History
Most people of the Dominican Republic and their ancestors were aware of Larimar. One of the first mentions Larimar was in a request to mine it in 1916, at that time it went by a different name. That request never went through. It wasn’t until 1974, when it was re-discovered, that Larimar began to be mined and marketed.
There are a few different versions of the story as to how Larimar was found in 1974, but most agreed upon version is that it was re-discovered by an American Peace Corp. volunteer, Norman Rilling, and a Dominican Local, Miguel Mendez. It is said that they found the blue stones on the seashore line.
Larimar was originally thought to come from the ocean because of the large amount of tumbled stones along the shoreline. However many now believed that the Larimar stones from the mountain deposit tumbled down in the Rio Sitio, a small stream that drains into the Rio Baoruco, and then into the Caribbean Sea were they were found.
It wasn’t until after they followed the source of water up the mountain that they found it came from deep inside the mountains in the province of Barahona.
Larimar was first given the Travelina but was renamed by Miguel Mendez after his daughter, Larissa and combined with the Spanish word for the sea, mar. Together we get the name Larimar a beautiful name for a beautiful stone.
