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HISTORY
El
Dorado County, California.
LOCAL
HISTORY.
MURDERER'S
BAR.
The derivation of this name as told by Mr. D. Fairchild,
an old pioneer of 1849, and for years a resident of this county, which he
only left to take charge of the Oroville Mercury, Butte county, is showing
a true picture of early mining events : "Among the pioneers of 1848,
was Thomas M. Buckner, now a resident of Spanish Dry
Diggings, El Dorado county, who emigrated to Oregon from Kentucky, in
1845. When the news of the discovery of gold in California reached Oregon,
several parties were immediately fitted out with the purpose to start for
the gold-fields. Buckner was a member of one of these companies, numbering
sixty-two young men, who made the overland trip to California, under the
leadership of Captain Martin, and after some
adventures of lesser importance arrived at Sutter's fort, on August 2d,
1848. While stopping t the fort for a few days, a party of sailors arrived
from the mines with a considerable quantity of gold dust, and informed Mr.
J. D. Hoppe, who was also there, and which whom they
were acquainted, where they had obtained it, and of the probability of
there being much more in the vicinity. Mr. Hoppe immediately engaged a
party of seven men, Buckner being one, to go with him to the ,Sailors
Diggings.' Having obtained unmistakable directions s to the route and
distance, they left the fort about the 10th, of August. In those days
there were circuitous trails, for though the objective point of the party,
afterwards proved to be the place, called the following year "Rector's
Bar," after an Oregonian of that name, on the Middle Fork of the
American river. They proceeded to Sutter's mill thence northerly to Long
valley (now Greenwood), over the ridge by Spanish Dry Diggings and down
into the canyon of the Middle fork to what was afterwards named 'Spanish
Bar,' across the river and up the hill to the top of the ridge, where they
traveled on the trail, made by the sailors, to the place now known as
Bird's valley, and fixed their camp there. From here they went down
into the canyon of the river, in the morning, working during the day in
the crevices and returning to camp on the ridge at night. The only tools
used by these primitive miners were butcher knives, iron spoons and
occasionally a small steel bar, and a pan, as they were seeking for gold
only upon and in the crevices of the bed-rock which the high waters of
years had flowed over and denuded with all loose material. The gold was
coarse, and while some of the crevices would yield many pounds of gold,
others contained nothing, this rendered the success of the party variable,
and though generally lucky, when provisions began to get scarce, towards
the rainy season, a separation took place; Buckner with two others,
started unknown with the route, hoping to reach Johnson's
ranch on Bear river. In this, however, they were disappointed, for the
first evidences of civilization they struck were upon their arrival at Sinclair's
ranch, opposite Sutter's fort.
"Knowing nothing about dry or ravine diggings, and
believing the tales of trappers and others, that it would be impossible to
winter at the mines along the rivers, Buckner went to San Francisco and
thence to the redwoods, known as San Antonio, in the hills back of the
present site of Oakland, where Redwood-peak is, here he found employment
making shakes, pickets, whip-saw lumber etc., At that time these redwoods
contained scores of men of various nationalities and professions ; runaway
sailors, beach combers, lawyers, doctors, etc., all similarly occupied
for present necessity.
" Among these homogeneous spirits who were
temporarily inhabiting the redwoods was Capt. Ezekiel Merritt,
who had been a conspicuous character in the formation of the "Bear
flag" party at Sonoma in 1846; during the winter an intimate
friendship sprang up between Buckner and Merritt, and they determined to
blend their fortunes into a venture to the mines, as soon as the proper
season should arrive. Accordingly the two, accompanied by an Indian boy
called Peg, whom Merritt had retained for a number of
yeas as a servant, in April, 1849, left the redwoods and went overland to Knight's
ranch, on Cache creek; Knight and Gordon, both old
settlers in that section, were old acquaintances and friends of Merritt.
"Upon learning the destination of his friend, Mr.
Knight, with the hospitality then so characteristic of the old California
rancheros, insisted upon killing a number of bullocks and jerking the
meat, that the Captain and his companions might be provided with a
sufficient quantity of carne seca, to ward off the chances of
starvation, while pursuing their search of digging in an unknown region.
Having prepared an ample supply of meat, Mr. Knight's generosity did not
stop there, he loaded it upon on of his carts and sent it to the embarcadero,
at Sacramento, so that the horses of the prospectors might be fresher for
their mountain journey. At the time, a surveying party under Lieut. Warner,
of the U. S. A., were laying out the streets of the future city of
Sacramento.
"Meritt and Buckneer, assisted by Peg, packed up
their animals, and first went to Weber creek, but did not like the outlook
there, and advancing in a northerly direction, crossed the South Fork of
the American, a few miles below Sutter's mill ; traveled across the
divide, and descended into the canyon of the Middle Fork, reaching the
stream at a place where there was quite a fall, caused by an avalanche,
years before, which had changed the bed of the river.
"The month of April was not yet gone, there were no
evidences of any work having been done by white men, but while traveling,
the little party had observed signs of Indians, and, deeming any they
would there meet would be hostile, on account of their small number a
sharp lookout was kept. They remained near the falls a day or two,
endeavoring to get to the bottom of the deep hole which was just below
them, where the crude gold diggers imagined all of the large junks should
be, if there were any at all in the locality ; but not succeeding, they
broke camp and started down the stream. Captain Merritt' s an experienced
frontiersman took the lead. They had proceeded but a short distance, when
they reached the head of a large bar, situated upon the South side of the
river, and below them some distance down the bar was a jutting point of
rocks, beyond which the could not see. The captain was a nervous,
excitable man, and when excited stuttered badly. When a few yards down the
bar, he suddenly stopped short, bringing the train to a halt, and
exclaimed : 'B-b-by G-g-god, he-he-r's wh-white ma-man's ha-ha-r! Ye-yes,
a-and Injuns' ha-har, too!' And sure enough, so it was ; there upon the
pebbly bar above high water mark, among evidences of a plundered camp, was
the white man's hair, strewn around with that of the Indian, silent
evidence that the life of the superior race had not gone out to the great
unknown unavenged and without a struggle. No bodies were found, but an ash
heap close by, in which were calcined bones, told the story of the white
and red man together.
