The Bunker Hill mine is in the Coeur d' Alene mining district, Shoshone County, Idaho, in the town of Kellogg. It operated as a lead mine from 1887 to 1981, producing nearly 4 million tonnes of lead and zinc, plus 154 million ounces of silver. It also produced the most significant find of pyromorphite

specimens the world has ever seen. The excitement began in the summer of 1980 when miners Bill Penninger and Bob Stafford began to find pyromorphite off the main haulage level, in one of the back stopes of the Jersey vein. In July they broke into a major pocket, then another around the first of October--much bigger than the first, about 6 meters long. It was lined with bright orange botryoidal pyromorphite aggregates grading into green crystals of classic hexagonal, hoppered shape. In December, just before the mine closed, they hit the best pocket of all, containing hundreds of specimens of the finest green pyromorphite. Eleven years later Bob Hopper bought the mine, and has continued to find good pockets of pyromorphite crystals periodically since then.

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Specimen owners:

Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum

Houston Museum of Natural Science

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Smithsonian Institution

Anonymous

Mike Bergmann

Kevin Brown

Lance Cook

Edward E. David

Sean Finneson

William Larson

Rob Lavinsky

Wayne and Dona Leicht

John C. Lucking

Carolyn Manchester

Dawn Minette (James and Dawn Minette collection)

Bruce and Cody Oreck

Wayne Sorensen

Karl Warning

Marc P. Weill

Stuart and Donna Wilensky

Chapter authors and showease organizers: Wayne Sorensen and Wayne A. Thompson