Blowing In The Wind Of The Nevada Desert Are The Whispers Of Legends.

The whisper of an old prospector from an earlier time, who roams the hills in central Nevada.

Armed with his tools, his character and his love for the hunt of treasure, Lynn Otteson is the last of a rare breed. A generous man, he needs only the necessities.

Otteson wears a cowboy hat, a handkerchief around his neck, a canteen slung over his shoulder, a can of tobacco in his back pocket and a pickax in his hand.

For decades he has wandered, discovered, and remembered the whisper of buried treasure calling to him. Lying in the ground deep in the desert, surrounded in black chert, another legend waits. Rare and beautiful, like the white buffalo, white turquoise waits to be discovered and desired. Here in the expansive desert, the location only known by a few the two legends meet.

Otteson was born in the small Colorado town of Sanford 1925. Raised near the Manassa King mine. Otteson was schooled in turquoise by one of the most ingenious prospectors of our time. 'Pete King'. Otteson learned to read rock formations and was struck with mining fever.

In 1958 Lynn Otteson moved to Tonopah Nevada, to seek his fame and fortune, and has become a legend in his own time in the turquoise world. He has covered the desert on foot, scouting for turquoise for decades. Walking all day, he has found many pockets and veins of the beautiful and unique stone. The locations of which are known only to him. Even after losing half his foot in a courageous gun battle, he walks the desert.

When his son and partner Dean, who runs the family cutting shop and mines, told his Pa that people wanted something white, Otteson knew right where to go.

He remembered the White Buffalo turquoise that he had seen years before. So they unearthed the rare and beautiful treasure. There are critics and competitors who say it isn't turquoise at all. However White Buffalo lies in veins like turquoise.

Surrounded by in black chert a black rock similar to flint. It cuts and polishes like turquoise. And IT HAS GEOLOGISTS baffled.

So, until someone can prove differently, we are going to call it White Turquoise from the White Buffalo mine. If you are ever passing through Tonopah, stop and ask where Lynn Otteson lives.

And if you can find him, he will be glad to visit with you.

And if you want to see a twinkle in his eye, talk to him about turquoise.

What is white turquoise?

This is a very debated question. Many claim to have the white turquoise, but, unfortunately, not all are being truthful. There are also many that misunderstand what this stone really is and looks like and where it can be found. Many people confuse white buffalo turquoise, which isn’t really turquoise at all, with the “sacred buffalo turquoise” also known as Dry Creek Turquoise and white turquoise. However, they are not one and the same. I am going to attempt to try and explain about the white turquoise so that, hopefully, you can be a more informed shopper. You can find many conflicting stories about white turquoise and this is my attempt to share with you what I do know about this mysterious stone.

Back in 1993 stones were found in a turquoise mine that did not resemble the deep color of turquoise that we have grown to know and love. It was pale and even white like porcelain. In fact, the owner of the mine referred to it as porcelain and tried to market it by that name years ago.

Here is a very well know article about the discovery of white turquoise as reprinted in it entirety here from an article from the official publication of Miami Valley Mineral and Gem quoting an article from Club Rockhound Gazette 12/00 via Glacial, Drifter, Via ACHATES Jan-Feb 02:

When discovered in the Dry Creek Mine (Note: not its name today) in the Shoshone Indian Reservation near Battle Mountain, Nevada in 1993, they (the discoverers) were not sure what it was. Because of its hardness, it was decided to have it assayed. Their suspicious proved correct.

It was, in fact, white turquoise. It was not until 1996, however, that it was finally made into jewelry.

The Shoshone Indians are not known for jewelry work and, as a consequence, the Shoshone sell or trade the white turquoise to the Navaho in Arizona who work it into jewelry. Because white turquoise is as rare as the white buffalo, the Indians call it “White buffalo” turquoise. Turquoise gets its color from the heavy metals in the ground where it forms. Blue turquoise forms where there is copper present (most Arizona turquoise). Green turquoise forms where iron is present (most Nevada turquoise). White turquoise, where there are no heavy metals present, turns out to be rare. To date no other vein of white turquoise has been discovered anywhere else. When this current vein runs out that will be the last of it. From Rockhound Gazette 12/00 via Glacial Drifter, and others, Via ACHATES Jan-Feb 02

Apparently, at one time this mine talked about in this article was referred to as the “Dry Creek Mine,” but that is not its name today. There is another mine in Nevada that is today called the Dry Creek Mine also known as the Godber or Burnham mine currently owned by the Woods family located near Austin, Nevada. They are not one and the same and are many times confused as such.

