Sleeping Beauty Turquoise: Field Guide to the Clear Sky Blue
Sleeping Beauty Turquoise — A Stone Study
← Part of the T.Skies Turquoise Stone Study
Real Sleeping Beauty turquoise from a private collection, photographed in the T.Skies studio: a rough nugget and polished stones in clear sky blue, some with light matrix and fine brown spotting. Tap any stone to see it up close.
Rough nugget with two polished stones, clear sky blue
Five polished stones, sky blue with light matrix and brown spots
Documented stone examples from a private collection, photographed in the T.Skies studio. Not for sale individually — shown for reference. © Turquoise Skies Inc.
This is a deliberately short page, and the shortness is the point.
Sleeping Beauty is probably the most commercially important turquoise in this guide and it is the thinnest in our sources — Lowry’s entry runs to about four sentences. There is no discovery date, no discoverer, no ownership history and no closure information anywhere in the books we hold. We could pad this page. Padding it is exactly where a page like this gets caught, so instead we have written down what is actually documented and marked the rest as missing.
More Sleeping Beauty turquoise examples
Real Sleeping Beauty turquoise from the T.Skies archive, photographed by us. Tap this stone to see it up close.
Where it comes from, and where the name comes from
The open pit is in the Globe/Miami District of Gila County, Arizona1 — a copper-mining area, where the turquoise is a by-product. Lowry describes open-pit copper operations of this kind as having “produced thousands of pounds of turquoise as a by-product of copper mining.”1
The name is topographic, not romantic: “from a distance, the mountain range where this copper mining area is located resembles a sleeping woman.”1
What to match on — the absence is the identifier
Lowry describes the colour as running “anywhere from a chalky white to a sky blue with a clarity that can rival similar turquoise that is famous from the countries of Iran and Chile,”1 over what is mostly a natural white matrix.1
In practice that means a uniform sky blue, with any matrix usually fine and pale. On most mines you identify the stone by reading its matrix. Here the matrix, when present, is fine and pale rather than a signature web — which is also precisely why it is straightforward to imitate with treated or foreign material.
Why it is everywhere
Volume. Lowry records that Sleeping Beauty and Kingman production “was so great that the sheer volume was able to supply large quantities around the world, thereby becoming famous sources of turquoise.”1 The Indian Arts and Crafts Board brochure names Sleeping Beauty and Kingman as “the most commonly marketed American turquoise”2 — though see the independence note on that source, because it is not a second voice.
It has become famous “especially in European and Middle Eastern markets as well as with the Native American Zuni Pueblo artists in New Mexico.”1 The stone also travels to be cut: Lowry captions a photograph of Iranian hand-cut Sleeping Beauty beads.1
The one ownership-adjacent fact our reference library carries: Leonard W. Hardy leased the Sleeping Beauty, along with the Kingman mine.1 No dates are given for the Sleeping Beauty lease.
The fraud, and the treatment question
Lowry: “tons of Mexican and Chinese turquoise have been misrepresented and sold as Morenci, Sleeping Beauty, Lander Blue, Lone Mountain, as well as many other mines.”1
There is a second axis here that matters more for this mine than for most, because the clean look is reproducible: “a natural high-grade Sleeping Beauty turquoise stone is always worth more than an Enhanced Sleeping Beauty stone that was processed to look similar to it in color and clarity.”1 “Enhanced,” in the Indian Arts and Crafts Board’s vocabulary, means a patented process used to darken the colour of low or medium grade turquoise to imitate a higher grade.2 Ask which one you are buying, and get the answer in writing.2
Current status
Our sources do not say, so we do not either.
The most recent reference work we hold is Lowry, published in 2010. It describes the Sleeping Beauty open pit in Gila County as a working copper operation producing turquoise as a by-product, and records no closure. We have not found a citable source in our reference books for the mine’s current status, so we do not state one.
We are aware of what is widely repeated in the trade about Sleeping Beauty’s turquoise production ending. It is not in our books. Until we can cite it, it does not go on this page — and if you see it stated as fact elsewhere, it is worth asking that seller what they are citing.
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
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) on Leonard W. Hardy:
“His operation greatly expanded when he successfully bid on the turquoise concessions at Kingman, Castle Dome, and Sleeping Beauty.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 187 [3]
As of 2021, Chambless & Ryan reported:
“The mines at Bisbee, Morenci, Castle Dome, and Sleeping Beauty are all closed, with little prospect of any turquoise ever again coming from those areas.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 187 [3]
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), the mountain range resembles a sleeping woman from a distance; the turquoise runs from chalky white to sky blue with a clarity that can rival famous Iranian and Chilean stone, and it became famous in European and Middle Eastern markets and with Zuni Pueblo artists. [1]
Lowry (2010) on its long use at Zuni:
“the Zuni Pueblo artists of New Mexico have been using Sleeping Beauty turquoise mined near Globe, Arizona, along with a few other mines for over fifty years.”
— Lowry (2010), p. 230 [1]
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 watch bracelet:
“Stampwork with nuggets of Sleeping Beauty turquoise made by Eddie Spencer.”
— Bassman (1997), p. 23 [4]
Bassman (1997) pictured a needlepoint concha belt, necklace, earrings and bracelet by Betty and Billy Betoney, noting:
“All turquoise is Sleeping Beauty and all silver is overlay and channel work in a rug pattern.”
— Bassman (1997), p. 27 [4]
Bassman (1997, p. 42) pictured 14-karat gold channel-inlay rings and link bracelets made by Julian Arviso using Sleeping Beauty turquoise. [4]
Bassman (1997, p. 62) pictured a three-piece ranger belt buckle set with twelve Sleeping Beauty turquoise teardrop stones made by Betty and Billy Betoney. [4]
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.
