A considerable amount of the area between North Main Street and the Buckhorn Road, north of the City Limits, was occupied by the Kellogg Strawberry Farm that was owned by the F.E. Beatty family. Much of the area was irrigated by an overhead sprinkler system with water pumped from the Portage River. The farm, at that time, grew nothing but strawberries. The principal function was to produce plants which were shipped all over the world. They did, however, open the fields, in the spring, to let people pick berries for themselves at two or three cents a quart.
Kelloggs was a good place to get, temporary summer time, work hoeing strawberries, in fact, this summertime work was the reason that the HoBo Inn was built. It was erected to provide a place to house the transients who worked in the strawberry fields.
The main office for the Kellogg Company was the building on the Northeast corner of Hoffman Street and Portage Avenue. A long frame building, that used to set along the Buckhorn Road was their Packing House and the Beatty family lived in the big brick house across the Buckhorn from the office.