A bit about the Keystone drill

Have you seen the Keystone drill in its new home at the B&B trailhead? Did you know the process of moving the drill to this location was years in the making? In this blog, we’re going to drill into that process.

Wait, what is a Keystone drill?

Images courtesy Bob Schoppe, Maureen Nichols, and Bill Fountain

OK, we may have gotten a little too excited jumping straight into the move. Let’s dig a little deeper first to look at what a Keystone drill does. According to research from local historian Bill Fountain, the Keystone drill was originally brought to Breckenridge in 1898 by Ben Stanley Revett, Breckenridge’s famed dredge boat operator. He used this portable oil-drilling rig along the Swan River to test the gold content at bedrock before bringing dredge boats through the area. Results from drilled samples dictated the direction dredge boats took. When he started dredging in the French Gulch area, he brought the drill along to again test for gold-bearing ground. Fountain estimates that Revett had up to three Keystone drills in the area. Later on, mine operators also used the drills to determine the best place to dig underground. Here’s a video of one in action so you can see the process:

It got roundhoused?

Fast forward to 2018. While visiting Como, Fountain discovered a Keystone drill being stored in the Roundhouse there. The drill was rescued from a dredge pile in 1994 by Bill Kazel and moved to the Como Roadhouse for safe keeping under the watchful eye of Chuck Brantigan.

The Keystone drill was pulled from a dredge pile in 1994 by Bill Kazel.

Originally, the Continental Dredge was dismantled and moved to the Fairplay/Alma area in 1938 and it’s believed the Keystone drill went along with it. When Fountain discovered the drill in 2018, Breckenridge History sent a proposal to Brantigan in hopes of moving the drill to display as part of our mining history.

On the road with Recovery

Images courtesy Bill Fountain

In 2019, Ryan Scheuermann, owner of Ryan’s Recovery, brought a flatbed truck to Como and moved the Keystone drill to its temporary home at Country Boy Mine. The drill stayed there until Sept. 3, 2024, when Ryan again stepped up to move the drill to its new home, a shelter of perfect proportions constructed by Cortright Enterprises, at the B&B trailhead. Next, Breckenridge History will put up an interpretive sign with information about the drill’s operation and history.