Winter Walk--A Little Kellogg History

For those of you who may want to learn a little about Kellogg's history, I took a picture of this sign on my morning walk.

Yes, if the truth be told, Kellogg was discovered by a jackass, and Kellogg is still inhabited by its descendants.

A proud hertitage if there ever was one.

Seriously though, I enjoy this mythical lore that surrounds the founding of this area. Here is how the story goes.

In 1885, Noah Kellogg was a prospector who was living in Murray, Idaho during the gold rush. He wasn't having much luck around Murray, so he bought a grubstake with the help of two businessmen, Mr. Cooper and Mr. Peck, and also purchased an obnoxious jackass, and headed south over the hills to the south fork of the Coeur d'Alene River.

He eventually headed up Milo Gulch, toward what is now known as Wardner, Idaho. Supposedly his jackass took off, and, one of the stories says that Noah found his jackass mezmerized by the outcropping of galena (lead ore) he saw on the side of the mountain.

This probably isn't exactly true, but it is said myth always has some part of truth in the telling.

Noah wasn't familiar with galena, so he took a sample back to Murray and showed it to his buddy Phil O' Roarke, who knew exactly what it was, and the value of this mineral.

They returned to the site, and old Noah double crossed the business partners, and put a new mining claim on the land.

But old Noah wasn't too smart. Because the first time he was up there, he wrote up a claim including the two businessmen, and later it was found on the ground.

So Cooper and Peck took old Noah to court in Murray, and they won, so Noah was ordered by the court to give these two guys part of the claim. So then they were all part owners in the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining Company.

In the meantime, Noah got a town named after him...Kellogg, Idaho.

That is how my hometown was named.