Many debate if there really is a white turquoise and not being a gemologist myself I cannot say for a fact that there is, but I do trust the man, now deceased, that owned the actual mine where we get our “sacred buffalo” white turquoise stones that all this debate is over and the silversmiths that have an exclusive to this white turquoise.

The owner of the mine says it is real turquoise and it is the only mine that has it. He owned the mine that is referred to in the above article. I have spoken with him personally and I believe every word he told me to be the truth. He told me that he had what was discovered and assayed to be white turquoise and that there isn’t much of it around now. Up until his recent death, he operated the mine himself. He told me that, “years ago he couldn’t even give it away because no one wanted it because of it’s lack of color.”

Stan only mined this mine occasionally, and all he did mine went to one man only, one of our silversmiths. Recently, they purchased the last sacred buffalo turquoise that was mined prior to Stan’s death, so the availability of this stone is getting even rarer still. It is my understanding that his widow and sons, are not interested in trying to mine what little bit of this stone that was left since his passing.

While Stan was living he gave our silversmith the first option to purchase all stones mined. It seems to me that until recently neither Stan, the mine owner or the silversmiths with the exclusive rights to these stones realized how much in demand this stone is. That is just my observation. Our silversmiths do refer to it as Dry Creek Turquoise and the “Sacred Buffalo” Turquoise. It is genuine white turquoise and the owner of the mine confirmed this to me.

All I can promise you is that we sell the stones that come from this mine and is known as “white turquoise” or the “sacred buffalo” turquoise and is reported to be genuine white turquoise. We are one of the fortunate few that do have this available. If you would like to own a piece of this stone that there is so much debate about, we can offer you that.

After talking with the owner of the mine, I believed him to be telling me the truth. He had no reason to lie. He isn’t trying to market his stones to the public or he wouldn’t have made a deal to exclusively sell to one man years ago and still honor that promise. Stan, the owner of this white turquoise mine, seemed to me to be an honest and hardworking man. He was mining this vein himself, because he enjoyed it so much and did so until his recent death. I believe he was around 78 when he died recently. Our silversmiths are honest and hard working, their goal being to provide quality, beautiful sterling silver jewelry with beautiful and quality gemstones. Sacred Buffalo white turquoise is just one of the gemstones that they work with. They have no desire to try and deceive anyone.

 
Because of the exclusive purchase agreement between my silversmiths and the mine owner, and the sudden popularity of this rare stone, there have arisen some terrible marketing deceptions to fool the uneducated public seeking to own this rare stone. They are trying to sell you something that they know is not what they represent it to be. Actually, there has been so much of the fake stuff marketed now that many people and retailers don’t even know what the real sacred buffalo turquoise as referred to in the article looks like anymore. I myself have run into them. Because of all this dishonesty, I am almost afraid to even claim that I have the stones referred to as white turquoise in that geological report. However, out of fairness to you I have tried to tell the story of this stone and let you decide. These are just my personal opinions and thoughts based on what I have learned in my quest to make sure I was offering you the real deal. To learn more about this stone see the article below.

More about white turquoise

So many geologic chains of events must synchronize to create just one thin vein of turquoise that the mineral can rightly be envisioned as a fluke of nature. Turquoise is the rare and improbable product of an incalculable number of chemical and physical processes that must take place in the right combination and proper environment over a time span of hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of years.

I have heard of howlite, quartz and calcite and many others being referred to as the “white buffalo.”
These are not a turquoise, but many get this confused or are misled into believe that stones like howlite are white turquoise. Howlite is very white with a black matrix and can easily be misrepresented as white turquoise. To learn more about howlite, please refer to the link “howlite and sometimes quartz and calcite” above. There is one Nevada mine selling calcite and quartz with trace amounts of turquoise as the sacred buffalo white turquoise, but it not. They even have adapted the story about the sacred buffalo turquoise and how it came about. I am amazed at how confused this has all gotten.

The mine that was discovered in 1993 is not the Dry Creek Mine of today located near Austin, Nevada. I cannot emphasis this enough. I cannot reveal the name of the mine today or it’s true location because of a promise I made to the owner, who is now deceased but I extend my promise to his surviving widow and sons. It is located near Battle Mountain in Nevada, is privately owned and up until his recent death was still operational. At this time the family has no desire to mine the vein any further and my silversmiths have purchased all that was mined at the time of the owner’s death.

