Our dinner: Beef Stew, Coleslaw, Rolls on the trail
40 miles east on U.S. 50 from Fallon, turn left (North) on Dixie Valley road. Proceed 27 miles north to intersection of Settlement Road. Go 2.2 miles WNW, take left form and head SW 1.7 miles.
From Fallon: 71 miles
In 1860, prospectors discovered silver here and by the next year there were a couple of hundred people living in Silver Hill. Oddly enough, there was neither a post office nor was there even an application for one. By the summer of next year, almost everyone had left for strikes elsewhere. A few remained, and by 1880 "rediscovered" silver ledges were the catalyst for new building, including a boarding house and two blacksmiths. A couple of years later interest died again, only to be energized a third time during the 1906 boom. [Paher]
In Historic Site Studies in Churchill County, Nevada Davis quotes historians Thompson and West that the major mines in the district were the Bayfield, Black Prince, Eastern Star, Iron Point, Spar, Morgan, and Mammoth. The Iron Point tunnel was 160 feet long. Davis writes that the upper ruins cabin "still has it's wooden window casing intact." However, this is no longer the case in 2003. Either vandals or natural actions of the elements have disintegrated it.
Paher mentions a stage line operating from Silver Hill to Virginia City. and there was also a toll road from Stillwater.
"He [Moses Job] operated a toll road from Stillwater to Silver Hill, charging fifty cents for camels probably used in the salt trade, and a quarter for horse and rider." (Childers, Magee Station and the Churchill Chronicles)
In our estimation as professional (well, we would be professionals if someone paid us) explorers, this toll road went from Stillwater to Silver Hill via Job Canyon. In other words, it went east through Job Canyon then north up Dixie Valley and then west into IXL Canyon.
Before the 1906 boom, Cyrus Kellogg owned the Black Prince Group of mines. In the September 24, 1932 Fallon Eagle, Ira Heber Kent wrote about "The Passing of Old Man Kellogg", most if not all of which could be read in Bunny Corkill's In Focus article, Stillwater, Nevada Welcomes Its Third Century.
"The old man was the owner of six claims known as the Black Prince Mines, in addition to his other holdings, lying on the ridge and extending down each side of the mountain above Cox's Canyon, as we called it in those days, about twenty miles from Stillwater..."
The claim map shows a single cabin, and it has been our task to locate this cabin and plunder document it. The problem is, the claim map, as recorded, appears to be inaccurate. Twice we have assaulted the canyon and twice we were repulsed by lack of time and breath.
Kent relays a story about recovering Kellogg's body after an accident, and describes his cabin.
Along in the middle of December, there came some heavy snow storms and we could see that the snow, glistening in the sunlight, must be very deep up around the country in which the Black Prince Mines were situated. So we ran over the holidays up to about the 5th of January, when someone raised the question one evening if we didn’t think we ought to go up and see what had become of the old man; that he could not have much grub left by this time and maybe some accident had happened to him. This desultory discussion led to our assembling one morning in front of the saloon about four o’clock, and leaving for the mountains. . . . We had two pack horses loaded with blankets and our own grub, and I think there were four or five in the party who were mounted on their best horses, with a string of ten or fifteen head of loose saddle horses we drove ahead of us to break down the trail.
Snow Makes Going Tough
When we reached the canyon and started up the back-bone of the ridge to go over to the Black Prince Mines we found the snow even deeper than we had anticipated. Sometimes we would go through drifts from two to five feet deep. The man in front, riding his horse, would plunge and break the trail and when his horse was exhausted, he would fall back and a fresh man would ride ahead and take up his work. In this manner we arrived at the camp of old man Kellogg along about mid-day, as near as I can remember.
Now I wonder if I can draw a picture of the mine and surroundings so that it will be intelligible to my readers. The mine was situated at the head of a blind gully about twenty feet wide. As you approached the north side, the trail led down into the gully leaving the cabin about twenty or thirty feet to the right, and on ground about four or five feet higher than the bottom of the gully. The side of the cabin faced the gully, with a huge fireplace that would accommodate pine logs about three feet long, opposite the door. On the end nearest the mountain was the mouth of the tunnel which had been covered over so that Mr. Kellogg, after eating his meals, could proceed through this covered way into the tunnel which at that period I should think must have extended about two hundred feet into the mountain with crosscuts at various points where ore had been taken out in between. Directly in front of the door, on the opposite side of the gully, was a juniper tree the top of which was about fifteen feet high, or about five feet from the top of the bank which would be about twenty feet east of the trail.
Find Kellogg in Tree
When we had arrived at the edge of the gully on the trail, wading through snow from two to four feet deep, we saw an object apparently sitting in the top of the juniper tree at the side of the trail about five feet below us. Upon closer examination this proved to be the body of the old man. He was in a sitting posture, with his knees drawn up under him and his head bending down onto his knees. His right hand, in an extended position, was clutching a limb of the juniper tree which we eventually had to saw off to let the old man down as we could not detach his fingers. From his position he could look directly into the door of his cabin, which was standing wide open, and at that time a stretch of snow a foot or more deep extended across the room.
-Stillwater, Nevada Welcomes Its Third Century. by Bunny Corkhill
Turns out Mr. Kellogg was known far and wide.
