Idaho Myths and Legends by Randy Stapilus

Author:Randy Stapilus
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Globe Pequot
Published: 2020-01-21T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

Noah Kellogg’s Donkey

As you roll down I-90 through the Coeur d’Alene River valley, better known as the Silver Valley, you will see in between steep mountainsides an old mining region packed with local color, emerging from vivid stories reaching back a century and a half.

Some of this color grows out of the labor wars—and “war” is not too strong a word in this case—of the 1890s, with reverberations that have not settled yet. Some of it emerged out of the general hardness of life in the early mining area, and callous behavior and worse, such as the story that the ghosts of a group of Chinese workers, hanged underground at a mine development somewhere near Mullan, still haunt the area. The rooms above one of the venerated bars in the city of Wallace—a city lively enough that an old bordello is now one of the more popular museums in town—is said to be haunted too, though the alleged circumstances are vaguer. (Some local people admit those stories may have been invented as a marketing device.)

But the most popular legend of the Silver Valley, a tale happily shared with visitors from far and near, is an animal story.

It was long visible in a tourism sign just off I-90 near one of the Kellogg exits. The sign welcomed travelers to the place, with an unusual message: YOU ARE NOW NEAR KELLOGG. THE TOWN WHICH WAS DISCOVERED BY A JACKASS—AND WHICH IS INHABITED BY ITS DESCENDANTS.

Directions to the town’s chamber of commerce follow.

At least the sign didn’t point out that one of the early proposed names for the town actually was “Jackass.” The name didn’t come out of thin air. It had some historical resonance. There is a point to this odd sign, one rooted in the history—or at least legend—of the place. The story, repeated endlessly in the Silver Valley, formed the foundation of what would become Idaho’s richest mining region. It even lent its name to a popular local restaurant, Noah’s Canteen. It started with a grubstake.

The word “grubstake” sounds informal, and like many others of the kind, this particular grubstake was. But unlike most, this one was also important. It was important in the law and business of the region, not to mention to many individuals, and in many other ways.

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