Hat Creek Dateline: 1876/08/03

Five Survive stagecoach attack
by Ed Cook, Contributing Writer

Stage driver C. H. Cameron and four passengers walked in here last night after their coach had been attacked by Indians along Indian Creek. One of the passengers had been shot in the cheek; another had his forehead skinned as the brim of his hat was shot away; another had bullet holes through his clothing.

Cameron told us that Indians began the attack on the down (southbound) coach along Indian Creek. They pursued the coach for 12 miles. Using long range rifles, they also shot from every bluff along the road. Soon the one-needle gun on the stage went out of order, and the Indians began to close in. When they at last blocked the road in front of the stage, the driver swung the horses out of the ruts and sent them galloping toward a bluff. There he and the passengers took off on foot and hid in some brush. After dark they walked on in here.

Lieutenant Taylor, commander of the newly constructed Fort here, sent a detail of his 23rd Infantry soldiers out this morning to bring in the coach. They found that the attackers had cut up the harness, bashed in the top of the coach, opened the mail sacks and made off with the horses.

(Information sources: The Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage and Express Routes by Agnes Wright Spring. Council on Abandoned Military Posts (CAMP) Winter 1974-1975, Paul Hedren.)