Finch Mine, USA locality—famed for orange to yellow wulfenite blades, often drusy with quartz and hemimorphite; a classic Arizona collectors’ site.
Key facts
The Finch Mine—better known to many collectors by its mischievous field name, the Barking Spider Mine—is one of the most recognizable small Arizona wulfenite localities. It sits in Keystone Gulch near the ghost-town site of Chilito, north-northwest of Hayden, in the Banner Mining District of Gila County, Arizona. Geologically, it is a compact but mineralogically memorable oxidized polymetallic Pb-V-Cu-Ag-Mo-Au occurrence developed in and near Naco Limestone at the contact with a basalt porphyry body, with additional influence from faults, fractures, bedding-plane permeability, and small vein systems in nearby diabase.
Collectors care about Finch for a very specific look: orange to yellow wulfenite blades, commonly coated by sparkling drusy quartz or chalcedony, set in vugs and pockets that may also carry hemimorphite, vanadinite, descloizite, calcite, baryte, mimetite, and dark drusy silica. The finest pieces are not simply “Arizona wulfenite”; they are immediately identifiable as Finch material. Good examples show tabular wulfenite still visibly glowing through a sugary white, gray, or translucent silica coat, sometimes with botryoidal chalcedony walls or black druse giving the orange crystals dramatic contrast. In more advanced examples, quartz or chalcedony has partially to almost completely taken over the wulfenite form, making Finch one of the classic American localities for quartz-family epimorphs and pseudomorph-like replacements after wulfenite.
Historically, the mine was never a giant producer. Its recorded metal output was small and irregular, with several carloads of oxidized lead ore shipped, but its specimen output has far outstripped its industrial fame. The workings belong to a group of claims associated with the Reagan Camp prospects, Kullman-McCool group, D.H. claims, and related workings; the locality was discussed in detail in a 1995 Mineralogical Record article by Kyle David Smith. For the collector, Finch stands in the company of the 79 Mine, Christmas Mine, and other Banner District occurrences not because of volume, but because of a peculiar oxidized-zone paragenesis that made wulfenite, vanadinite, hemimorphite, and silica repeatedly interact in specimen-scale cavities.
Regional View
Country View
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The photographed 8.8 x 7.5 x 2.9 cm specimen captures why Finch has such a distinctive following: one vug is filled with reddish-orange wulfenite blades softened by sparkling drusy quartz, while another is lined with botryoidal gray quartz and fewer blades. That juxtaposition—bright lead molybdate, sugary silica, dark matrix, and pocket geometry—is the “Finch look” at its best.
Search for specimens: View all specimens from Finch Mine, USA
The Finch Mine is in Keystone Gulch, Chilito, Hayden area, Banner Mining District, Gila County, Arizona, at approximately 33° 3' 24" N, 110° 48' 29" W. The locality is about 1 mile southwest of the historic Chilito mining camp and roughly 3.8 miles north-northwest of Hayden. It has been recorded under several overlapping names: Finch Mine, Barking Spider Mine, Reagan Camp prospects, Reagan claims, Lee Reagan property, Lee Reagan prospects, Kullman-McCool group, Northwest workings, Southwest workings, D.H. claims, and Kullman-McCool Mine. For collectors and dealers, “Finch” and “Barking Spider” generally refer to the same specimen locality, although the broader claim group and nearby Banner District mines can complicate old labels.
The mine is a former polymetallic lead-vanadium-copper-silver-molybdenum-gold occurrence consisting of 19 unpatented claims in the SE¼ sec. 28 and SW¼ sec. 27, T4S, R15E, Gila and Salt River meridian. The claims extend from Reagan Camp on the west, up Keystone Gulch and Little Chocolate Canyon toward the Schneider Group on the east. The Seventy-Nine Lead-Copper Company claims of the 79 Mine bound the area on the north, while Chocolate Canyon lies approximately to the south.
