The Superior Express -

The Hebrew word “Pisgah” means summit. The biblical Mount Pisgah is in the Jordanian mountains east of Israel’s Jordan River and northeast of the Dead Sea. It is also known as Mount Nebo. Mount Nebo was the mountain from which Moses looked at the Promised Land and on which he died.

That Mount Pisgah has an elevation of around 2,330 feet. The elevation of Jewell County’s little-known Mount Pisgah is about 500 feet. Our Mount Pisgah is located just to the northeast of Montrose and west of the long-gone town of Delta, both in Washington Township.

The 1880 Kansas Gazetteer notes that Delta was settled in 1871. It was chartered by the Delta Town Company in 1879. The directors of the company, Joseph Sturtevant, B. Hobson, D. C. Cluster, E. L. Pierce and W. J. Caustril had $10,000.00 in capital stock.

Though the town never developed, it is found on two early maps of Jewell County. Both the 1878 and 1884 maps have Delta in the same place, Section 12 of Washington Township east of Mount Pisgah.  Specifically, Delta was in the SW 1⁄4 of the SE 1⁄4. The 1884 map indicates there was a residence, a store and a post office at the location.

Delta Cemetery, variously called Delta, Odell or Jacobson, is located nearby in NW 1⁄4 of Section 13 of Washington Township.  The cemetery is on the eastern flanks of Mount Pisgah. 

The mount is referred to in a couple of newspaper items.  The March 7, 1883, Jewell County Monitor tells of R. B. Custer building a “new home” and starting an “egg and poultry business” on Mount Pisgah. In checking Bureau of Land Management records, we find Richard Bruce Cluster homesteaded the NW 1⁄4 of Section Washington’s Section 13.  Essentially, he homesteaded on Mount Pisgah.

The Aug. 19, 1920, Western Advocated quoted a tongue-in-cheek John Balch of Montrose as saying, “There was some snow on Mount Pisgah and Lookout Point, near Montrose, on Saturday but it soon melted.” 

Today Mount Pisgah is still little known but, as Mike Jacobs notes, “It is a beautiful and lonely place.”