An Old Pioneer Frozen To Death
Word was received at Wadsworth Monday that Charles Martinez had found the body of Cyrus Kellogg, an old settler of Churchill county, in I.X.L. Canyon, and it was evident that he had been frozen to death. It is supposed that he had left his cabin and gone into neighboring hills probably prospecting, had become bewildered and lost his way. He was about eighty years of age. At one time he was quite wealthy and at the time of his death was the owner of the Black Prince Mine, for which he had been offered $40,000 dollars. Senator Kaiser and the deceased were very intimate friends, having known each other for almost a lifetime, and the Senator has gone to Churchill. The point where the remains were found is 40 miles from Stillwater, but the body will be brought here for burial. --Dispatch.
-Daily Appeal, Carson City, February 4, 1898
Don't know if Kellogg was buried in Wadsworth.Other reports have him being buried in Stillwater-- which would make more sense-- but there is no marker that we could find in either cemetery.
He was well known in the mining and ranching communities.
CYRUS KELLOG
His Ambition Was To Own More Horses Than Anybody
The AUstin Reveille says of Cyrus Kellogg, the pioneer fond frozen to death last week in Churchill county:"In years gone by it was Mr. Kellogg's only wish to own more horses than any other man in the United States, and there is not a doubt but that he accomplished his aim, as the Kellogg ranges are full of horses, many branded and more unbranded. He also owned a pet mule known throughout the State for his devilish tricks and taste for tobacco. At one time the mule extracted a pocketbook from Mr. Kellogg's pocket and masticated the whole.The pocketbook contained $500 in government money, but his love for the long-eared brute made him overlook the crime, and the mule still lives and is a terror to all prospectors, as he will eat anything, and many a camp has he raided. Kellogg was a whole-souled man and was a friend to human-kind. At one time he owned valuable property at Mount Hope, O., but lost the same, he says, through a faithless wife and a minister of the gospel. His main aim in life, as he often told the writer, was to sell the Black Prince Mine and establish a miner's home in Virginia City for broken-down miners. He was a good man, and may God claim him as his own."
-Salt Lake Tribune, February 9, 1898
A DESERT TRAGEDY
The NEvada papers report the finding of the dead body of Cyrus Kellogg. He was frozen to death on one of the bleak ranges of Churchill county, in that State. There is enough in the history of the old man to make a thrilling story. Thirty or four years ago he had a quartz mill in the canyon which runs from Virginia City to Dayton. He was a most intelligent and careful business man, and those who got near him found that he was as soft-hearted as a woman. He was well-to-do and was making money. He sold out eventually and disappeared. It was whispered that some great domestic trouble had come upon him. It seemed he went out on the desert and took up springs and secured adjacent lands, over a wide stretch of country, east, north, and west of Austin. A friend met him twenty-five years ago, and was informed by him that he had a good range and many horses. The friend asked him what he would sell a good team for. "If you want a good team come over to headquarters and you may have your pick from a thousand," was his reply. "But what will they be worth," was asked him. He waited a little before speaking, and then said, "They will be worth a great deal to you if you need a team, but they will not cost you anything. He seemed, the friend said, just like his old self, until a third man approached and said, "Mr. Kellogg, I want to buy a bell-mare for my pack team. Can you sell me one?" THen a shade passed over the old man's face-- for he was old then-- and he said, "Not from me. I never touch a mare except to have her branded. THey are fit only to raise colts from; they are of a sex that is incapable of gratitude, that has o sense of justice, that no matter what you may do for it, you will be betrayed at the first opportunity." That was the secret of his life. He went to Nevada, his wife grew tired of waiting for him and took means to separate from him. But, queerly enough, his antipathy never extended to men. His heart and hand were always open, and in his cabin he dreamed that a prospect which he had would some day develop into a great mine, that he would sell it, and with the proceeds found a home for aged and indigent miners. His life was most pathetic. If he had sorrows, he kept them mostly to himself; he was more than half a recluse, and still his heart was warm toward his fellow-men, and this practically away from the world, he walked alone for thirty years, and finally fell into his last sleep out under the stars of a winter night. It is said that death by freezing is painless; that after the first keen twinges of cold a painless sleep succeeds. We hope it was so with Cyrus Kellogg.
-Salt Lake Tribune, February 10, 1898
This is a canyon that doesn't get too many visitors except cattle. There are cow paths all over the place, but most traces of road are now extinguished. Be prepared to do some hiking to really explore this site. The walls of the canyons are steep and sandy, and we found walking sticks comforting and useful.
The road got a little too narrow and sandy for us, so we walked most of the way. Braver souls got further with their quads than we did. Somewhere during the trip my thermos ended up missing. There are several rock ruins and some scattered lumber and metal around the site, over a very large area. On our second trip we hiked quite a bit to try to find some other cabins, and we did manage to locate the one on the map and an additional one nearby.
Some guy on a yellow quad or jeep was parked on the top of the hill over Silver Hill yelling something. We yelled back. He yelled some more. Neither one of us could understand the other, if he heard us at all. Maybe he was just yelling. Maybe he was yelling, "I took your thermos and there's nothing you can do about it, sucker!" Who knows.