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The first Europeans to pass through present-day Keyser were William Mayo and George Savage, sent by Lord Fairfax in 1736 to find the source of the Potomac River. The first land grant in the area was issued by Fairfax to Christopher Beelor in 1752. Early industries included an iron furnace, foundry, salt well, and a salt-making plant. Keyser was initially called Paddy Town, named for Patrick McCarty, an early landowner who ran a nearby iron furnace. Later, the community was renamed New Creek after the creek that joins the North Branch of the Potomac River here.
In 1755, during the French and Indian War, a stockade and fort were built in present-day Mineral County to protect against Indian attacks. The original log blockhouse of this fort, known as Fort Ashby, still stands today. Around the same time, another frontier fort called Fort Cocke was built near Headsville, but it was abandoned around 1758.
