It is hard to talk about the current history of Humming Bird mine without taking into account the history of the land it sits on.

At some point during the Copper Rush in Unaweep Canyon (1883-1910) while the Nancy Hanks Mine (3/4 miles away) was in operation, a tunnel (later named AQ#3) was bored into the granite below the top of the ridge line chasing potential high grade copper deposits.

A 55-foot vertical shaft also connected the tunnel with the surface at the top of the ridge. The Amethyst, Fluorite and other non-valuable minerals and specimens were just tossed aside; chasing the valuable copper, an essential resource at the time.

UPDATE – April, 2021!!! I was able to meet with older gentleman who actually WORKED our mine with his grandfather in the 1950s as a young teen…. mining for Fluorite in the “old copper mine”. (side note – I find it amazing that they were “re-mining” the copper mine for Fluorite, like I am “re-mining” it for Amethyst).

His grandfather said that there were 2 “big”mines on that hill and 4 smaller ones…. with our mine being one of the larger 2. The access road went up to our mine, then continued on to the Nancy Hanks mine.

From what is understood, there was quite a rivalry between the 2 crews, that is believed to have started in town over some women… liquor may have been involved! in 1896, when the Nancy Hanks mining crew brought the first 3 wagon loads of ore down through “our” mine, before any ore had been produced there… it spurred a fight of some kind. The crew on our site was in the process of mounting a hoist to a large boulder at the top of the vertical shaft. It is uncertain at this time if the hoist was actually attached to the boulder, but when the miners returned from a “night on the town”; they discovered that the boulder had been blasted into the vertical shaft – plugging it!

I was told the operation packed up and left. In the 50s, when my contact was there, they attempted to mine for Fluorite, but the dangerously lodged boulder proved to be a major problem to access the vast deposit. It was literally a choke-stone! Attempts were made to “brace” the boulder so work could continue, but all attempts failed and the site was again abandoned.

At some point prior to 1980, the remaining vertical shaft was filled

——End of Update ——–

This was corrected above…. During the 1940’s the area was further explored for Fluorite and the vertical shaft was filled in. This plugged the lower tunnel so that only the first 47 feet of the tunnel was accessible from that time to present day. The vertical shaft was then covered by 8 feet of mine tailings. The only indication that there was ever anything there was a 2″ metal pipe sticking a foot out of the ground.

In 1969, Charles Fedler and his neighbor Allan Smith, filed the Amethyst Queen claim. He dug the AQ#2 portal shown below. They mined it for jewelry points, which were cut into faceted gemstones for setting in jewelry. They held that claim until 1992, when they ran out of technology to dig any further.

Steel reclaimation grates were installed by the DRMS (Division of Reclaimation and Mining Safety) over portals (AQ#1 & AQ#2) between 1996- 1997 and a bat grate was installed over AQ#3 in 1988. Between 1996 and 2016, there were no legal mining claims on that land.

Dennis Schneider was exploring the area, based off information in several Colorado rockhounding books in the fall of 2014. He uses a GPS that contains overlays for all known mines (and their status), property lines and geologic data. This allows him to not only know exactly where he is, but also the status of the land he is prospecting.

He explored Nancy Hanks Gulch and found a few little Amethyst and Fluorite specimens. As he was leaving, he headed down the jeep tail to the parking area. At one point he passed the corner of private property and the jeep trail went to the northeast quite a-ways, before heading straight south to the parking area. Dennis chose to cut across the land, heading southeast. He stumbled upon a clearing in the Pinion / Juniper trees. Looking down he saw Amethyst crystals in the dirt. Then he saw the metal pipe. That little short-cut to the car would later prove to be the discovery of a lifetime for Dennis and Tammey.

While putting up the corner posts for the claim, Dennis and Ronnie found the grated portals of AQ#1 -3, knowing they were there, but not on any map. Modifications were made to the claim size and boundaries to put these old workings within the claim. This also included the top of the ridge, that Dennis was most interested in, and would be the main area of operations.

After several unsuccessful attempts to file the claim with the BLM between June 2015 and December 2015, the claim paperwork that was filed on January 20th, 2016 went through. Adjustments to the claim to avoid a potential cultural heritage sites were made, and Notice of Intent was secured by May 2017, so operations could begin.Reclamation bond was secured in 2018.