Castle Dome Turquoise (AZ) 4-6mm Rounded Nugget Beads, 16 Inch Strand
Saturated blue color with Pyrite matrix
Castle Dome Turquoise or Pinto Valley Turquoise is one of the American Turquoise classics. The baby blue Turquoise from the Castle Dome mine in Arizona was widely used in Native American Jewelry. Between the 1940's and 1980's the mine supplied much of the Turquoise used in Zuni Jewelry and Navajo Jewelry. You will find a ton of Castle Dome Turquoise in old pawn jewelry.
Castle Dome (1943) and Pinto Valley (1972) are located five to eight miles west of Miami in Gila County, along the south slopes of the Porphyry Mountains. Large quantities of copper and Turquoise have been produced from these areas. Many old-time lapidaries did not like to cut this Turquoise because it had so many fractures in its structure, which might have been brought about by the blasting techniques that were used when it was mined. The mine produced all grades of Turquoise.
The high-grade material that was produced consisted of a beautiful bright and sometimes deep blue turquoise.
