Other
turquoise prospects are reported to have been opened by Smithson &
Phillips about a mile east of the Wood mine on the east side of the
divide extending south from Crescent Peak.
A
turquoise prospect was opened several years ago, 1 mile south of
Crescent near the head of a small valley. This deposit is now owned by
G. W. Morgan, of Crescent, Nev. The workings consist of a tunnel 75
feet long driven southward into a hillside and connecting with a shaft
35 feet deep on an incline of about 70° E. with two smaller pits. The
country rock is a dark granular igneous rock of granitic or quartz
monzonitic nature. It is cut by a finer grained light colored rhyolite.
Both rocks have partly altered, and the rhyolite has been hardened by
secondary quartz. The turquoise occurs in seams and veinlets, chiefly
in the rhyolite. In places the turquoise shows a tendency to nodular
development in the veinlets. Fragments of greenish, pale-blue, and some
good nearly pure-blue turquoise were observed around the workings. Mr.
Morgan states that about 200 pounds of turquoise and matrix were
obtained, for some of which offers of $20 a pound were received.
NEW MEXICO.
The
turquoise deposits of the Jarilla mining district have been mentioned
in several of these reports by George F. Kunz. They have been referred
to as near Las Cruces, for many years the nearest railroad point. W. E.
Hidden1 furnished one of the best early descriptions of the
locality. He mentions at least 10 prehistoric workings and states that
mining was in progress at the time of his visit in 1893.
The
following information was furnished by Mr. Allen Culver, of Brice: The
mine known as the Tiffany mine was worked by David King about 20 years
ago and yielded a quantity of good turquoise. The De Meules mine was
worked two years preceding 1898, when De Meules, the owner, was
murdered by Jose" Flores as the result of a quarrel over a payment for
Flores's services as a witness at Las Cruces. The property is reported
to have yielded $60,000 worth of turquoise in the last year of
operation by De Meules. Later it was leased by Cv Ryan and Tom Kelly,
yielding a large quantity of good turquoise. The claim of Luna, Moreno
& Ascarate was worked about 13 years ago and proved fairly
productive. For the last several years only assesment work has been
done. The Tiffany mine has been pat-ented under the name of the Alabama
claims, the only patented turquoise claims in the district.
The
turquoise deposits of the Jarilla mining district are in two groups,
about 2 and 4 miles, respectively, northwest of Oro Grande, a station
on the El Paso & Southwestern Railroad, about 60 miles northeast of
El Paso. One group of claims is about one-third of a mile west of
Brice, a post office on a spur from the railroad 2 miles from Oro
Grande. The other group is li to 2 miles north of Brice.
Prominent among the deposits of the northern group are the old De
Meules mine and the Laura claim of F. B. Stuart, of El Paso. In the
i.ern group are the Alabama claims (locally called the "Tiffany" mine)
and the claim of Luna, Moreno & Ascarate.
• Two new localities for turquoise: Am. Jour Sci., 3d ser., vol. 46, pp. 400-401,1893.
