Villa Grove Turquoise: Field Guide to Colorado's High-Altitude Hall Mine

In 1915, Pogue knew Villa Grove only by report:

“The turquois is also reported to occur at Villagrove, Saguache County, about 25 miles south of Salida;”
— Pogue (1915), p. 47

Branson (1975) supplies the stone description this page lacked:

“The best is a deep sky-blue to pale blue, with attractive brown to black matrix, some with beautiful spider webbing.”
— Branson (1975), p. 39

According to Branson (1975, p. 39), it was one of the old mines and produced a high percentage of excellent hard blue turquoise.

According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 29), researchers compiled a database of 22 turquoise resource areas in the United States and northern Mexico using hydrogen and copper isotope ratios. ^[3]

Comparing Pueblo Bonito turquoise against that database, Chambless & Ryan (2021) report that

“of 29 artifacts sampled, 13 were linked to turquoise deposits at Cerrillos and the Jarilla Mountains of New Mexico and Villa Grove, Colorado”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 29 ^[3]

According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 170), Villa Grove, like Leadville and Cripple Creek, was a Colorado turquoise area that was not developed until later in the twentieth century; around 1900 the center of Colorado mining activity was near La Jara in Conejos County. ^[3]

According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 191), some of Colorado's finest turquoise was said to come from the Hall mine near Villa Grove in Saguache County, which Pearl called the first turquoise mine in Colorado opened by white men, though scientific work indicates Villa Grove turquoise was mined in prehistoric times. ^[3]

Chambless & Ryan (2021) date its peak:

“The Colorado Bureau of Mines states the most extensive period of production was during the mid-1950s.”
— Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 191 ^[3]

According to Lowry (2010, p. 225), the prehistoric deposits lie along low hills at about 10,000 feet, some seven miles northwest of Villa Grove; first mentioned in 1893, they were not actively mined as of 2010, and the largest dig site fills with water from a nearby spring. ^[4]

According to Lowry (2010, p. 225), the largest production came from the 1930s through the 1950s under Bob Hall (the Hall Turquoise Mine) and others, and many pre-1960 Zuni and Navajo cluster-style designs were made with this turquoise. ^[4]

Ryan & Chambless (2020) rank the Villa Grove claims among Colorado's best:

“The turquoise claims eight miles northwest of Villa Grove in Saguache County have a long history and have produced some of the most beautiful turquoise ever mined in the United States, and second in production from Colorado only to the King Mine near Manassa in Conejos County.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 91 ^[5]

Ryan & Chambless (2020) quote George Kunz's report for 1893, the first record of turquoise here:

“Bell and Barber opened what they term the Blue Gem Mine and the Manitou Mine, at Villa Grove Post Office, Colorado, 25 miles south of Salida.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 91 ^[5]

According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 91), Kunz found the early Villa Grove stone a fair blue but mostly fissured and veined with dark streaks, and few had been sold by 1894, though the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition's book noted beautiful specimens from the Blue Gem Mine at Villa Grove. ^[5]

According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 91), BLM records show a patent granted on June 6, 1904 to David G. Weems for the Turquoise Lode and Turquoise Blue Lode (20.66 acres), but Weems does not appear to have worked them, and the authors found no record of activity until 1934. ^[5]

According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 92), Alfred James (A. J.) Hall located the Junior H. Lode outside Villa Grove on September 10, 1934, days after a prospector named Secrest located the Rainbow; Hall added the Blue Jay and Blue Bird, bought the Rainbow from Secrest on May 19, 1935, and on June 3, 1937 located the AJ and Nell H. claims, which completed the Villa Grove group. He sold his claims in the 1950s. ^[5]

According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 92), Hall worked the mine extensively from 1936 until 1942, when production, like most turquoise production, appears to have been limited by the war. ^[5]

According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 92), Richard M. Pearl wrote in Colorado Magazine in 1939 that Villa Grove was the most important gem producer in the state, employing three men and producing hard blue turquoise in nugget and vein form relatively free of matrix; Pearl later reported a pit 50 feet deep, 102 feet long and 84 feet wide dug over an earlier tunnel said to have reached 200 feet, which was filled with water. ^[5]

As of 2020, Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 142) reported that Villa Grove had supplied some of the most desired turquoise on the market between 1940 and 1970, but that the mine was by then largely forgotten because it had long been idle. ^[5]

