Where to Find Turquoise in California

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Turquoise is valuable, rare, and beautiful. Its presence speaks notes of the American Southwest, where the stone is found, and where the styles usually associated with it have been developed. These blue-to-green copper minerals can have exceptional beauty, but they’re also exceptionally rare. California happens to be one of the places where turquoise can still be found.

If you’re looking for where to find turquoise in California, read on and we’ll discuss some of the prime places to find this gorgeous stone in the Sunshine State.

Related: How To Identify Raw Turquoise

Where to Find Turquoise in California

1. Slate Mountain, El Dorado County

The Slate Mountains are east of Porterville, and roughly northwest of Bakersfield. This region is known to house some great minerals, including fantastic specimens of wavellite, an aluminum phosphate mineral. In addition to that, however, these mountains hide a mildly chalky secret.

Like much of the remaining public locations with turquoise, the Slate Mountain samples are mainly of low-to-mid grade. They’re best kept as specimens for the most part. The samples I’ve seen from the region tend towards a greenish color, with less blue than most turquoise possesses. They also tend to be a bit light in color and crumbly.

Much of the material called “turquoise” that comes down from the region around Slate Mountain is actually variscite. Variscite tends to be a brighter green than most turquoise, but it’s a related mineral and one used in much the same way. It’s possible to find decent variscite in the area, but the majority of the regular turquoise is a bit on the lower side of things

Still, there’s nothing quite like plucking some turquoise from the ground in a public area!

2. Apache Canyon Mine

Farther East, towards the state line, you can find the Apache Canyon Mine/Turquoise Occurrence. It lies just northeast of the town of Baker. As far as I can tell this is currently a privately worked claim, but it gives a good indication that there should be more turquoise in the region.

The material from this occurrence is generally higher quality than most California stuff. The best of it is a light robin egg blue with yellow-ish matrix veining throughout the stone. There are other pieces of interest here, especially for mineral specimen collectors. One of the cooler finds is turquoise pseudomorphs that have formed after beryl, giving it a distinctive crystalline shape while retaining its opaque blue coloration.

Don’t confuse it with the Apache Blue material from the Apache Blue Turquoise Mine in Nevada. Apache Blue is a high-grade, rare material with a deep blue color and it’s highly sought after by collectors. The material found in the Apache Canyon Mine is still great stuff, but it’s more of an archetypical turquoise blue at its best and doesn’t have the same distinctive features.

3. Llanada Copper Mine

The Llanada Copper Mine is primarily known for… well, copper. Hidden in the mountains of San Benito County, off the J1 to the southeast of Paicines. The mine is mainly known for copper, but like other copper deposits, there are plenty of related minerals scattered about. Among these are variscite and turquoise in small amounts.

The deposits in this area tend to be small blotches spread throughout a dark host rock. The color varies from light green (generally variscite) to blue-green. Once cut and polished these stones have an interesting appeal, even if it is a bit different than the more solid varieties of turquoise that most of us know. I think it’s appealing, personally, but it’s definitely a bit different than the variety which works its way into traditional turquoise jewelry.

Not all is as it seems in this case, however. The Llanada Copper Mine was also the first place where nissonite was properly described. Far rarer than turquoise, nissonite often forms thin crusts of crystals on the area’s bedrock, but instances of crystals more than a few millimeters across are vanishingly rare.

4. Soda Mountains

Once again near the small town of Baker, the Soda Mountains are a scenic location known for bearing turquoise. It’s a bit lesser known than the other locations in California but it spans a wide area and offers a good chance for new rockhounds to collect a sample or two. This area is out in the desert a bit, so prepare appropriately before heading out into the sun.

The turquoise from this region tends to be a bit pale and chalky, often with heavy matrix. That said, there is also some good, deep blue material that’s spread around. This material is often a bit “smaller” than it looks due to the way the matrix grows in and around the turquoise but it can be quite lovely and very solid. It’s the only place I’ve ever collected any that was worth cutting without stabilization, albeit a very small amount.

And, even if you don’t find any turquoise, the area is rife with excellent minerals. These range from common formations of calcite to rarer minerals chalcanthite, and there’s a lot there to explore. No matter what your taste in stones, there’s likely something nearby that’ll catch your eye if you kick up enough dust. This would be my preferred location to search, simply due to the rich diversity of the area’s stones and minerals.

Related: Where To Go Gem Mining In California

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