The mineralization is hosted principally in Naco Limestone. Naco limestone and a large plug of basalt porphyry crop out over much of the claims, and the most favorable mineral showing is along the north contact of the basalt porphyry with limestone. Where that contact is exposed in Keystone Gulch, it dips steeply north. The thin-bedded limestone is mineralized up-dip from the porphyry in favorable places, producing the streaks, pockets, and oxidized cavities that later yielded the locality’s distinctive specimens. Associated rocks include Pennsylvanian diabase, or dolerite, and porphyry, within a local setting of Permian to Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks. The Keystone Fault is the principal named local structure, and east of it in Little Chocolate Canyon, prospecting in diabase exposed several small veins carrying lead and copper minerals.
Recorded dimensions for the ore body are modest but useful for understanding the specimen environment: about 4.88 meters wide and 914.4 meters long, with mineralization occurring in streaks and pockets. This is not a broad, uniform ore zone; it is a structurally and lithologically controlled oxidized system. That patchiness explains both the spotty production history and the highly localized specimen pockets. The best pockets preserved wulfenite first, then allowed later silica, hemimorphite, vanadinite, and related secondary phases to coat, replace, or frame the earlier crystals.
Workings were developed on the south side of Keystone Gulch, about half a mile east of Reagan Camp. Recorded workings include surface and underground openings, six tunnels, a 125-foot winze, a 240-foot shaft, and several adits and crosscuts driven at different elevations to an overall depth of about 73 meters. Production was small and irregular; several carloads of oxidized lead ore were reportedly shipped to the El Paso, Texas smelter. Broader Banner District activity dates to the late nineteenth century, and by 1930 the surrounding area had accumulated more than 130 claims worked for vanadium, molybdenum, zinc, and copper.
The early history of the Finch claims is not well documented. Lee Reagan acquired them about 1923 and remained actively interested in the property until around 1950. The Kullman-McCool Company of Kelvin, Arizona, owned the property beginning in 1953, and Martin Fishback is recorded as an operator from that period. The Kullman-McCool name matters on old labels because it can refer to the broader claim group rather than a separate specimen style. A specimen labeled “Kullman-McCool group, Keystone Gulch” may well be Finch/Barking Spider material, but the association should be checked against species and habit.
Collecting access should be approached conservatively. Modern field comments describe the site as having been accessible at times, but also note private-property concerns, possible restaking of claims, signage issues, and nearby land holdings. Serious collectors should not assume open access from an old field report or specimen label. Verify land and mineral-rights status before visiting, obtain permission where needed, and avoid underground entry unless properly authorized, trained, and equipped. The old workings, steep approaches, desert heat, cactus, loose rock, and oxidized lead-bearing mine dust all make casual collecting a poor substitute for careful planning.
The notable specimen finds are concentrated around oxidized vugs and small cavities rather than big open stopes. Field collectors have described wulfenite-bearing rock that had to be broken hard, with the payoff coming only after locating the right zone. Fresh pockets can contain small but bright wulfenite blades, from yellow and butterscotch to orange and reddish orange, some transparent and some opaque. Silica coatings range from a delicate sparkle that still leaves the crystal form readable to heavier chalcedony that obscures the original wulfenite. Dark drusy silica matrix and blue to green hemimorphite make the strongest visual contrast, while vanadinite and descloizite add important paragenetic interest.
Finch Mine wulfenite occurs chiefly as small tabular to bladed crystals in oxidized-zone cavities, with colors reported and observed from yellow and tan through butterscotch, orange, and reddish orange; the locality is especially noted for crystals from the northeast workings, many of them coated by hemimorphite, vanadinite, quartz, or chalcedony. Individual visible crystals are commonly thumbnail to miniature scale, with many specimens showing blades in the millimeter to roughly centimeter range rather than the large freestanding plates of Red Cloud or Los Lamentos; a documented cabinet specimen carried orange crystals to about 9 mm, while field-collected material has included approximately 1 cm crystals. The best Finch wulfenites are those in which the orange blades remain sharp and readable beneath a fine sparkling silica coat, preferably in open vugs with contrasting gray, white, or black drusy quartz/chalcedony and accents of hemimorphite or vanadinite; ordinary pieces tend to be either too massive, too heavily coated to show the wulfenite form, or too damaged along the thin blade edges.
