Navajo Triangular Shape Lone Mountain Turquoise Ring-Albert Jake (#030)

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The Lone Mountain or Blue Jay mine is in the General Thomas Hills, about 1 mile east of Paymaster Canyon in the NW 1/4 Sec. 18, T. 1 N., R. 41 E.  Esmeralda County, Nevada.(Continued below...)

Lone Mountain turquoise occurs as nodules in a thinly bedded calcareous shale.  The shale is complexly folded and faulted with the general strike being easterly.  Numerous shears are concentrated within a zone about 40 feet wide that trends N. 20 degrees - 45 degrees E. and dips 40 degrees - 50 degrees NW.  Most turquoise is within this zone and is associated with minor silicification and argillization.  Modern disturbance consists of an open pit in the form of two intersecting cuts.  The cuts are from 75 to 100 feet wide. The north-south cut is approximately 900 feet long and the east-west cut is approximately 400 feet long.  Waste rock piles are present to the east and south of the open pit.  A housing and equipment area lies to the north of the open pit.

Both solid blue and spider-web turquoise have been produced from the Lone Mountain mine in colors ranging from pale to dark blue without green tints.  Clear blue turquoise is found in the hard shales, and the spider-web variety is in the softer argillaceous zones; the two types are not found together.  The best of the hard blue turquoise has a hardness of 7 on the Mohs scale.  No turquoise from the mine has been known to fade or change its original color.  During operations in 1956, a unique find was made at the Lone Mountain mine; nuggets of clear blue, upon being split, revealed dendrites.  These are entirely distinct from the inclusions normally found in turquoise and closely resemble those found in moss agate, if they are not actually identical.  There has been no explanation for them, nor is there record of any similar occurrence.

The mine was worked through a 60 degree inclined shaft 200 feet deep.  There were five levels in the mine, about 40 feet apart, and subsequently the mine was deepened another 50 feet.  There are more than 1,500 feet of workings.  Most work since 1929 has been confined to a 100-foot zone along the course of the vein.  The mine was equipped with a gallows frame hoist, skip, compressor, jackhammers, and stopers.  The ore was drilled and blasted down into chutes, trammed to the shaft, and hoisted to the surface where it was screened and hand sorted in the sorting house.  There it was sacked for shipment to San Gabriel, CA.

The Lone Mountain mine was discovered by Lee Hand in 1920; Hand, however, disclaimed credit for finding the vein, declaring he only "rediscovered" it.  A man who owed Hand for a bill of goods offered to show him the vein outcropping if Hand would forgive the dept.  Hand agreed, and they went to Lone Mountain where several days searching failed to find the vein.  Several weeks later Hand went back alone and found the vein several miles from where they had previously searched.

From indications at the site someone had prospected the outcropping for copper.  A small trench, less than a foot deep, had been dug along the vein until the unknown prospector decided he had not found copper and abandoned the work.  In the debris taken from the trench, hand found a few pieces of high-grade turquoise which the origonal finder had not recognized.  Hand located and filed claim to the discovery as the Blue Jay Mining Lode.  Later, four other claims were filed:  Blue jay No. 1, Blue Jay No. 2, Blue Jay No. 3, and Blue Jay No. 4.  In the early years of its operation, the mine was known as the "Blue Jay Mine on Lone Mountain" and finally just as Lone Mountain."

Hand hired two miners, Jack Montgomery and Al Stevens, to open the vein.  In 1927, Hand leased the property to Bert Kopenhaver, who sank a shaft on the 60 degree inclined vein.  At a depth of about 40 feet, Kopenhaver found the first spider-web turquoise for which the mine has become famous.  In 1928 Hand sold a half interest in the mine to "Doc" Wilson.  The shaft was deepened to about 85 feet, with more spider-web turquoise being found.  In 1935 Hand sold his remaining half interest to Wilson, who thus became sole owner.   In the 1950's Sleeping Beauty Mining worked the claim for a short time.  Gene Waddell is now president of Lone Mountain Mining, having owned the mining claim for many years.  Chris Lott now operates the mine.

All of the turquoise from Lone Mountain, from the smallest pieces (the size of a match head) to the largest, was saved and used.  Stones were cut at a plant in San Gabriel, CA.  The largest nugget ever taken from the Lone Mountain mine was clear blue, 4 inches long, 3 inches wide and three-quarters of an inch thick.

The Lone Mountain mine was once one of the leading producers of fine turquoise in Nevada.  The turquoise from this mine is mostly good to high-grade and usually in the form of nuggets, although there is a quantity of vein material.  The turquoise is also noted for its ability to hold its color.  A very interesting occurrence of turquoise found here is a condition where the stone was deposited in cavities or molds left when parts of fossil plants were dissolved out of a harder rock

The turquoise is graded into golden matrix, black matrix and spider web. At present, most of it is cut and polished, or the nuggets drilled and polished, at the mine and very little rough is sold. Loan Mountain has become a very collectible turquoise.

About the artist:

Since 1959, Albert Jake has made his home in the beautiful country located about forty miles south of Gallup, New Mexico.  He was born at Zuni Pueblo and has resided in the village of Ramah for many years.  Albert’s parent taught him the many steps to fine Navajo silverwork which includes both cluster jewelry as well as beautiful stones in classic Navajo settings.

See full biography | See all items by Albert Jake

Related categories:

Lone Mountain Turquoise Jewelry See all items in this category
Jake Family Rings See all items in this category
Navajo Turquoise Rings See all items in this category

Related legends:

Silversmithing
When and how the Navaho acquired the art of working metals is unknown but there are reasons for supposing that it was introduced among them, or at least more developed and improved upon by them, since the time they have occupied their present country? More about this legend

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