"Upon this discovery, the point of rocks ahead
became a barrier post, beyond which the white men dared not go for fear of
an ambuscade, and accordingly the retraced their steps to the head of the
bar, where a large, smooth, deep stretch of water occurred above the
ripple, while a small, low bar showed itself upon the northern side. At
the extreme head of the bar, where they had found the evidences of death,
they unpacked their animals in an open space of ground, and prepared for
an attack. They remained in this position until the following morning, and
no Indians coming to molest them, nor none being seen, Captain Merritt
armed the boy Peg, and sent him around the point of rocks to reconnoiter.
He returned, and reposted signs, but no Indians in sight. Thereupon all
three, with arms in readiness in case of necessity, sallied forth for
further explorations down the river. Scarcely had they passed the point,
before some sixty or seventy Indians appeared upon the bench or higher
bar, above them, yelling and gesticulating in a frightful manner,
but as they were only armed with bows and arrows, dared not attack. Now
that the enemy were in sight all fear of ambush passed away, and with
"Rachel," as Merritt called his old-fashioned rifle, poised for
business, the white men watched the yelping savages until the latter
apparently became convinced that they could do no harm to the former, and
and in the course of a few hours, retreated upon the mountain and
disappeared from view.
"Upon the river bar that the whites thus were left
the masters of were fine groves of willows, some ash trees, and many
smooth-barked, thrifty alders, and while there it occurred to Buckner,
that, as the bars along the South Fork and other streams to the southward,
were all designed with names, he would also name the one they were then
occupying. He accordingly took his pocket knife and cut upon the smooth
and easily slipped bark of an alder tree,
"Murderer's
Bar;"
By which the spot has ever since been known. But Merritt
and Buckner did not deem it prudent to remain there. They preferred to
camp in some more open spot less liable to be approached by the Indians
under cover, and crossing the river in a dug-out canoe, they established
themselves with animals and paraphernalia upon the Placer county side of
the Middle Fork at Buckner's Bar, with the river between themselves and
their dangerous foe. Who the men killed were, has never been
satisfactorily determined. They probably met their fate late in the fall
of 1848 ; and Mr. Buckner is of the opinion that there were three of them,
two of them Wood and Graham, who
came into the country with him in Capt. Martin's party of
Oregonians."
There were some companies of miners working on this bar
in the summer of 1849, but most of them left on account of the commencing
raining season, only five men built cabins on the bank, as they thought
sufficiently high up to be out of the reach of the high water ; but were
surprised by the rising of the water on January 9th, 1850, which drove
them as fast as they were able higher up on the hill, without giving them
time to save anything out of the cabins, the waters of the river, rising
sixty feet in one day, took away all their property.
In 1850, the miners of Murderer's Bar, for the purpose
of working on a large fluming process, consolidated with the miners of New
York Bar, Vermont, Buckner's Bar and Sailors Claim, to join flumes and
work alltogether on shares : Stephen Tyler and Lefingwell,
of Murderer's Bar, took the contract to build the flume of twelve feet
wide by three feet high, and over a mile in length, and a very busy time
began in the canyon of the Middle Fork of the American river. There were
not less than six hundred men engaged in different kinds of work on those
five river bars, including of the construction, etc., of the big flume,
and about one half of them accounted for Murderer's Bar. A ferry had been
built the same year and the roads to make the ferry useful led up through
Cave valley towards Pilot Hill, and on the Placer county side towards
Yankee Jim's, becoming quite a traveled road from Sacramento to all the
mining camps in this part of Placer county.
 The miners cabins built up quite a little village in
1850; only five men had decided to remain on the bar the fall before. The
first stores in the village were kept by E. C. Cromwell,
from Michigan, and Moss, from St. Joseph, Missouri. Some difficulties
about a mining claim between one Beck and one Walker,
in 1850, let to an earnest hostility and ended in the murder of Beck, who
was shot by Walker with a shotgun across the river, Walker was on the El
Dorado county side, while Beck stood on the Placer county side. The first
white woman in the village was Mrs. A. Harris, how of
Greenwood Township, El Dorado county-
The population of Murderer's Bar was growing constantly
; in 1855 the town had over five hundred inhabitants, and always
represented one of the liveliest mining camps up o the year of 1858 or
1860. Lee and Marshall's National
circus made an excursion down into the canyon once, and gave exhibitions
here and at Rattlesnake Bar. The gold found at this and the neighboring
bars was all fine scale gold of very rich quality ; never was any large
pieces found. Of first settlers at Murder's Bar may be mentioned ; E. C.
Cromwell ; Jim Stewart ; Geo. Melville
; Col. Potter; Wm. Harris who discovered the back
part of it ; Phil Herbert ; Judge Hammond
; Kerup Anderson ; Burton
Bros. Walker Bros. Jim Beckwoulth and
Shabanau ; Geo. Schofield;
Col. Kipp; Hugh J. Glenn, late of
Colusa county. Jno. Percival, known as "Cranky
Jack;" Dave Helmes ; Clerk Helmes and two others
died violent death's here. C. Cooledge, kept store
and hotel at this Bar up to 1854 or 1855.
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