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Another View of the Massacre Site
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In 1852 a Weaverville citizen was killed .... apparently by a small
band of renegade Indians. A sheriff's posse gave chase --- tracking
the marauders for several days across rough wilderness country (????) ---- before losing
the trail in the general vicinity of Hayfork Creek. Posse scouts searched
and stumbled upon the Indian rancheria at Bridge Gulch. (The existence of this
rancheria had not previously been known to the whites living in the area.)
There's some evidence to suggest that the Indians living at Bridge Gulch
were NOT the ones responsible for the murder of the Weaverville citizen ---
that their newly-discovered rancheria merely became a convenient
"target of opportunity" for vengeful posse members.
Accounts vary as to "how many" were actually massacred at Bridge Gulch.
The generally accepted figure is 150 to 152. However, one of
surviving Indian children said the number was closer to 300 .... and,
according to this survivor, those massacred were mostly women and children....
since most of the rancheria's men were away on a hunting trip at the time of the attack.
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