History of Larimar

LARIMAR was 1st discovered for mining and marketing in 1974.   Although, many of the inhabitants of the Dominican Republic and their ancestors were long aware of the stone, the first mention of the stone was in a request to mine Larimar (not its name back then) in 1916.  That request never came to fruition, and it wasn’t until after 1974, when it was re-discovered, that Larimar started to be mined and marketed.

There are many versions of the story as to how the stone was found in 1974, but most agree that it was re-discovered by an American Peace Corp. volunteer, Norman Rilling, and Miguel Mendez of the Dominican Republic.   It is believed that they found the blues stones at the seashore. 

At first it was unknown where the Larimar actually came from.  It was originally thought to come from the ocean because of the abundance of tumbled stones along the seashore. 

But, the assumption is that some of the stones from the mountain deposit tumbled into the Rio Sitio, a small stream that drains into the Rio Baoruco, and then into the Caribbean Sea.  It wasn’t until they followed the source of water up the mountain that they realized that the stone actually came from deep inside the mountains in the province of Barahona.

Larimar was first given the name of Travelina but it was renamed by Miguel Mendez after his daughter, Larissa combined with the Spanish word for the sea, “mar” – Larimar!