2403

Lost Mine Map, Geologic Sections, Helena, c1904 [196649]

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Mining Start Price:200.00 USD Estimated At:400.00 - 1,200.00 USD
Lost Mine Map, Geologic Sections, Helena, c1904 [196649]
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This is an incredible group of maps and sketches of a "lost mine" right in the middle of Helena. 11 x 16.5". Hand made maps and sketches pasted into a 1904 sales book, in short, now a scrapbook of a "lost mine."
One original 8 x 10" sketch of the shaft along third street, showing a small ore dump, "lost for thirty years." Evidently, this was an old mine discovered in the late 1860s on the outskirts of Helena at the time. This scrapbook is nothing short of fantastic. It has an original hand drawn plan view off the streets showing the mine site. Also present is a 5 x 8" photo of the shaft inside a building, with a hanging wood ore bucket.
Gold was discovered in September, 1864 at Helena at Dry Gulch. The maps here were probably crafted about 1904, so there is no sign of a gulch, which may have run through or near the "lost shaft", now found within town limits on somewhat developed property, fully 40 years later. It is unknown if this shaft is located in what Ross Raymond, in 1868 (Mineral Res. West of the Rocky Mtns, p501), stated as "shallow placers", with shafts generally 10-20 feet deep, seemingly perfectly fitting the sketches drawn here. Raymond states that the gold-bearing veins "above town" have created some placers which "received their gold." (p502.)
This original artwork and record are an amazing discovery of Helena history. When thinking about an 1860s gold mine in or around Helena, we are reminded of Charles Boles, alias “Black Bart.” Black Bart spent more than a year in gold mining at Helena, even buying a claim for $260 in gold dust. Was it this “Lost Mine?” Probably not, but it invites fun discussion.
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Date:
Country (if not USA):
State: Montana
City: Helena
Provenance:

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