About Us
Welcome to Winfield Trading Company, a family-owned business offering one of the most extensive, authentic collections of Native American arts and crafts. For seventy years, Winfield Trading Company has provided a vast array of quality hand-crafted jewelry, exquisite Navajo rugs, sculptures, baskets, pottery, Kachina dolls, paintings, and fetishes to individual collectors and businesses alike. Winfield Trading also hosts the largest selection of unique Lone Mountain Turquoise stone and jewelry available.
Who We Are
Our History
For seventy years, the Winfield family has supplied Native American craftsmen with the silver, turquoise, and other materials necessary for the creation of their art. Winfield Trading Company purchases most finished products directly from craftsmen represented by many tribes, such as the Apache, Cheyenne-Arapaho, Hopi, Navajo, Santa Domingo, and Zuni. Today, Winfield Trading Company is owned and operated by Justin and Rebecca Winfield.
In 1951, Menless C. Winfield began mining turquoise at the Villa Grove Mine, in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. He sold the loose, semi-precious stone to local tribal members from the Santa Domingo, Navajo, and Zuni reservations, who then used the stone in their hand-crafted jewelry. From its close relation to local Native American tribes, Winfield Trading was born.
1951 - 1967
Villa Grove Mine
1956
Walt Disney's Turquoise Film
Unbeknownst to most, Walt Disney had a fascination with turquoise and the process of mining it, so much so that in 1951, he sent a film crew to Menless Winfield's Villa Grove Mine in Colorado. The following video was discovered as a film reel in Winfield Trading's vaults and meticulously converted into digital format. It documents the highlights of the Disney crew's visit, capturing a moment in time of the Winfield family engaged in the day to day operations of the early turquoise mining process..
1967 - 1978
Lone Mountain Mine
Lone Mountain and the mining outpost.
The rough/rock was then ran through a shoot into a cement truck which was used for tumbling.
A slow burning explosive was used when mining instead of traditional TNT.
Menless Winfield and his son Robert used Caterpillar equipment for most heavy operations.
Menless even used power tools in the process of extracting the turquoise.
Rough turquoise pieces, after being sorted and cleaned.
One of the workers, Bobby, living the turquoise life!
Menless's pick was used for many years in his mines and is still in the family today.
Menless Winfield, grandfather of current owner, Justin Winfield. He was a turquoise miner and once owner of Villa Grove, Carrico Lake, and Lone Mountain Mines.
Menless Winfield, grandfather of current owner, Justin Winfield. He was a turquoise miner and once owner of Villa Grove, Carrico Lake, and Lone Mountain Mines.
Menless and his wife Grace, displaying some of the beautiful jewelry pieces made from Villa Grove Turquoise.
Menless Winfield, Bob and George Dominic gather together while looking at some of the rough Villa Grove Turquoise.
Native American jewelry made using turquoise from the Villa Grove Mine.
Robert Winfield, Justin's father, working turquoise out of the surround rock.
Justin's aunt, Carolyn, holding a fine specimen of Villa Grove Turquoise.
Menless, Grace, and their children, Robert and Carolyn, at the Villa Grove Mine.
