Tragedy Spring is a small alpine freshwater spring and historical site in eastern
Amador County
Amador County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California, in the Sierra Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,474. The county seat is Jackson. Amador County, located within California's Gold Country, is known as "The ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
adjacent to
Highway 88 approximately two miles west of
Silver Lake
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
. It was named after an incident on June 27, 1848, in which three Mormon men were killed adjacent to the spring, allegedly by Native Americans, and their bodies burned and buried. The names of the men were carved on a large tree in this location. The men killed were Henderson Cox (1829-1848), Ezra Hela Allen (1814-1848), and Daniel Browett (1809-1848).
History
In 1848 a company of Mormons, some of whom had served in the
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...
as part of the
Mormon Battalion
The Mormon Battalion was the only religious unit in United States military history in federal service, recruited solely from one religious body and having a religious title as the unit designation. The volunteers served from July 1846 to July ...
, were planning to leave the recently discovered gold fields near
Placerville to join the new Mormon colony at
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
,
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
. Daniel Browett, president and lead scout of the Browett-Holmes Company, decided to ride out with two companions and scout snow conditions and a possible route over the
Sierra Nevada
The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...
against the advice of the rest of the company. When the scouts hadn't returned by July 5, a party of 10 went in search of them without success. On July 19, the main group, now on its way to Utah, arrived at the spring and found a freshly dug shallow grave with broken arrows lying about. Upon investigation, they found their scouts' bodies in the grave, whereupon they named the spring "Tragedy." The victims had been stripped, mutilated and robbed, according to journal accounts.
The route taken by the Mormon group out of California became known as the Carson River Trail, or
Carson Trail
The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California. After it was established, the first half of the California Trail fo ...
, and it was to become one of the primary routes used by immigrants coming into California in search of gold.
[ California trail#Carson Trail]
Memorial
The Tragedy Spring picnic ground, maintained by
Eldorado National Forest
Eldorado National Forest is a U.S. National Forest located in the central Sierra Nevada mountain range, in eastern California.
Geography
Most of the forest (72.8%) lies in El Dorado County. In descending order of land area the others counties ...
, is located at the gravesite. It is situated on a hillside near the entrance to the picnic site. The grave is a rock cairn that has been cemented in place with an attached plaque commemorating the loss of the three men, Henderson Cox (1829-1848), Ezra Hela Allen (1814-1848), and Daniel Browett (1809-1848). The burial site became a
Daughters of Utah Pioneers
The International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers (ISDUP, DUP) is a women's organization dedicated to preserving the history of the original settlers of the geographic area covered by the State of Deseret and Utah Territory, including Mormon pio ...
monument in 1967.
The picnic ground no longer exists, having been destroyed in the
Caldor Fire
The Caldor Fire was a large wildfire that burned in the Eldorado National Forest and other areas of the Sierra Nevada in El Dorado, Amador, and Alpine County, California, in the United States during the 2021 California wildfire season. The ...
in 2021. The spring box is privately maintained.
References
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Mormon Battalion
History of Amador County, California