Cerrillos Turquoise

Cerrillos Hills, New Mexico

The oldest documented turquoise mine in North America. Pueblo cultures have worked these stones for more than 1,500 years.

Where it comes from

Cerrillos turquoise comes from the Cerrillos Hills, twenty miles south of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Archeological evidence dates Cerrillos turquoise use to at least 200 AD. Ancestral Pueblo communities mined and traded the stone across what is now the American Southwest and into Mesoamerica for centuries before Spanish contact. The mine sites themselves are still visible in the hills today, several preserved as part of Cerrillos Hills State Park.

What makes it distinctive

Pale blue to blue-green stone, often with reddish-brown or pinkish matrix from iron oxides in the host rock. The color tends toward a softer, more matte character than glassy modern turquoise, which is part of the historical signature. Cerrillos rarely reads as electric or vivid. It reads as earned, weathered, and old.

How to identify it

Cerrillos mines are now mostly closed to commercial extraction, so material on the market is small-batch and historically significant. Look for the reddish iron matrix paired with that softer blue. Cabochons cut from Cerrillos rough often have an antique quality that hints at the long history of the stone.

Why this matters for Wildflower

Cerrillos sits at the heart of New Mexico's turquoise tradition and at the heart of Wildflower's Santa Fe roots. Owning a Cerrillos piece is as much about wearing local history as about wearing a stone. When we have Cerrillos material in the shop, we say so clearly.