A couple of months ago, we sent a newsletter that talked about one of our favorite silversmiths, Jeanette Dale, that featured a beautiful sterling silver necklace and earring set made with #8 Turquoise from a mine by that name in the Lynn Mining District of Eureka County, Nevada.
We had a lot of people that were interested in the necklace, but there was only one! Jeanette and I have both been on the lookout for enough stones to make a large necklace again, but these stones are not common.
Recently, we came upon a small cache of the #8 Spiderweb stones and she was able to create three pendants with matching earrings. We are featuring them today.
The story of the #8 Spiderweb is interesting. The original mine was first filed on in 1929. From that time until the mine was depleted in 1961, it produced some of the largest nuggets ever discovered. It was also owned by some of the most famous names in turquoise mining history, including the Edgar brothers.
In June of 1954, the Edgars and Marvin Symes discovered a specimen that weighed 150 pounds!
The Edgars were also instrumental in discovering the most valuable turquoise that came out of the mine. In 1950, while looking for copper ore, the Edgars were running a bulldozer through the diggings when they uncovered a large amount of light blue spiderweb turquoise with matrix running from black to a reddish brown.
That one deposit netted over 1600 pounds of turquoise. It is a wonder to me that when you find spiderweb turquoise from this mine, you are guaranteed that it came from that discovery 70 years ago! It shows up on occasion, but not often!
#8 is one of Jeanette’s favorite stones and she was excited to make these pendant and earring sets! They are beautiful pieces of jewelry by one of the Navajo Nation’s finest silversmiths made with a legendary turquoise!
