Rock Hounds Got to Go to Turquoise Museum!

Turquoise Rough Stone

Recently, I visited the Turquoise Museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  If you have a passion for  turquoise, love Native American (aka Southwest Style) jewelry, or are just a happy rock hound - you got to go to this Turquoise Museum, if you are ever in the area.  If you have been to the museum before and are thinking it was not so big 0 then you probably visited the old location in the back of a jewelry store, where they had to limit displays due to space.  Just a few weeks before I went this last time, they had moved into the Gertrude Zachary Castle, which allows them to display even more turquoise plus science and history too.  This is a 3-story building that houses American (USA mines) turquoise on the 1st floor and international (non-USA) turquoise samples on the 2nd floor.   Both floors display Native American jewelry along with some Bali-influenced styles, in addition tp the rough-stones.  The 3td floor is not part of museum although I am not sure if it is included in the house tours where they talk about history of home, the paintings, and antiques in the museum.

Turquoise Set In Jewelry

The house was originally owned by the turquoise jewelry designer Gertrude Zachary.  Although she has passed on,  there are still stores in New Mexico that bear her name and carry on her mission to provide Native American jewelry designers a place to sell their pieces.   The jewelry is not just traditional Southwest Style, there are also very modern looking and elegant options.  Some of the GT stores in NM also sell antiques and vintage jewelry.  I did not study the miner/collector Zachary family tree in the museum, so I can not say if the Dick that Gertrude was married to was one of that family.  The main reason they moved the museum was to have more space to display all that they had plus have more space to expand as new turquoise mines are discovered

If you are a rock hound in NM and turquoise is really not your thing or you just want to see other stones too, check out Mama's Minerals.  They offer rough stones, beads, fossils, classes, and special events.  If bead-stringing and jewelry-making is your thing, there are lots of bead stores in NM, just do a search for "bead stores in" whichever town you are visiting.