They desire to maintain their privacy and rightfully so. The owner had told me, that the vein was almost depleted and true white pieces of turquoise are still being found, but are few and far between. He said that “the stones from this mine are truly rare.” He explained that he had an exclusive agreement to only sell to one person and thankfully enough southwestaffinity.com is fortunate enough to be able to have an association with these silversmiths. I have personally talked with the owner of this mine and the silversmiths and have done my best to relate that information to you without revealing the identity of those that wish to remain anonymous.

Sacred Buffalo Turquoise

ranges from pure white to a pale blue, mostly a pale robin’s egg blue. The matrix can run from a very dark brown to a rusty color to a golden brown.

Some pieces have a lot of matrix and others have little matrix. Oddly enough, though white turquoise is super popular now, some years back they tried to find a market for this white turquoise, which they referred to as porcelain due to its white appearance, but at that time few wanted. It couldn’t be dyed so they didn’t do too much with it. Before his death recently, the mine owner said the he didn’t find too many of the coveted truly white pieces now a days, but
there was a time he just “threw it down.” Now people are begging for this rare stone. It has been through the efforts of our silversmiths offering the “Sacred Buffalo white turquoise” to the public that white turquoise has become so popular.

White turquoises has become so popular and in such high demand that people contact us from all over the world looking for this wonderful stone. Unfortunately, because of it’s new found popularity; people that do not have access to it are marketing many other stones, such as howlite, and trying to convince unknowing buyers that it is white turquoise. This is the whole reason I have written this article. I too was confused, but I set out five years ago to learn the truth and am trying my best to bring it to the public and still honor peoples right to privacy and honor my promises to them.

This mine that was found in 1993 and is referred to as the “Dry Creek Mine” in the article above is not an underground mine as many might think. It is actually mined from the surface. It is located in Nevada near Battle Mountain, but don’t try to locate it. It is privately held and not someplace you can drive to. It is private property and not set up for tourisms. The gentleman that owned it sold his white turquoise to one man, exclusively, by a verbal agreement. This gentleman is one of the silversmiths that we get most of our pieces from.

Many people trying to locate the mine think they will find a quaint old time mine with lots of little jewelry stores selling white turquoise. According to the Director of the Battle Mountain Chamber of Commerce many people contact her because they can’t locate the Dry Creek Mine.

“I hate to see people make long trips to see something that is not accessible. White turquoise has become the rage and many people have driven hundreds of miles just to visit the Dry Creek Mine only to be greatly disappointed when they can’t”, says the Director of the Chamber of Commerce of Battle Mountain, Nevada.

If you wish to find out more about the Battle Mountain Chamber of Commerce go here:

Battle Mountain Chamber of Commerce

I have had contact with those that have located the Dry Creek Mine that was formerly the Godber or Burnham mine, and confirmed that though they mine some great pieces of natural turquoise, they do not have what is known as the white turquoise, and the owner doesn’t claim to be mining white turquoise either. I want to make that clear. It is the referring to the mine as the Dry Creek Mine in the article above by the Geological Society that causes this confusion. I have been told that many mines were referred to as the Dry Creek Mine. That is apparently the name of the area the mine is in.

It is our desire to bring you the authentic white turquoise otherwise known as the “sacred buffalo” as referred to in the above article and help you to be a more informed buyer. I have not seen an assayed report, nor am I a geologist, chemist, or gemologist, so I cannot tell without a shadow of a doubt that it is “white turquoise” especially since those in the geological society can’t even agree, but what I can tell you is that this “white turquoise” that has been written about in several articles including the one in the Rockhound Gazette and on many web sites and that started this entire debate on white turquoise is what we have to offer here on our web site.

I will be more than happy to try and answer your questions. I am not a gemologist, but an informed person just trying to let you know the truth.
Even those with turquoise mines have trouble telling it apart. It is only through having it examined by the experts that you can truly know for sure or purchasing from people you trust to be truthful with you.

I know that this all sounds so mysterious and I would love to be able to tell you everyone’s names and locations, but I made a promise and I am committed to that promise. Honestly, keeping my word means more to me, than being able to prove myself right.

Many well-known and honest gemologists don’t believe it really exists, but then again, many in the geological community say it does and say it was assayed and verified to be white turquoise. So if you believe that the geological community and that report published by them above is true then white turquoise does exist and from everything that I can confirm about it, we carry that white turquoise. You weight the information, do your homework and you decide. I wish you good luck. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to know more about this stone.

http://southwestaffinity.com/whiteturquoise.htm