Tragedy Spring - Clairitage Press

One of our recent rambles was a visit to the historic site of Tragedy Spring. We began by heading west on Highway 88 heading west, then took the right-hand turnoff toward Tragedy Springs. (To follow the directions that follow, stop here and set your odometer.) Continue a bit farther along the Tragedy Spring loop road and when you reach odometer reading .3 mile watch for the plaque on your right, embedded in a rock wall at the bottom of a hill.

This plaque was placed by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers in 1967 — 119 years after three Mormon scouts heading east in 1848 were killed. Just below USED to be a basin with a spigot where motorists could get water for their cars or to drink. Modern health worries intervened; the basin is filled with cement and the spigot is no longer there.

This picturesque plaque bears the names of the three scouts (Henderson Cox, Ezra Allen, Daniel Browett), murdered on June 27, 1848 as they camped nearby. Cox, Allen and Browett were part of the famous Mormon Battalion that blazed the original “Mormon Emigrant Trail” across the Sierra.

Although many folks think only about westward-bound gold-seekers, the Mormon band of wagons was actually traveling from west to east, heading back to Salt Lake. They brought with them some bits of gold they had found while in California (some of the men were working at Sutter’s mill when gold was first spotted). But despite the lure of gold, these folks were simply eager to return home. They almost certainly had no idea that the trail they were hacking through the wilderness would carry vast numbers of westward-bound wagons during the Gold Rush in the coming months and years.

These stairs are a picturesque start to your climb!

Look to the left of the plaque to find the stairs, and climb the trail. Here you’ll come to four different sites:

First is another plaque part-way up the trail, set into a rock. This memorial was erected by Sons of Utah Pioneers on September 2, 1967. Beside the stone monument stands a water fountain, where once you could quench your thirst from the mountain spring (but like the spigot at the bottom, unfortunately no longer operational).

This monument was erected by the Sons of Utah Pioneers. In the left foreground is the once-welcoming drinking fountain.

Slightly farther ahead is a spring house protecting the spring that once fed the fountain. This natural spring is what gave the site its name, “Tragedy Spring.” Imagine the thousands of emigrants and their animals who were grateful for its waters!

Near the spring house is yet another plaque; this one replicates text carved into a large fir tree as a “gravestone” by the dead men’s companions:
To the Memory of Daniel Browett, Ezrah H. Allen and Henderson Cox who was supposed to have been murdered and burned by Indians on the night of the 27^th of June 1848.

The artistic type style used on this 1931 plaque makes it especially beautiful.

The plaque was dedicated by Native Sons and Daughters of Amador County on August 30, 1931.

Finally, beneath a sheltering tree you’ll discover the actual rocked-covered grave of the three Mormon scouts who died here in 1849 while trying to blaze the trail for their companions, who were following with wagons.

Concrete has been added in later years to bind the stones together. But these may very well be the same rocks used by the saddened Mormons to erect a protective stone “cairn” over the communal grave.

A nearby wooden sign explains: “When members of the Mormon Battalion camped here, they noticed arrows and a newly-made mound. Upon opening it they found the mutilated bodies of their three friends. They reburied them building a [rock] cairn to protect the grave. They also found Allen’s gold pouch, filled with gold dust, and carried it to his widow in Iowa.”

As the sign mentions, a pouch of gold dust was found near one of the bodies. This plus a report of finding “arrows” fueled suspicion that it was Indians who had killed the three scouts. However, some modern historians question this conclusion since the Indians in this vicinity were generally peaceful and helpful to settlers. Could it be that white explorers or trappers committed the atrocity and deliberately left arrows behind as a ruse?

Beside the sign you’ll also spot an astonishing tree. Its curved and distorted trunk likely was the result of a heavy snowfall while the tree was young.

As you head back downhill, keep your eye peeled for a picnic table tucked into a shady grove on your right — a great spot to stop for a break or to eat lunch.

To reach Highway 88 again, continue to follow the loop road (west). Turn right at the intersection to continue west — and we’ll pick up here in the next installment of this emigrant grave adventure!