The Helena Independent

Edward Keeler Closes Up His Shaft Without Finding the Lost Channel.

A Mining Prospector Whose Patience Is Only Equalled by His Faith.

Next Spring He Will Return to Helena and Renew His Long Search for Pay Dirt.

The Keeler shaft at Madison avenue and Knight street, on the west side, has suspended operations for this year. The pump was unrigged yesterday, the mouth of the shaft boarded over, the engine put away in the shanty, and the fires drawn from the furnace. Edward Keeler, the holder of the mining privilege and prospective discoverer of Hidden gulch channel, will go to California in a day or two. He has not given up the search, but the residents of Madison, Dearborn and Benton avenues near the line of the motor cars will spend the winter secure in the knowledge that the contemplated unearthing of the rich placer deposits of Hidden gulch will not turn that beautiful section into a mining camp, at least not before next spring.

While packing away things yesterday Mr. Keeler spoke hopefully of his future prospects. He said he had struck the rim rock and found that it dipped toward the north. Before he begins work next spring he will decide whether to follow the dip or go further to the north and sink another shaft. He is convinced that there is an underground gulch there and that when he and his brother, George W. Keeler, strikes it, they will be paid for all the time and money they have spent in the search. So certain is he that his efforts will meet with success that he is already considering whether it would be better to open up Lost Gulch by removing the top crust, or to timber the roof and take out the pay dirt through a shaft.

The history of the Keeler mine is pretty well known to all old residents of Helena. But there may be something new in it for those who did not come in with 'the rush.' Away back in the sixties the Keelers, who were among the pioneers of California came to Last Chance gulch on the news of the discovery of gold here. They mined away with the rest and had pretty fair success. When the gulch was yielding fortunes for the men who were working claims the Keelers became convinced that there was an undiscovered river bed leading down from the hills on the east, passing under the old workings and continuing down toward the valley in the direction of what is now the fair grounds. They got possession of the property, and though their claim was somewhat indefinitely described as beginning at a point on Hidden Gulch channel, it was considered good enough title to sell the land by. Some fifteen years ago the land was sold. The Keelers retaining the right to continue their search for minerals for twenty years after. Gold had been found in paying quantities where the Montana Central depot now stands, and this encouraged the Keelers to go on with their search. They contended that the deposits at the Montana Central depot were only the outcroppings from Hidden gulch. Their lease has several years to run yet, and they are in hopes of making something out of it before their limit is reached.

At a recent meeting the city council ordered the Keeler shaft to be closed. Edward Keeler says that his suspension of work this fall was only on account of the weather, and that he will begin again in the spring. Whenever he sunk a shaft on a lot has made it a rule to fill it up again when abandoned. This he says, he has done, not because the law compels him to, but because he desires no trouble with any of the property holders.

So far the most important find at the Keeler shaft has been water. There is plenty of it and it is clear enough for household purposes.