The Bumpus Mine - Oxford County, Maine

I speculate that the majority of mineshafts throughout New England are largely forgotten places. Maybe not entirely gone from the public's memory - fresh debris piles are evidence that rockhounders still stop by to pick through the scraps for discarded treasure, and fresh beer cans are evidence that locals still stop by for a drink now and again - but try finding information on the Internet about the majority of these mines, and more than likely Google is just gonna shrug its shoulders at you. It's seldom I come across anything modern - and by modern I mean written within my lifetime - so you can imagine my surprise when I not only found a variety of articles about the Bumpus Mine, but learned it even had its own Wikipedia page.

The beginnings of the Bumpus Mine go back to the 1920s, and it is one for the storybooks. While plowing a field in Albany Maine one day a farmer unearthed an unusual chunk of rock, and after news of the find reached Harland Bumpus - a man who understood the significance of this rock - he quickly secured the mineral rights to the property and spent the next several years mining the land. An open trench nearly 300 feet long and 60 feet wide was excavated over the lifetime of Bumpus Mine, with 39,000 tons of rock being removed from the spot where I took this picture.

What came out of this trench in those early days of mining was nothing short of record setting. One of the world's largest beryl crystals was unearthed here in 1928, a monstrous specimen that measured over 18 feet in length and was estimated to weigh 36,000 pounds. In later years the property was sold to the United Feldspar and Minerals Corporation, but believing he still owned mineral rights to the land, Bumpus brought legal action against United Feldspar which forced the closure of the mine for five years.

Eventually an agreement was reached, and in 1945 mining resumed at the site. It still consisted of just the open trench, or quarry, but that changed in 1968 when a tunnel was drilled into the northeastern end by a man named Frank Perham, as a more efficient way to extract feldspar from the rock. It was to find this tunnel that I made the 6-hour round trip drive one snowy, January morning.

Snowdrifts and dangling icicle-swords made entering the tunnel a bit of a trick, but as treacherous as it was from the outside, it was that beautiful and more so from within.

Inside, Bumpus splits into two separate directions. To the right is more of a chamber than a tunnel, an offshoot that measures just 40' in length. The main tunnel to the left checks in at twice that length, 80' from the mine's entrance to the back wall. Again, not an overly long tunnel, but its stubbiness is made up for by its width and height. My best attempt at measuring the ceiling with a tape measure that didn't want to stand up straight was 13'.

In 2005 Dr. Lawrence Stifler and Mary McFadden purchased Bumpus with a dream of conserving the entire property and making it look like an actual working mine, one which the public could tour. Additionally, they planned to open a mineralogy museum focused on the history of mining in the Oxford County community. Although perhaps not as quickly as they'd hoped for, on December 12, 2019 they realized this dream with the opening of a 15,000 sf museum in Bethel Maine, named the Maine Mineral Museum. Their timing was unfortunate, however, for as with most small businesses COVID-19 has temporarily forced their closure. But this virus won't last forever, and I look forward to the world being back to normal again, when a trip to Bethel Maine and the mineral museum will move to the top of my to-do list.

Links:

https://mainemineralmuseum.org/plan-your-visit/ - Official website of the Maine Mineral Museum:

https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mgs/explore/minerals/guide/chapter2.htm - Giant crystals of Bumpus