Columnist Susan Snyder: Blue stone of Nevada keeps shining

Monday, Sept. 22, 2003 | 8:16 a.m.

Nevada is called the Silver State, but its heart belongs to turquoise.

Turquoise has been mined for at least 70 years in central Nevada -- so much that the state once was considered the nation's capital for production of the typically pale blue stone.

The heydey ended in the early 1980s, but turquoise is still plucked from Nevada's vast interior, much of it from family-owned hobby mines.

Duane Cooley and his son Jason sell their mined gems through Jason's Art Gallery, the rock shop they co-own in Austin. The Cooleys also own two mines, the Papoose and Austin Blue. Papoose is old and nearly tapped out, Duane said.

But Austin Blue is new. Cooley hasn't even broken ground on the site that sits about 20 miles west of Austin.

The U.S. Geological Survey says turquoise is "a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminum formed by the percolation of meteoric (water) or groundwater through aluminous rock in the presence of copper." Scientific for, "It's pretty."

The term turquoise is believed to have come from "Turquie," French for "Turkey," the USGS says. The stone first appeared about 6,000 years ago in Persia (now Iran), and much of it came to Europe via Turkey -- hence, the French connection.

An estimated 100 turquoise mines once operated in Nevada, and it was the nation's largest turquoise producer from the 1930s through the early 1980s, USGS information says. Nevada's stones vary from blues to greens to even yellowish greens, which indicate the presence of iron.

Duane's uncle taught him nearly 30 years ago how to spot the grayish black "chirt" outcroppings that signal the presence of turquoise. Once the chirt is blasted into chunks, the turquoise is easy to spot.

He held up a brownish chunk of rock embedded with bright blue lines.

"You just kind of look for seams," he said. "It runs in veins."

Duane and his son will mine Austin Blue by themselves and by hand. It's hard work better suited to the cool temperatures of fall and spring.

"You get (an air) compressor and drill and blast away," Cooley said. "After that is over, it's a lot of handwork and digging. Once we start digging I'll take the kids out there and tell them to pick up anything that's blue. "

Before Duane can start digging he must submit a mine plan, be cleared for presence of American Indian artifacts and file the bond that will pay for land reclamation once the digging is finished.

Some of what the Cooleys mine is sold as loose stone in their shop or sent to jewelry-makers elsewhere.

"We do a lot of mail order," Duane said. "We supply a lot of the jewelry-makers down in New Mexico -- the Hopi, Zuni and Navajo down there."

Much of the rock they mine is used in the jewelry Jason creates. His work accounts for about half of the inventory in the family's store. It helps him pay for college and allows him to adopt a work schedule that fits his class load.

"It's a good job for going to school," the younger Cooley said.

He has taken some college courses in working with silver and gold, but he isn't planning to make jewelry more than a nicely paying hobby after graduation.

"I want to be a pharmacist," he said. "You can live anywhere."