Roger Wheeler in 1961 with a car full of mica. Wheeler and his brothers started Wheeler Brothers Mica Mine in Gilead Maine in the 1950’s.

GILEAD — The historic Wheeler Mica Mines are on Mine Road off Route 2 in Gilead on the West Bethel line, about 10 minutes from Bethel Village.

While it has been about 60 years since the Wheeler Brothers closed their prosperous local mining business, the three sons of one of the original miners continue to keep the mine alive, passing along history, while leading group tours and offering gem hounds the chance to sluice.

History

During the 1950’s and early 60’s the federal government through the Government Services Agency (GSA) was purchasing and stockpiling mica as a strategic mineral. There were mica mining operations and prospecting was going on around Oxford County in Maine and at other mines in New England.
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Mica’s electric and heat resistance made it a prized material for the electronic applications of the defense industry like fighter plane construction, radio tubes and electrical gear.

Wheeler Brothers
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In 1954 the Wheeler brothers Roger, Ted, and Abe, left logging behind and started their mining operation atop Pine Mountain, just over the Bethel town line in Gilead, Maine.
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“The brothers were home-grown Bethel boys, who made a living logging, farming, and taking on whatever work there was around and knew nothing about mining. They did however, own a piece of property that had good showings of pegmatite with the potential for mica extraction,” said John Wheeler, the son of Roger Wheeler.
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Dennis Wheeler recalls going up to the future site of the number one mine with his uncle Roger Wheeler and discovering a large outcropping of mica. With the help of other locals they used a bulldozer to get the equipment to the prospect. The first blasts in 1954 showed a “viable vein of mica.”
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The legend is that on the initial blast the air was filled with mica and it covered the ground, said John Wheeler, who said his uncles were a quick study and though under-capitalized managed to get the mine off the ground and producing mica.
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The three Brothers opened two mines and a sizable prospect on the bordering government land. They became noted for the high-quality plate mica that they produced, as one of 16 mica mines in Maine at the time.

The top-grade mica was purchased for up to $70 a pound. The scrap mica which was a byproduct of the trimming and mining process was also bagged and sold.

According to John Wheeler, over the course of their operation they mined many tons of high-grade mica and at later dates, beryl and feldspar. They moved millions of tons of rock into quarries and mine dumps.

The process

A permanent mica display that includes the Wheeler Mine is at the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum on Main Street in Bethel. The processing description reads, “Rifters rough cut large pieces of raw quarry stock, and cutters trimmed and peeled apart the mica books into thin, usable sheets. The sheets were graded, sorted and packaged for delivery to the government’s General Services Administration depot in Franklin, New Hampshire.

During the 1950’s, the 120 miles from Gilead was a difficult drive in a pickup truck loaded with mica, said John Wheeler.

Local jobs

For the next eight years the mines created jobs for local people, not only at the mines but at the Wheeler’s mica trimming operation on Main Street in Bethel. Northeast Bank stands in that location now.
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There were many local people who worked for the Wheeler Brothers Mica Mines. Years after the mines and the mica shop closed people would say, “oh I remember working for your father or uncles.  And many times, they would tell a funny story or something interesting that had happened while working there,” said John Wheeler who noted that they still have the journals kept by his uncle, Ted Wheeler of the amount of mica that was mined each day, who was working, the weather, broken equipment, and other information.

1960’s, today
​The mining operation began to wane in the early sixties when the government’s purchasing program for mica ended. Additionally, increased importation of low-cost mica from India and Africa hastened the shutdown.
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“The mines and their operation are part of our family and local history.  Mica mining was a tough way to make a living and hard rock mining was back breaking, dusty, dirty, deafening, freezing, wet and dangerous. It was a small wonder that no one was ever seriously injured. We believe despite those hardships the Wheeler Brothers considered mining like treasure hunting.  Who knew what the next blast would reveal?” said John Wheeler.
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“One of our goals is to keep this piece of local mining history alive,” said John Wheeler.

The Wheeler’s schedule tours through their website: wheelermicamines.com