Sleeping Beauty Mountain With Snow!

This is Sleeping Beauty Mountain, the infamous turquoise mountain. This mountain is about 45 minutes from my home in the far southeast part of the Phoenix Valley. This is looking at it from the head down to the feet. You can't get the effect of the sleeping beauty which is what the mountain is known for. Isn't it beautiful with the snow on it?

What people don't realize is that it isn't a mine where you go into the side of a mountain or underground. The Sleeping Beauty Mine is just a side of the mountain that they blast part of it away and then they pull out the precious turquoise stones. The Sleeping Beauty Mountain was originally mined for copper and gold, but now the mine is closed to the public and mined solely for the turquoise. The mine was one of the largest producers in the world of turquoise. But now it only produces amounts of very small nuggets all of which need to be hardened.

Sleeping Beauty Turquoise is solid stone, no matrix and ranges in color from royal blue to a very light sky blue. To find natural Sleeping Beauty Turquoise is rare now a days. Most turquoise out there has been treated in some sort of way. So it is important that you know what you are looking at and who the seller is. Natural stone has not be changed in any way. The Stablilized stone has been saturated with a hard colorless acrylic or plastic to harden the stone and prevents it from changing colors from body oils and other chemicals. Then there are the Treated stones, they are stabilized and then color enhanced.

We also have Kingman and Bisbee Turquoise in the state. The Kingman Turquoise is still being mined, but the Bisbee Turquoise is not. So if you find any turquoise from the Copper Queen Mine in Bisbee, then you really do have a rare piece of turquoise. The Copper Queen Mine is for another day, it has a long histroy in world of copper and turquoise.

Hope you all have a great week, and Happy New Year!

Peace~