It was in 1972 that Doug Magnus first took a hammer and homemade tools to fashion silver into simple ornaments, the beginnings of a long journey to the present. His sense of design is rooted in the natural world around us where the artificial boundaries of politics and property do not apply, and in the still point within each of us where all things connect. As a result, his work often seems eclectic, with ties to many cultures. Mostly self-taught, Doug mastered a variety of styles and techniques for metalworking and lapidary gemstone cutting. His early visits to the ancient turquoise mines in the region near Santa Fe were instrumental in his learning the art of stone cutting. His interest in the mines goes well beyond the intense, clear blue beauty of the gemstone and extends to the Cerrillos mines themselves - mines that have produced some of the most spectacular and historically significant turquoise ever found in the United States.

In the early 1970s, Magnus, then an aspiring jewelry designer, was one of the few people who still collected Cerrillos turquoise. “I’ve never forgotten my first visit to the Cerrillos mines. I was captivated by both by the beauty of the panorama from atop Turquoise Hill and by the abundant evidence of early mining - trenches, piles of rubble, deep pits, collapsing portals, and bits of turquoise scattered everywhere. As I began researching the history of the mines, I realized that Cerrillos - both the gemstone and the mines - were very special.” Magnus first arranged to lease the 10-acre Castillian mine site and began digging small amounts of turquoise. Today Doug owns three of the fables mines, “Tiffany,” “Castillian,” and “Alicia Lode.”

So what will Magnus do with his mines? “For the time being, I’ll retain ownership to protect them from subdivision and development. I want to be assured that the mines will always be available for historical, archaeological, and mineralogical study. Countless craftsman have worked Cerillos turquoise for a thousand years, and I guess I’m the last of that long line,” he concludes.