Monty Nichols recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 181), that seventeen years of supplying flux to the Globe smelter qualified him to bid on the Sleeping Beauty turquoise contract, which he and a partner won and he held from 1988 to 2012. [5]
Nichols told Ryan & Chambless (2020) where the name comes from:
“The mining company, Copper Cities, was under a mountain that looked like the Sleeping Beauty in slumber”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 181 [5]
Monty Nichols recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 181), that L. W. Hardy held the turquoise for about twenty-two years and sold to Sterling Foutz, who had it about two years; when the mine changed hands the contract went out to bid, Nichols's side won it, and after three eight-year renewals the owner decided to reclaim the mine and close it. [5]
Monty Nichols recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 182), that turquoise was still left when the mine was closed, but it was re-drilled for copper and was not high-grade enough to reopen, and acid runoff liabilities led the owner to reclaim it, which was the end of Sleeping Beauty. [5]
Monty Nichols recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 182), that roughly half of their production was treated, since all the chalk had to be treated to be useful, that the truly high-grade was probably under five percent, and that below it were at least fifteen grades by size, colour, hardness, rockiness and purity. [5]
Monty Nichols recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 182), that they mostly sold rough, at prices from a little under $20 a pound for the lowest untreated grade up to five hundred to eight hundred dollars a pound. [5]
Nichols told Ryan & Chambless (2020) about the look-alikes:
“Every year we'd hear that some turquoise mine in China opened that had stone just like Sleeping Beauty, but it never materialized.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 182 [5]
Monty Nichols explained, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 183), that Sleeping Beauty's colour had a lot to do with aluminum, since iron turns turquoise green and aluminum turns it blue, and that its clear blue came from having fewer inclusions. [5]
Monty Nichols recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 183), that Sleeping Beauty had been seen almost only in Indian jewelry until he and his partner promoted it, largely by word of mouth through Germany and Italy, for contemporary jewelry with gold and diamonds, and that a craze for light-blue Sleeping Beauty moved through Europe and then into China. [5]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 237), much of the treated turquoise that Chinese manufacturers bought from American companies in the 1980s was Kingman and Sleeping Beauty, valued for the consistent sky-blue of stabilized chalk material. [5]
Ron Alexander recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 262), that Sterling Foutz's Sterling Products, begun in his garage, cut Sleeping Beauty turquoise production-style for the Gallup market under a contract with Hardy to supply stone from the mine; Foutz later acquired Jim Zachary's enhancing process and a large block of stock in the Hardy Turquoise Company, which by the late 1980s was struggling to get consistent raw material. [5]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 274), much of the largest supply of lower-grade chalk turquoise sits in big metal mines, most of them no longer producing, and those still running use chemical refining that destroys turquoise; closed operations such as Sleeping Beauty and Bisbee were being reclaimed, which destroys any turquoise left in the dumps. [5]
The mine glossary in Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 344) lists the Copper Cities Mine in Gila County, Arizona as Sleeping Beauty, and places the Castle Dome copper mine, another turquoise source, near Sleeping Beauty and next to Pinto Valley. [5]
From the Library: Lowry, Turquoise Unearthed: An Illustrated Guide (2002)
2002 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2002, not today.
Lowry (2002) on why it matches so well:
“A heavy producer of copper ore, the Sleeping Beauty mine also produces remarkably uniform blue turquoise that is easily matched or cut into sets and used in many styles of Indian jewelry, including Zuni needlepoint and inlay pieces.”
— Lowry (2002), p. 50 [6]
Jacka (1995, p. 63) also notes in a caption: "Due to its even blue color and lack of matrix, the Sleeping Beauty turquoise used here is often favored among jewelers who do needlepoint, petit point, and smaller cluster work." [7]
According to Lowry (2002, p. 50), Sleeping Beauty's natural matrix is generally white, and it was dyed black using shoe polish. [6]
As of 2002, Lowry (2002, p. 50) reported that Sleeping Beauty was relatively abundant and so more affordable, which made it one of the few classics actively exported to markets in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. [6]
According to Lowry (2002, p. 45), Sleeping Beauty and Carico Lake gave individual artists and large manufacturers alike a steady supply of stones consistent in color and price. [6]
From the Library: Jacka, Navajo Jewelry: A Legacy of Silver and Stone (1995)
1995 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1995, not today.
As of 1995, Gene Waddell of Waddell Trading Company told Jacka (1995, p. 81) that about the only Arizona turquoise mine still producing was Sleeping Beauty, near Globe. [7]
Field Notes by Mateo James
A short honest page beats a long confident one, and this is the page where that trade-off is most obvious. Everything a content farm would put here — the discovery story, the closure year, the ownership chain — we simply do not have a source for. Publishing it anyway would make this page read better and be worth less. If you are buying Sleeping Beauty, the questions that actually protect you are whether the stone is natural or treated and whether the seller will put the mine of origin in writing.
This page said none of our books gives Sleeping Beauty's ownership history or closure. Part Two now prints Monty Nichols's account: Hardy, then Sterling Foutz, then Nichols and his partners from 1988 to 2012, when the owner chose to reclaim and close the mine. That is one miner's memory, published by Ryan & Chambless (2020), and it agrees with Part One's line that Sleeping Beauty is closed.
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.
Back to the Southwest Jewelry Guide.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Lowry, Joe Dan, and Joe P. Lowry. Turquoise Unearthed: An Illustrated Guide. Photography by Mark Nohl. Tucson, AZ: Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2002. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2002.
- Jacka, Lois Essary. Navajo Jewelry: A Legacy of Silver and Stone. Photographs by Jerry Jacka. Flagstaff: Northland Publishing, 1995. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1995.
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