| Show A MINE THAT SHUTS ITS MOUTH on one of the most natural of montana SIon tana reference Refe renco to the natural wonders of montana particularly the chicken broth and springs brings to light others of equal magnitude colonel john doyles wonderful vinegar mine in beaverhead county passes the tile domain of doubt into the sunlight of truth it is 13 backed by crisle affidavits and affidavits cost one dollar each in 3 montana 10 n tan a the colonel and his partners did not confine themselves to vinegar they discovered a mountain of pure alum in the beaverhead range the discovery was considered a ton ten strike and better than a gold mine they kept the find a secret for several weeks durin during which a shaft was sunk to the depth of feet the cut was made nil all the way through a solid vein of alum and it was estimated that tho whole mountain was composed of it A largo large pile of stuff was heaped near the mine ready for shipment and the miners had a scheme to flood the market with their product and rake in at one fell swoop monday the colonels partner went to town to lay in a supply of grub and the former remained behind to guard the treasure during the morning a heavy rain began to fall and continued all day and in the afternoon the colonel had occasion to go down into the mine making the descent by sliding down the rope and when once down at the tile bottom was so taken up with a contemplation of his novel and wonderful mine that lie did not heed beed the fleeting hours until he happened to cast liis his eyes upward and saw that daylight had faded from the mouth of the tile shaft he ile started to climb up wa warda rd but had bad not proceeded more than half way when to his horror he lie discovered that the heavy fall of rain had eo so thoroughly saturated the alum sides of the shaft that as a natural result they had drawn together until the hole was scarcely large enough fora for a man mail to crawl through the imprisoned man recognized hia his awful position and without losing much time struggled toward the top of the shaft every foot lio lie advanced the shaft became smaller and for the tile last ten feet he was compelled to dig his way with a pocketknife and when he finally reached the surface ho lie was completely exhausted his clothes were torn and his body badly bruised the rain which was still falling soon revived the tile colonel and he lie started toward the camp to meet his partner to whom ho lie related hij iiii mry exper experience jence together they started to their mine or at least tried to for alt although bough they searched for two days they were unable to find any sight of their late possessions the rain had undoubtedly thoroughly 0 and tightly closed up the discovery shaft and melted away every sign of the alum piled on the outside so that to this time it has been impossible to find any trace of tho the mine omaha bee |
