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Volume 3 (1858-1859) (592 pages)
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Page: of 592
A CALIFORNIAN BLOOD-STAIN.
Tam blood-stained; and I shall tell
how it came. In March, 1850, I was
mining at “The Middle Bar of Clear
Creek”’—now known as One-horse Town
in Shasta county. Bill Fopp, who had
been a sail-maker’s assistant on the U.S.
Frigate Constitution, was my partner.
He was a very large, strong and active
man, and a firstrate fellow. The Middle
Bar lies at the mouth of a cation, the sides
of which rise to mountains several thousand feet above the level of the stream.
On the sides of these mountains there
are numerous gullies, some of which
were very rich in gold when first discoyered.
One of these gullies, known as ‘Sheets’
Gulch,” about six miles north of the
Middle Bar, had heen twice ‘ worked
out” during the winter of 749 and ’50;
but Bill and I prospected it in March,
750, and found it still rich. So about
_ the middle of the month we packed up
all our worldly goods and took up aclaim
on the guich. A little current of water
was running through it—about five gallons per minute—jest enough to supply
one rocker. Our claim was on a little
bench on the mountain side, where there
were beautiful grass, timber and shrubbery, while in the distance were grand
mountain peaks, and about five hundred
yards west of us was the cafion of Clear
Creek, perhaps nearly one thousand feet
deep.
It so happened that our claim lay very
near the Indian trail from Cottonwood
Creek to “The Springs”—as what is
now Shasta City was then called—and
Cow Creek; and the Indians frequently
used the trail. At that time the pale
faces and the red men were at war. The
latter had been driven away from their
ancient homes, cut off from access to the
salmon fisheries, deprived of the stores
of acrons and horsechestnuts which they
had laid up in their rancherias, and haying no other means of sustaining life,
they drove off horses, mules, horned cattle, and stole flour and other articles of
provision from the miners.
These thefts, when horses were worth
$200 each, and all kinds of provisions $2
per pound, caused severe losses to the
whites, and they could not submit to
them; they had either to abandon the
mines and leave the country to the sayages, or they must punish the thieves so
as to prevent the repetition of the thefts.
The method of punishment, often resorted to, was a very simple one. About
twenty or thirty miners, all armed with
rifles, reyolyers and bowie knives, would
start out on a road into the Indian country, discover a rancheria, take it by surprise, rush upon it, and shoot, stab and
kill every buck, squaw and pappoose.
Of course the Indians would retaliate by
shooting down the whites, whenever they
could take them by surprise or at a great
advantage.
There were no miners within two miles
of Sheets’ Gulch, and none nearer than
“The Middle Bar” save Ben Wright and
Olney with a party of Wallawalla Indians ; and as we were only two, we
were advised by all our friends not to remain there alone, where we might be
surprised and murdered by the hostile
Indians at any time of the day or night.
We determined, however, to risk our lives
for the sake of the gold—and we staid.
All that month of March we worked
there more arduously than any slaves,
And we had encouragement, We were
making about $30 per day in beautiful