“In sun that burns white-hot I say aloud the names of Nevada mines for a coolness that a word might bring. The Blue Fern Mine. The Blue Goose Claim. The Blue Jay, Blue Matrix, Blue Friday, Blue Silver, Easter Blue MInes. Mines that come in shades—New, Royal, and Sky Blue—and in certainty: the Right Blue Claim.”

—Ellen Meloy, The Anthropology of Turquoise, 2002.