Quartz at Finch is important less as freestanding rock crystal than as the glittering drusy phase that coats, lines, and sometimes pseudomorphs wulfenite-bearing cavities. It occurs as white, milky, colorless, gray, and locally dark druse on vug walls and over wulfenite blades, and it is the mineral responsible for the classic “sugared” Finch appearance. The best quartz specimens from the mine are really quartz-wulfenite combination pieces: druse fine enough to sparkle without obliterating the tabular crystal outlines, ideally with orange wulfenite still glowing through the coating and with botryoidal gray silica or black druse providing contrast. Heavier quartz after wulfenite is rarer and paragenetically intriguing, but for display specimens collectors usually prefer partial coating over complete masking, because the visible wulfenite geometry is what ties the piece unmistakably to Finch.
Chalcedony from Finch occurs as cryptocrystalline to botryoidal silica in the same oxidized cavities that produced the wulfenite, appearing as sparkling coatings, gray to black drusy pocket linings, and partial to near-complete coverings of wulfenite blades. Collectors often use “chalcedony-coated wulfenite” for specimens where the silica is finer, smoother, or more botryoidal than ordinary quartz druse, and some pieces show wulfenite crystals on black chalcedony or with polished matrix sides revealing the thin orange blades in cross section. The strongest chalcedony pieces balance geology and aesthetics: translucent or lightly sparkling chalcedony that reinforces fragile wulfenite while preserving its blade outlines, dark chalcedony that sets off orange crystals, or cross-sectioned material that clearly shows the silica-wulfenite relationship. Less desirable examples are overgrown to the point that the wulfenite identity becomes speculative without broken or exposed edges.
Other documented Finch minerals include galena, anglesite, cerussite, native copper, calcite, baryte, chrysocolla, malachite, gypsum, hemimorphite, mimetite, vanadinite, descloizite, ktenasite, serpierite, devilline, chalcophanite, ferro-actinolite, enstatite, and actinolite-tremolite series material. Hemimorphite is especially important as light green to blue botryoidal masses in the northeast workings and as a coating on wulfenite. Vanadinite occurs in both northeast and southwest workings as crystals and as replacements of wulfenite, while descloizite is common as crystalline masses in the northeast workings and is also documented as a replacement after wulfenite. Ktenasite, found as very small tabular crystals and rosettes including material from the D.H. claim, is one of the locality’s notable rarities, though the valid type locality for ktenasite is not Finch. No valid type-mineral description is documented from Finch itself, but the mine is a significant occurrence for secondary Pb-V-Mo-Zn-Cu species in the Banner District.
Finch specimens are often misdescribed in three predictable ways. First, the county is sometimes given incorrectly as Pinal County because the mine lies close to the Gila-Pinal county line and near well-known Pinal County mineral districts; the accepted locality is Gila County. Second, old labels may say Barking Spider Mine, Reagan claims, Kullman-McCool group, D.H. claims, or Finch Mine, all of which can be legitimate depending on how narrowly the collector or dealer labeled the piece. Third, nearby Banner District localities—especially the 79 Mine and other Chilito-area workings—can be confused with Finch when labels are vague and the specimen simply says “Hayden, Arizona.”
No well-documented modern fakery industry is tied specifically to Finch wulfenite, but condition and interpretation require care. Thin wulfenite blades are brittle, easily chipped, and often partly hidden by silica. The quartz or chalcedony coating can protect crystals, but it can also conceal broken edges, repaired-looking contact points, or a less complete wulfenite core than the surface suggests. On a good specimen, look for coherent blade geometry visible through the coating, honest broken cross sections where present, natural vug surfaces, and a matrix style consistent with Finch material. Heavy, featureless white druse over anonymous tabular forms should be evaluated more skeptically than pieces where orange wulfenite is clearly visible.
