Lander Blue Turquoise - History And Rarity

Have you heard of Lander Blue Turquoise, the rarest turquoise in the world?

In 1973, Rita Hapgood, a Blackjack dealer from the battle mountain, Nevada, went hiking with her sisters. While out hiking, she found some really fine-looking turquoise rocks. She then went back and filed a mining claim along Indian Creek, which borders the Lander ranch and Lander county.

Rita then sold the claim to Marvin Simes and Hank Dorian, who then brought in Bob Johnson to work the mine.

A "Hat" Mine

The land of mine turned out to be a hat mine, which is a way of saying that the mine was so small that you could cover it with your hat.

Only about a hundred pounds of high-grade Turquoise were extracted. Lander Blue Turquoise is now considered to be the finest and most rare turquoise in the world. It is known for its beautiful medium to deep blue spider webbing pattern against a dark, almost iridescent-looking matrix.

Beware of spurious ones.

A lot of people think that they have a piece of Lander Blue Turquoise when they get a nice-looking piece of dark blue spider web turquoise with a black matrix.

However, quite a bit of turquoise comes out of China that looks similar to the Lander Blue. And there are even some mines in the US that have produced pockets of spider web turquoise. That gets mistaken for Lander. Even the so-called experts make mistakes.

Jerry and Barbara Egland

In the early 1970s, a man named Jerry Egland and his wife, Barbara were involved in several business ventures in the Gallup, New Mexico area.

One of which was a company called the Montana Mining Company. About that time, a major turquoise jewelry boom was gaining momentum, and the Egglands were eager to invest in turquoise.

As the story goes, the Eglands were one of the prominent early investors in the Lander Blue Turquoise and wound up acquiring one of the largest private collections of authentic Lander Blue Turquoise around. Their collection has even been highlighted in a book, "Turquoise - The Gem of the Centuries", written by Oscar Branson and published in 1975.

To find out more about authentic Lander Blue Turquoise, visit Western Trading Post.

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