Exhibiting quite a bit of "patina" from its nearly 100 years of outdoor exposure, this statue of pioneer John Mullan was one of the original thirteen monuments erected in 1918, this one in the town of Kellogg. The double base is about three feet in height, elevating the statue well above street level. On the face of the upper base are inscribed the words: CAPT. JOHN MULLAN TRAIL 1853 - 1855.
The thirteen Captain Mullan monuments were placed in towns and cities situated along the Mullan Road, which stretched 642 miles from Fort Benton, MT to Fort Walla Walla, WA. Mullan surveyed and built the road in the years 1853 to 1860. It was the first road to cross the Rocky Mountains into the Pacific Northwest.
Designed by Western frontier artist Edgar S. Paxton and fabricated by Western Montana M & G Company, the original statues of
Captain John Mullan were fourteen feet tall, cut from white Vermont marble and placed on concrete bases. They were initially placed at various points along
The Mullan Road. This monument was erected under the auspices of the Montana Society of Pioneers and was dedicated in 1918. The statue was a gift to the town of Kellogg by W.A. Clark Jr., the son of one of the four Butte Copper Kings, W.A. Clark Sr.
It is described by the Smithsonian thus:
Administered by City of Kellogg Superintendent of Public Works Kellogg Idaho 83837
Located McKinley Avenue & South Division Street Kellogg Idaho
Installed 1918
Standing figure of John Mullan, with his proper right hand holding the top of a gun barrel. The butt of the gun rests on the outside of his proper right foot. His proper left arm is bent at the elbow and his proper left hand rests on his proper left hip. A pistol is tucked in his belt. He has a beard and is wearing a hat. The figure stands on a small base that protrudes from an obelisk-shaped block behind him.
After graduating from West Point, Capt. John Mullan joined Isaac I. Stevens to find routes for roads and railroads from the upper Mississippi to the Pacific Northwest. Several John Mullan statues mark the route of the Mullan Road through Idaho at Post Falls, Fourth of July Pass, Kellogg, Wallace, Mullan, and St. Maries. The sculptures were donated by William A. Clark, Jr., of Butte, Montana, and the forerunners of the Montana and Idaho historical societies. IAS files contain an undated brochure entitled Mullan Military Road.
From the Smithsonian