Some modern pieces have sawn or polished matrix sides to expose internal wulfenite morphology beneath chalcedony or quartz. This is not necessarily a defect when disclosed; in fact, a well-cut cross section can be highly instructive. It does, however, move the specimen toward a prepared display object rather than a fully natural cabinet specimen, and that distinction should be reflected in pricing and description.
The principal condition issues are edge chipping on wulfenite, bruising to sparkling druse, broken vug margins, and friable oxidized matrix. Uncoated wulfenite from Finch can be especially delicate, while heavier silica-coated examples may be tougher but less visually crisp. Avoid aggressive cleaning: high-pressure water, ultrasonic cleaners, acids, and mechanical picking can remove microcrystals, loosen fragile blades, or dull the subtle sparkle that gives the locality its charm. Dust-control handling is sensible because the assemblage includes lead minerals such as wulfenite, vanadinite, mimetite, cerussite, anglesite, and galena; wash hands after handling and do not cut, grind, or polish without proper lapidary controls.
In the market, Finch material appears regularly enough that patient collectors can find thumbnail and miniature examples, but truly aesthetic cabinet pieces with sharp orange wulfenite, fine silica coating, blue-green hemimorphite or black chalcedony contrast, and minimal damage are much scarcer. The most desirable specimens are locality-diagnostic at a glance: orange blades in pockets, sparkling white or gray druse, dark matrix or black chalcedony, and evidence of the unusual replacement/coating sequence. Pieces with provenance to older Arizona collections, or to well-documented field finds, deserve a premium because locality names in the Hayden-Chilito-Banner District area are easy to blur.
The most memorable story attached to the Finch Mine is the name that collectors still repeat with a grin: Barking Spider. The explanation preserved in locality notes is not zoological. In American slang, a “barking spider” is the imaginary creature blamed for audible flatulence, and the mine’s alternate name is said to have arisen after a collector ate beans for lunch at the site. It is a wonderfully unpolished Arizona field-camp name—half joke, half label—and it has become so entrenched that many collectors know the mine by the joke before they learn the formal Finch name.
A 2019 field report from a Tucson-show collecting trip gives the locality its modern physical texture. The approach from Hayden began on a graded but steep dirt road, then changed sharply once the mine road started up the hill. The switchbacks were so tight that the collector was relieved his companion, Jeff Lennox, had drawn a 4x4 Jeep Wrangler as a rental; even in the Jeep, they had to back up on some turns. The road was narrow, two washed-out places were just passable, and both collectors agreed in advance that if rain started, they would leave immediately before the track became slick. The mine itself sat high on the ridge, probably more than 200 feet above the lower road.
The collecting ground was not a casual stroll over friendly dump rock. After initially wasting effort breaking barren material, the collector finally found a productive place with “fantastic wulfenite crystals,” but the terrain was steep and packed with cactus. He described cactus spaced “about every four inches apart,” with a saguaro about 25 feet tall visible up the hill. The elevation was around 2,400 feet, and the work involved taking turns with a 16-pound sledge hammer. When the rock broke right, it opened small vugs lined with wulfenite; when it did not, it was just hard labor in cactus and heat.
The same report captures one of the best pocket moments from the mine. A well-placed sledge blow broke off a large section of rock and revealed a sizeable vug lined with wulfenite crystals. The section was so large and showy that the collector missed a smaller piece lying in the hole, later realizing that the larger find had caused a sort of tunnel vision. The specimens showed the range Finch collectors recognize: very gemmy transparent yellow wulfenite without chalcedony; dirty but promising orange crystals with a thin chalcedony coat; heavily chalcedony-coated wulfenite; and pieces with one side showing black druse. Even in the field, before washing, the combination of orange blades, silica sparkle, and dark matrix was obvious.
There is also a collector’s cautionary tale in the same account. One specimen carried clear to white acicular microcrystals that were barely visible to the naked eye but striking under a 10x loupe. Because the wulfenite looked fragile, the collector chose not to rinse it, later deciding that restraint probably saved the microcrystals. That small decision says a great deal about Finch material. The mine’s best specimens are not only about the orange wulfenite; they are miniature pocket environments, and an impatient cleaning can erase the details that make them worth keeping.
