An arial view of the Black Silver Mine near the Harquahala Mountains in Arizona.

An arial view of the Black Silver Mine near the Harquahala Mountains in Arizona. Although called the black “silver” mine, this small double-shaft mine was a prolific producer of robin’s egg turquoise in its day. Long since abandoned, we searched this mine not for treasure or any myth, but because it was there. No - just kidding;-)! I wanted to see if there was still some signs that it would continue to produce turquoise. I didn’t see any obvious signs that it would - it looked played out to me, and extremely unstable, so not conducive to deepening either of the two existing shafts. But still a cool piece of western history so far off the beaten path…