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Fox Mine; Nevada, Lander County, Bullion District. The Cortez or Fox
turquoise mine is in the bottom of a canyon in the NE1/4, sec. 34, T.
27N., R. 47 E. about 1.5 miles southwest from the mouth of Cortez
Canyon. The mine is accessible over a well-graded road.
The Fox turquoise mine is in a faulted, argillized block of chert in
which the beds strike predominantly N. 60-degrees E. and dip about 45
degrees SE. Pseudomorphs of limonite after pyrite attest to the former
presence of pyrite in the argillized zone. Greenish and blue turquoise
occur in silicified, limonite veinlets that follow the bedding.
Smaller veinlets form flat-lying units in the chert.
George Schmidtlein visited the deposit about 1910 or 1912; the
location of the Fox mine was revealed to Schmidtlein by a servant in
his household. It had been known to the indians for centuries and
almost everyone in the vicinity had some of the turquoise in one form
or another. In 1912 Schmidtlein and his wife made a trip east, taking
some of the turquoise to the C. D. Peacock Jewelry Co., in Chicago.
Peacock agreed that Fox turquoise was "very Pretty," but knew of no
market for it, so Schmidtlein dropped the matter.
In 1914, Charles Schmidtlein, son of George, and Johnnie Francis filed
an official notice of location on the property under the name of "Fox
Lode Mining Claim." Other mines had been developed in Nevada at the
time, and a definite market for the ore had been established.
Schmidtlein and Francis worked the claim until they had established
it's value and, in 1915 sold the property to William R. Mc Gaw for
$3000.00.
McGaw put a crew of miners to work extending the development. The Fox
turquoise mine has been developed as an open cut. Another cut was
opened along the face of the vein and production expanded. Following
the death of McGaw, Edward C. Smith, a relative, assumed management of
the mine. When Smith died, his son Charles E. Smith became manager.
In the 1940's, Dowell Ward purchased the old Cortez claims and
developed them using the names Fox, White Horse, Green Tree and Smith
to differentiate among the colors produced in the area and to create a
larger perceived share of the turquoise market. The area produces a
huge amount of good quality green or blue-green turquoise with a
distinctive matrix. The story is told that during the time he owned
the claims, Dowell Ward, amassed one of the largest collections of
rough turquoise ever. Dowell's widow Faye is now in possession of the
collection and the claims.
The Fox mine has probably produced more turquoise than all the other
mines in the state put together; a conservative estimate of the total
production has been put "not less than 500,000 pounds." For years the
mine produced more than 2,000 pounds of turquoise a month. The bulk of
Fox turquoise is only a fair quality, being deficient in color, but is
quite hard and excellently suited to artificial coloring. For this
purpose, most of the mine production for years was sold to factories in
Idar-Oberstein, Germany. Much excellent ore was, however, processed in
the United States.
The turquoise was found in nodules of all sizes; hundreds were as large
as a mans fist, many even larger. The Fox mine is also known for the
sea foam type of nuggets and blue green kind of bubbly material it
produces. It is often left in it's "nugget" rough state and slightly
polished for that appearance. The mine is being worked again and this
is new material. The color ranges from blue/green to a dark blue. The
material is solid and hard (for Turquoise) and cuts well. The rough is
almost all nuggets.
The largest true-blue nugget without matrix inclusions found at the Fox
turquoise mine weighed slightly more than one pound, ( a troy weight
pound is about 1,866 carats ) and was presented to the Smithsonian
Institution in Washington, D.C.. Another huge nugget, almost as large,
was presented to Tiffany & Co., New York City. Mrs. Clara L. McGaw had
a nugget which weighed about one pound but this had a slight amount of
matrix in it.
