Cerrillos Turquoise is not only an uncommon and unique form of native New Mexican turquoise,but also has a long history which is deeply entwined with both the ancient native peoples of the Southwest and the more recent American mining companies. Considered the oldest known source for turquoise in America, the Pueblo peoples continued to extract turquoise from the Cerrillos mine until the 1870’s when a silver mining boom raised interest in the area. The Tiffany Company in New York and its associates bought up the mine area and extracted $2,000,000 worth of turquoise between 1892 and 1899, the per carat value of which has never again been attained. Cerrillos turquoise was created and mined under unusual circumstances, as it is the only turquoisethat has been known to form at the base of a volcano. Thus, a variety of colors developed from the minerals in the various volcanic host stones. Cerillos turquoise thus offers a huge range of different colors, from tan and khaki-green to a rich, blue-green to a multitude of blues and even white. Cerrillos is a very hard stone and so takes a brilliant polish. Much of the host rock is riolite. In addition to producing distinctive colored stones, the Cerrillos mines are considered the oldest mines of any kind in North America. Located ten miles south of Santa Fe, it was the site of the largest prehistoric mining activity on the continent because the huge turquoise deposit was partially exposed at the surface. Miners from the San Marcos Pueblo, who later moved to Santo Domingo Pueblo south of Santa Fe, most heavily worked the mine. Using only stone axes, mauls, antler picks, and chisels, Pueblo miners removed 100,000 tons of solid rock to create a pit mine 200 feet deep. They dug other vertical shafts into the ground to reach veins of turquoise. Miners carried tools and leather rock buckets on their backs as they climbed in and out of the shafts using notched logs as ladders.
