Cerrillos Turquoise
Posted by Nativo Arts on
The Cerrillos Hills, about 20 miles southwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, hold some of the oldest documented turquoise mines on the continent. Archaeological evidence shows that Ancestral Puebloan people mined turquoise here for at least a thousand years before European contact, and researchers believe much of the turquoise found at Chaco Canyon originated from these very deposits, carried along ancient trade routes across the Southwest.
Cerrillos turquoise typically presents in shades of blue to blue-green, often without heavy matrix, giving many stones a cleaner, more uniform look than some of the heavily webbed Nevada varieties. Its long history and deep ties to Puebloan and later Navajo silverwork give Cerrillos turquoise a cultural significance that goes well beyond its physical characteristics — many Pueblo communities maintain that they hold ancestral rights to these historic mining grounds.
By the late 1800s the area had also become the site of a major silver mining boom, and the Tiffany Company famously extracted a significant amount of turquoise from the district in the 1890s. Today, genuine old Cerrillos material is treasured by collectors both for its beauty and its unmatched historical depth.
Cerrillos turquoise remains a meaningful find in any vintage Native American jewelry collection, connecting a piece to centuries of Southwestern history. Explore more turquoise varieties in our Gemstone Guide.