EddyR

Wow I love this thread as it has touched on many of my past adventures from Arizona. I was working on a project for Valley National Bank in 1975. I was spending a few days in Prescott and the President of Valley set up a supper date for me to meet his friend Louis L Amour. I had done a lot of unusual jobs as a DOD SOD contractor and was wanting to write a book about it. Had many phone conversations with Louis after that and he said he was going to work me into one of his stories. At the time he was working on " The Shadow Rider" I wonder if I am Dal Traven. I never read the book until I saw the movie and Louis was gone by then.
EddyR

stardognine

Yeah, I haven't read that many of his books yet, and those were mostly several years ago now, but he was like a national treasure. 👍 I also saw a lot of similarities, in the use of facts in fiction, on the topic of the Anasazi, in "X-Files: The Movie". At least that's close to what it was called, been a few years since that came out. 😉 I'm planning to re-watch that, now that I've read this book. 😎

stardognine

Very cool, count me as envious. 👍 I'd love to try my luck at actual mining, but honestly, I just don't have the resources or knowledge that it takes. 😒 Like Clint said, a man's got to know his limitations. 😁😉

stardognine

I think I just scored some Dry Creek turquoise, but I'm still not 100% sure, lol. 😁😉 This men's cuff (bracelets are for women), is a very thin silver, compared to the older stuff, and doesn't have a hallmark, but it is stamped 925. I had to look through many pics online, to find stones like this, because each stone is one of a kind, it seems. But the description says it should have a "golden to dark chocolate brown" matrix, and the golden matrix like this, seems a little less common. 🤔

I know, when in doubt, you should pass, but this was in an antique store that supports an animal shelter, and was in a display case with many quality pieces, some with hallmarks, including a great Effie watchband. So I took a chance. After all, this was only $60, and helps animals. 😎

stardognine

Well, there's an older Native American lady, at one of the swap meets in Golden Valley, who told me don't sweat the hallmarks so much, and she said this is almost certainly Dry Creek turquoise. So I'm calling score. 😁 BTW, Dry Creek is also called Sacred Buffalo turquoise, by the Shoshone tribe, which is where this mine is( in Nevada somewheres). Which finally kinda justifies this thread, lol. 😎

I also grabbed this old ring, with no hallmark, because it has that cool Bianchi Celeste (almost) colored turquoise. 😉 This one is definitely natural turquoise, and way smoother than it first looks. And kinda unique, with that feather. The silver was almost all black, from tarnish, but cleans itself up pretty good, just from wearing it, and washing your hands a few times. 🙂

stardognine

OK, last one, I promise. 😉 I just picked this old Navajo necklace up, at the Needles Museum, of all places. Their museum is much smaller than you might think, but has a lot of cool stuff in a small place. One display case has donated items, that are for sale, to help support the place. Probably from estates, is my guess, didn't ask. 🤔

Anyways, this pretty much has it all, blues, greens, a yellow (pretty rare), and another white stone, but this one is a lot whiter than that blueish-white I posted recently. 😎

There is some age-cracking on a few stones, but some folks, me included, figure that's normal, & doesn't really take away from it much at all. In fact, it just shows that it's far less likely to be fake, lol, those cracks would be tough to duplicate. 😉

Something else that's really cool is, one display case is devoted to Charles Schulz, the creator of the "Peanuts" cartoon strip. You know, Snoopy & Charlie Brown. 😁 He wasn't born in Needles, but lived here during part of his childhood. 😎

Anyways, I figure I must have enough turquoise by now, and can't really afford to keep buying it, lol, so I'm done. 😁😉

My next adventure, Spirit Mountain, and "maybe" Las Vegas. I'm no gambler, but I am kinda lucky, so might dabble a bit. 🤔😎