7448-R1_MSA_Feb2021_MaineSnowmobiler

The Wheeler Mine – Gilead, Maine By John Wheeler

you look at what they left behind it leaves little doubt as to their determination and grit. Like most Maine projects, they started out undercapitalized and working with what equipment they could scrounge up. Sometimes they had a crew of six or more local guys working with them and other times it was just them. Mica mining is a labor-intensive process. I remember watching my father dragging around a big old jackhammer and standing there driv- ing the drill steel into the rock. Hard, loud, dusty, dirty, work. They’d drill half a dozen holes in a semi-circle sometimes as much as 16 feet long, then load them with sticks of dynamite. Pushing each stick on down the length of the drill hole with a long pole the last stick would have a blasting cap pushed into it and then they would fill a cou- ple of specially made paper bags with sand and push them into hold the charge. They’d wire the blasting cap wires together, hook them to a long wire that ran out to the push detonator. They would clear the blast area, and I remember them yelling FIRE IN THE HOLE!! Push the detonator. Then BOOM! As a small boy I loved it… sometimes he’d let me push the detonator!! Then the real work began, working the blast knocking books of mica out of the blasted rock with sledge hammers and picking, “mucking” as it was called through the rubble and throwing mica into five gallon pails. The mica would then be taken down to the mica shop in Bethel to be riffed and trimmed. If you Google Wheeler Mines Gilead Maine there is a short video of some of the local ladies trimming mica at the shop and a little video of the mines, no sound. Circa 1958. But after each blast the rubble and waste rock had to be moved out, lots of handwork. Bucketing up bigger rubble into a loader bucket and shoveling in the smaller stuff. There are hundreds of thousands of tons of rubble, countless loads of rock hauled out and dumped. I like to tell people that where they are standing and enjoying the view is all mine till. Even into the late seventies when you looked up from the valley you could see the mine dumps, they were white with the feldspar and quartz… it looked like snow on the hillside even in the summer. The mines were cold and wet even in the summer. It was back breaking work…But I think they loved it, not the work as much as the treasure hunting, they never knew what the next blast would reveal. A big pocket of mica? Beryl? Black tourmaline

and garnets? The demand for mica by the government came to an end in the early sixties and today most mica is mined in India, Africa, Madagascar and other places where unfortunately child labor is being used to hold production costs down. In the mid-six- ties Arden Andrews, Howard Andrews and Sid Abbott mined for beryl and feldspar at the Number One mine for a short period. But that was the end of any production at the mines. Today the mines are both full of water, hiding their real depth. The Number Two mine has a tunnel that is under water and in the back end of the channel; the water is about thirty-five feet deep. It is estimated to have about three million gallons of water in it. The smaller Number One mine is not as deep but is unique in its own right. Each year as the winter progresses, the ice con- tinues to grow in the mines, forming some huge hanging sheets of icicles and in the Number One mine stalagmite and stalac- tites types of formations. Unique to say the least and big columns of blue ice that is almost see through. My one complaint is those folks whose parents were obviously swimming in the shallow end of the gene pool, seem to have the need to knock down the ice so others can’t enjoy it…If you visit ..Please don’t do that. The ride up to the mines is nice as well it is about a mile and a half loop of the main trail, but be careful!! There are several very sharp corners on the Number One mine side and despite several warning signs every year someone who isn’t paying attention ends up out in the trees… slow down and enjoy the view. We also get our share of hikers so please be aware that there may be people on the trail and lots of them have dogs, hikers are always welcome. The Wild River Riders usually groom the trail, but sometimes it gets a little choppy from the traffic. The Wild River Riders have held their annual fund raiser at the Number two mine the last two years and it has been a successful event for them, we are glad to be able accommodate the event . As a footnote to all of this, my brothers Roger, Tim and I are working on opening the Number One mine to rock hounding this coming summer. We turned the dump late last fall and are moving forward with our project.…It will be open to visitors on a limited basis…stay tuned

W hen Lori Hemmerdinger asked me to write an article about the Wheeler Mines in Gilead Maine I was a little hesi- tant. What used to be a little known attrac- tion has become a major stopping place for hundreds of snowmobilers. Most people stop and enjoy the spectacular view of the Androscoggin and Pleasant River Valleys and the vista looking over a broad swath of the Western Maine Mountains, before venturing to the mines themselves. Some- one usually asks me about how the view remains open, I tell it’s through osmosis and then just laugh… Lori thought people might be interested in a little history about the mines there are two mines on our property Number One and Number two. There is a third mine a much smaller prospect on the national forest bordering our property, but is not accessible by snowmobile. I have a small camp at the Number Two mine and when I say camp I don’t mean “out of state second home” and I am there most weekends, with the fire going and a few brews on hand. I have met hundreds of people from all over New England and other countries who have come to see the mines and the ice formations. I don’t mind giving them a lit- tle history about the mines and they almost invariably thank us for allowing them to use our property and visit the mines. We will continue to do that as long as people respect our property. It’s also a regular destination spot for local folks and I often see my friends and neighbors here, who

have “taken a quick ride up” for the view. And my family enjoys the opportunity to keep the memory of “Wheeler Brothers Mines “alive. The first question I usually get is “What did they mine here?” I tell them mostly mica; some of them know what it is others not so much. They also mined feldspar and beryllium. Feldspar was ground and used in making chinaware and beryllium was used in hard- ening steel, still is. The demand for mica at the time was as strategic mineral the US Government was purchasing through the GSA. High quality trimmed and sized mica brought a high price, some as much as $90 a pound! That’s in the 1950’s. The value of the mica was based on the size of the plate and the clarity and quality of the mica. The Wheeler mica mines were known for the high quality of the mica that was mined there. My father used to talk about how as he called them “rebels’ from down in the Carolinas would come and buy raw mica off him to improve the quality of the stuff they were selling to the government. I remember them paying in bags silver dollars… My father Roger Wheeler and his two brothers Ted and Abe, mined there from about 1954 through 1962. They were a real story in Mainer ingenuity and resource- fulness. The simple truth is they were just Maine farm boys and loggers who thought they could make a few bucks mining mica. They knew nothing of mining, but like most Mainers, they caught on quick. And when

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