Up Souvenir Mining Spoons Prev Next Slideshow

Previous image Next image Index page Original Image [Souvenir Mining Spoon Porterfield Turquoise Mines Silver City NM.JPG - 794kB]
Souvenir Mining Spoon Bonanza Mine Baker City OR
Souvenir Mining Spoon Bonanza Mine Bowl Engraving
Souvenir Mining Spoon Bonanza Mine Handle Top
Souvenir Mining Spoon Bonanza Mine Reverse Hallmark
Expo
  Souvenir Mining Spoon Porterfield Turquoise Mines Silver City NM.JPG - SOUVENIR MINING SPOON PORTERFIELD TURQUOISE MINES SILVER CITY NM - Sterling silver shovel-shaped spoon, memento from New Mexico Mines and Minerals display at 1904 St. Louis World's Fair Louisiana Purchase Exposition, marked in bowl PORTERFIELD TURQUOISE MINES, SILVER CITY, NEW MEX.; miners pan on the top of the handle with a miner, shovel, and pick, and marked ST. LOUIS 1904 in pan along with a piece of turquoise laid in; reverse marked with Mechanics Sterling Co. makers mark and Sterling; length 4 in., weighs 12 grams [At the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, the Porterfield Turquoise Mines Company displayed a replica of a New Mexico turquoise mine where these souvenir spoons with a piece of their turquoise were sold as mementos. The Porterfield Mines were in the Burro Mountain District just south of Silver City, NM in an area known as Tyrone today. M. W. Porterfield, known as the turquoise king and the father of turquoise mining on a commercial scale, sent several tons of ore from his turquoise mines in New Mexico for the erection of a turquoise mine at the 1904 St. Louis Expo. Porterfield was executive commissioner of the New Mexico exhibits at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893 as well as the Omaha Exposition in 1898 and the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, preparing all the exhibits from the Territory. Melvin W. Porterfield was born September 6, 1855 at Fairfield, Illinois, the son of William H. and Elizabeth Porterfield. He was reared and educated at Fairfield before receiving a graduate degree from the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, in the class of 1877. He moved to Silver City in the New Mexico Territory in 1888 where he and his brother W. C. Porterfield established a drug business. Until 1888 practically all the turquoise of the world came from the empire of Persia. In that year Porterfield, while making excavations around Silver City in ancient Indian ruins, found several turquoise leads and unfinished specimens of the stone in sufficient quantities to develop the property. Thus was inaugurated the first turquoise mining in the United States under modern conditions and Porterfield became the pioneer in that industry. By 1893 his mines were supplying nearly three-fourths of the turquoise sold annually throughout the world. Porterfield served as a probate judge in Grant County from 1890 to 1892 and married Carrie Steely in Silver City in 1898 fathering one daughter, Ann Elizabeth. He died in 1927 and is buried in Silver City.]  
Souvenir Mining Spoon Porterfield Turquoise Mines
Souvenir Mining Spoon Porterfield Turquoise Mines Bowl
Souvenir Mining Spoon Porterfield Turquoise Mines Handle Top
Souvenir Mining Spoon Porterfield Turquoise Mines Reverse Hallmark
Copper Flat; Ely District, White Pine County, Nevada c 1915

Souvenir Mining Spoon Porterfield Turquoise Mines Silver City NM | SOUVENIR MINING SPOON PORTERFIELD TURQUOISE MINES SILVER CITY NM - Sterling silver shovel-shaped spoon, memento from New Mexico Mines and Minerals display at 1904 St. Louis World's Fair Louisiana Purchase Exposition, marked in bowl PORTERFIELD TURQUOISE MINES, SILVER CITY, NEW MEX.; miners pan on the top of the handle with a miner, shovel, and pick, and marked ST. LOUIS 1904 in pan along with a piece of turquoise laid in; reverse marked with Mechanics Sterling Co. makers mark and Sterling; length 4 in., weighs 12 grams [At the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, the Porterfield Turquoise Mines Company displayed a replica of a New Mexico turquoise mine where these souvenir spoons with a piece of their turquoise were sold as mementos. The Porterfield Mines were in the Burro Mountain District just south of Silver City, NM in an area known as Tyrone today. M. W. Porterfield, known as the turquoise king and the father of turquoise mining on a commercial scale, sent several tons of ore from his turquoise mines in New Mexico for the erection of a turquoise mine at the 1904 St. Louis Expo. Porterfield was executive commissioner of the New Mexico exhibits at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893 as well as the Omaha Exposition in 1898 and the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, preparing all the exhibits from the Territory. Melvin W. Porterfield was born September 6, 1855 at Fairfield, Illinois, the son of William H. and Elizabeth Porterfield. He was reared and educated at Fairfield before receiving a graduate degree from the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, in the class of 1877. He moved to Silver City in the New Mexico Territory in 1888 where he and his brother W. C. Porterfield established a drug business. Until 1888 practically all the turquoise of the world came from the empire of Persia. In that year Porterfield, while making excavations around Silver City in ancient Indian ruins, found several turquoise leads and unfinished specimens of the stone in sufficient quantities to develop the property. Thus was inaugurated the first turquoise mining in the United States under modern conditions and Porterfield became the pioneer in that industry. By 1893 his mines were supplying nearly three-fourths of the turquoise sold annually throughout the world. Porterfield served as a probate judge in Grant County from 1890 to 1892 and married Carrie Steely in Silver City in 1898 fathering one daughter, Ann Elizabeth. He died in 1927 and is buried in Silver City.] Download Original Image
Total images: 377 | Last update: 8/11/23 3:15 PM | Help