquoise Jewelry. Revised 4th ed. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2008. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2008.
- U.S. Department of the Interior, Indian Arts and Crafts Board, consumer brochure on the Indian Arts and Crafts Act and turquoise (GPO document gpo58769). Independence note: this brochure states that the Board “collaborated with Mr. Joe Dan Lowry, of the Turquoise Museum” to produce its turquoise information. Joe Dan Lowry is the lead author of the Lowry volume above, so where the two agree that is one voice speaking twice and not independent corroboration.
- 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.
- 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.
- Kunz, George F. Gems and Precious Stones of North America. New York: The Scientific Publishing Company, 1890. Public domain. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1890.
- Turnbaugh, William A., and Sarah Peabody Turnbaugh. Indian Jewelry of the American Southwest. Foreword by Barry M. Goldwater. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2007 (copyright 1996 and 2007; first published 1988). ISBN 0-7643-2577-9. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2007.
- Bassman, Theda. The Beauty of Navajo Jewelry. Photography by Gene Balzer. Walnut, California: Kiva Publishing, 1997. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1997.
- 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.
- Stacey, Joseph, ed. Turquoise Blue Book and Indian Jewelry Digest. Arizona Highways Collectors Series. Phoenix: Arizona Highways (Arizona Department of Transportation), 1975. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1975.
- Woodward, Arthur. A Brief History of Navajo Silversmithing. With field notes by Richard Van Valkenburgh. Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin 14, 2d ed. Flagstaff: Northern Arizona Society of Science and Art, December 1946 (first edition 1938). Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1946.
- Adair, John. The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths. The Civilization of the American Indian Series. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1944. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1944.
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