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395 Helena [OMIT]

Helena is situated on the Wisconsin river near the mouth of Pipe Creek, seven miles below Arena, fifteen miles from Dodgeville and about the same from the Blue Mounds. The most important business done at this place is the manufacture of shot by the "Wisconsin Shot Company"; the only place in Wisconsin where shot is manufacured.

The following description of their tower we take the liberty of extracting from the work of General Smith. "It is built on the summit of a rocky hill on the bank of Pipe creek near its entrance into the Wisconsin. The hill has a perpendicular face next to the creek, and a gentle descent southward, and westward, by which waggons may reach the summit. One hundred feet from the base of the rock, there is a ledge or landing place; on this ledge rises the shot tower of frame, eighty eight feet to the roof; of course the depth from the top of the tower to the base of the rock is one hundred and eighty feet; a well or shaft has been sunk through the rock which is of sandstone one hundred feet, and a lateral drift or entrance ninety

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