According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 144), A. J. Hall deeded the Villa Grove claims and Patent No. 16175 to Menless Carl Winfield on August 8, 1951; three more claims were located in 1963, and M. C. and Grace Winfield sold the seven claims and the patent to George Musick Jr. on October 12, 1966, for $40,000. ^[5]

According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 144), Colorado Bureau of Mines records put Villa Grove's production between 1952 and 1957 at an estimated $78,000, with 1956 the biggest year at $33,000 in sales. ^[5]

Robert Winfield recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 143), that his father went to work for A. J. Hall at Villa Grove around 1951 and then bought the mine; he briefly sold it to J. W. Edgar and Lucky Brown in 1961 before taking it back, and sold it to George Musick in 1966. ^[5]

Grace Winfield recalled, in a letter published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 144), that it took eighteen months to bring the mine into production; the family went from pick, shovel and wheelbarrow to a Caterpillar D-4, then a D-6 and a D-8, their largest strike came in 1953, and by the time they sold, the pit was about 150 by 200 feet across and 80 to 90 feet deep. ^[5]

Grace Winfield recalled, in a letter published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 144), that the stone came as very fine blue nuggets in clay, in a channel sandwiched between very hard granite, in many grades but three main ones: bright light blue, medium blue, and dark, medium and light green. The jewelry market wanted the blue, and the green went as trading material. ^[5]

Grace Winfield, who owned the mine with her husband from 1951 to 1966, wrote in a letter published by Ryan & Chambless (2020):

“Remember, the Villa Grove Mine, while producing some of the highest-grade blue in the world, was not a producer of large stones.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 144 ^[5]

Grace Winfield recalled, in a letter published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 145), that in those years Villa Grove rough sold for ten to twenty dollars a pound in the lower grades, eighty dollars for medium grade and two hundred dollars for the highest grade (the era's prices), and that Arizona copper-mine turquoise selling for as little as five dollars a pound hurt the market. ^[5]

According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 214), the Colorado Bureau put the value of Villa Grove production in the 1950s at an estimated $80,000; the top year was 1957, when 450 pounds of trim high-grade sold for $15,600. ^[5]

According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 214), Menless Winfield was actively mining the claim during that 1950s period, and after the mine was sold to George Musick in 1966 much less mining took place. ^[5]

According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 214), under Musick most of the work was done in summer by his wife Phuong Thi Musick and her mother, screening and washing the old dumps, until the couple divorced in 1985. ^[5]

Ryan & Chambless (2020) explain why Villa Grove was unusual:

“Lack of water is a challenge for most turquoise mines in the United States.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 214 ^[5]

According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 214), a mountain spring gave Villa Grove ample water, which is useful for cleaning stone but makes digging below the surface very hard; because western states allocate water, the ample water available could not be used for mining without water rights, and in 1981 Musick obtained a right of 30 gallons per minute for washing and milling. ^[5]

As of 2020, Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 214) reported that little turquoise had come from Villa Grove since 1990 apart from nuggets picked from the dumps by the current owner, Randy Christensen. ^[5]

Randy Christensen, the later owner, described the property in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020):

“They are patented claims, two 10-acre claims, the Turquoise Load and the Turquoise Blue Load.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 215 ^[5]

Randy Christensen recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 215), that Winfield broke into what the miners called the great room, the mother lode of Villa Grove, through a drift; Winfield then bought a D7 Cat, scraped off the top to reach the vein material, and pushed the small nuggets into the dump, which is what Phuong Musick and her mother later washed. ^[5]

Randy Christensen recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 215), that the Musicks sold only limited quantities of the hard nuggets, to Zachary's in Albuquerque and to a couple of buyers in Tucson. ^[5]

Randy Christensen recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 216), that the old workings caved in a few months after Musick bought the mine and now lie under a spring-fed pond; running two three-inch pumps twelve hours a day lowered it only about four inches, and his water right may be used only for processing turquoise. ^[5]

David L. Neumann, a Santa Fe dealer writing in the early 1970s and reprinted in Stacey (1975, p. 71), rated a portion of the stones taken over the years from the Villagrove mine near Saguache as very good indeed, and noted that the mine had by then been abandoned for several years. ^[6]