Kellogg Trail and Kellogg’s Grove, Stephenson County

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Note: Kellogg’s 1825/26 Trail extended from Fort Clark (Peoria) to the Lead Mine Region of the Michigan Territory (now Wisconsin). As Poole states on Map #1, Kellogg’s early routes north of the Rock River have not been conclusively identified. We do know, however, that by 1830 a Trail led north from Kellogg’s Grove and stopped at several lead mines before turning southwest to Galena. In an interview with this editor in 2000, Sherman Virtue, owner of property at Kellogg’s Grove, stated that a Trail led due north from the Grove to Wiota (WI) site of William S. Hamilton’s diggings, and pointed to ruts from this trail that remain in the timber on the north side of the Grove. In March of 1830, Hamilton led John and Juliette Kinzie over this alignment. Mrs. Kinzie (1807-1870) later described her stay at Hamilton’s diggings, Kellogg’s Grove and their harrowing journey along the Galena Trail in Chapters 14 and 15 of Wau-Bun, the "Early Day" in the Northwest. Wau-Bun is a classic piece of frontier literature and is available at most public libraries.

In Map #8, Poole records a westerly alignment from Kellogg’s Grove to Galena as it existed during the Black Hawk War and shown in this 2003 photo. Ruts from this alignment can be found running parallel to the northern edge of the road, at the left of this photo.