One of three known pictures of the Kellogg Mines. Courtesy of the Arkansas Geological Comm.
Growing up in northern Pulaski
County near Kellogg Road, I had always heard stories of silver mines that once
existed along Kellogg Creek. Was there silver below the hallowed grounds of my
youth? After doing some digging (not for silver), I learned that in fact, there
was, at least at one time.
The story of the Kellogg Mines
begins in 1819, when a blacksmith from Pennsylvania, Benjamin Kellogg, moved to
Little Rock. Kellogg and his wife lived in Little Rock for 10 years, then moved
several miles north of the Arkansas River. There, they started a farm on
1,000 acres that Kellogg purchased near Batesville Pike, one of Arkansas’
oldest roads, which stretched from present-day North Little Rock to Batesville.
According to a written report
made in 1919 by Kellogg’s son, Jonathan, in 1840, his father discovered lead
ore in a ravine near a creek on his land. Crawfish had been working in the mud
and exposed the shiny metal after the water in the ravine had washed off the
dirt. With a miner’s pick, Kellogg dug up some of the ore. After
having it tested as positive by the Arkansas Geological Commission, Kellogg saw
the potential to make a fortune.
The first mine on Kellogg’s
land was opened in late-1840 by Thomas C. Newton, who leased land from Kellogg.
Newton’s heirs would be instrumental in founding the city of Argenta,
“Argentum” being the Latin word for silver. Argenta is now North Little
Rock.
Operations at the Kellogg Mines
from 1840 to 1861 yielded up to 500 tons of lead and silver concentrate, valued
at $90 to $100 per ton. The miners crushed the ore by hand and, since there
were no railroads in the area, were forced to build a smelter to melt the ore.
Kellogg died in July
1848. In 1849, gold was discovered in California, which attracted most of
the miners and speculators using Kellogg’s land. As a result, most of the
work at the Kellogg Mines was abandoned.
In 1861, the Confederate
government of Arkansas took control of the Kellogg Mines. In September
1863, Union forces seized the area after the fall of Little Rock and the
surrounding area and destroyed the mine installations.
After the war ended in 1865,
the Pulaski Mining and Smelting Co., owned by Dudley Jones, leased the property
from Kellogg’s heirs and resumed mining. But their operations proved
unsuccessful, and they shut down after a couple of years.
In June 1893, James P. Clarke,
a lawyer from Little Rock, purchased the majority of the property containing
the mines from Kellogg’s son, Jonathan. Clarke then formed the Little
Rock Mining Co. and operations resumed once again. Clarke’s attention to
his new mining company was soon diverted; he was elected Arkansas governor in 1894
and, in 1902, U.S. senator.
The final operation at the
Kellogg Mines began in 1923 under a lease from Clarke’s estate. Extensive
underground workings reached a depth of about 1,100 feet until the mine finally
closed in 1926. That same year, the heirs of Clarke’s estate sold the
former Kellogg property to real estate developer Justin Matthews. Matthews
built several homes and a country club in the area in the late 1920s as part of
his development of the Sylvan Hills community. Unfortunately, the Great
Depression hit, and Matthews was forced to halt his plans.
Today, several subdivisions are
built on top of the old mines and no trace remains of them except for Mine
Road, which crosses Kellogg Road. Is there still silver underneath those fancy
new houses on Benjamin Kellogg’s old land? I doubt we’ll never know.
A sixth-generation
Arkansan, Darrell W. Brown is a lover of all things Arkansas. He lives on Lake
Norrell in Saline County with his wife, Amy, and two beloved Boston Terriers.
You can find him on Facebook and Instagram at AllAroundArkansas.
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