Pilot Mountain Turquoise (Nevada) BIG Earring Slab Bead Pair, 18x50mm
When referring to Pilot Mountain Turquoise most people refer to Turquoise from the Troy Springs Turquoise and Montezuma Turquoise claims now generally called "Pilot Mountain mine". The Pilot Mountain Turquoise Mine is located in western Nevada. It first began as a copper mine. Soon after it was realized that the Turquoise found there was extremely high quality and more fertile than the copper. Copper mining ceased and the mine was claimed for mining Turquoise instead. Pilot Mountain Turquoise is known world wide for it vast array of colors and quality. William Miller of Tonopah discovered the Montezuma in 1905. Today these claims are owned by several different families. The two main families working the Pilot Mountain mines are the Wilson and the Cordova Families of Colorado.
This Nevada mine is one of the gem mines made famous for its extremely rare ability to form dendrites (manganese plant fossil replacements) in the Turquoise. The Pilot Mountain mine also produces some very high grade spiderweb stones, with interesting web matrix patterns that include red, brown, and black colors. It is a hard stone and so it takes a good shine that retains color longer and is resistant to skin oils. The Pilot Mountain claims produce Turquoise that looks like other famous mines, especially the Royston Turquoise mine, however, most of the material from the Pilot Mountain mine is very unique and easy to pick out from cabochons cut from stone mined elsewhere.
