Turquoise Trail
Cerrillos Turquoise Mining Museum, NM

A visit to the Mining Museum brings you to a private collection and display, of tools, equipment, objects and artifacts used in daily life during the mining era of Los Cerrillos.

The museum is on the site of the old Palace Hotel where Thomas Edison stayed while working on gold experiments in the nearby mining district of old placers, and NM territorial governor Lew Wallace drafted his book Ben Hur. Rough riders were recruited here to fight in Cuba following Teddy Roosevelt up San Juan hill.

Centuries ago, Native Americans mined this area for turquoise to use in trade and to make jewelry, some of which has been dated back to the 1200's. They also mined lead that was ground for paint and pottery glaze. Spanish explorers discovered these ancient diggings and worked the mines during the 17th and 18th centuries. Anglo miners toiled until early 1900's, when the mines became exhausted and played out.

The equipment and artifacts found here include prehistoric tools, photographs, maps, rocks, mineral samples, dry washers, gold pans, miners' lamps and drills. The museums' windows are a colorful and intriguing collection of old medicine bottles and telegraph insulators.