King’s Manassa turquoise is mined at Manassa in south central Colorado, but began its mining days with Ancient Pueblo peoples. The Manassa mine is also known as King’s Manassa or the King’s Mine. Another name for the turquoise that comes from this mine is “Lick Skillet” turquoise which comes from the hard times that the King family and local miners had to suffer through while mining the precious stone. The name comes from Israel Perviose King and his descendants who still mine for turquoise. I.P. King discovered this vein of turquoise while looking for gold. After mining for a while, he soon abandoned the mine after seeing that there wasn’t very much gold, only some strange blue rocks that he took back to his home. He didn’t realize that these stones were valuable until a friend asked about them.

Manassa turquoise is known for its blue-green to green color with a golden or brown, non-webbed matrix. The golden matrix comes from the host rock, rhyolite. The Manassa mine is still in production, and owned by the King family, thus the alternate name sometimes used for this turquoise.