HISTORY OF THE VISITOR CENTER
The Historic Silver Valley Chamber and Visitor’s Center is located directly off the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes in the former passenger depot of the Union Pacific Railroad.
The brick passenger depot was constructed between 1909 and 1914 by the Oregon Railway & Navigation Co. It was built to replace the Wardner passenger depot but its name changed to the Kellogg-Wardner depot in 1914 to reflect the growing importance of Kellogg.
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“The matter of changing the name of the Kellogg depot was brought before the Wardner Council last night by Mayor B. Flaig, who remarked that Kellogg tried to steal our name, and then followed with a motion by Councilman Weniger that the mayor appoint a committee of five, including citizens and councilmen, to circulate a petition of protest to be forwarded to the O.W.R. & N. against the action.” |
-Kellogg-News-Wardner, Feb. 13, 1914
The passenger depot building was owned by the Union Pacific Railroad through 1993 when the Wallace Branch of the Union Pacific ceased operation. The railroad was going to tear the building down but local community members requested that the building be saved and donated to the city. Later in the 1990s the City of Kellogg assumed ownership of the depot. In 2002 the depot underwent renovation to make it suitable for the Historic Silver Valley Chamber of Commerce.
