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PI ,44 trst-,4 4 .1P' Mil ptk,,,,,e411,,,,,,,, '' ' ' -- ..... I L-- - : . VS FORDS4 Ant MAt ., --- , ? - .,,,r,147, We VMS I IMMO - - MN IC0 1'1)5 - W'rlINS4rtt 0 ''.; ',...- 1 1 , . , , ' r".'b"--"w- , ) ? ' 1 . 4,-- , ' '1 42 L . J L , VOW. ''''''''' o , MOTO ST KAY O. JONES. MAGAZIMI 1 4' ,, ITUT 111110TOWIAMIS , ; , 1 . . 1 I , , . . t , ' 113 0 1 Ihaugoommodi 22 22 0 gad. OF PRESTON, Idaho still like to talk about the famous Battle of Bear River which from town. They know took place but two miles the 'tor)r well and pa- se it down to their children'. Should you walk Into the lobby of the Preston Post Office Ybu'll find on the west wall, if you glance up, a mural that stops you, intrigues you With Its action. It depicts the Bear River battle which, Prestonians and historians say, marked the last major clash between Indian and white man in the Mountain West. The mural almost relives the event as you gaze on Federal troops sweeping in and annihilating the half naked Bannock' in their own. camp amid' ice and snow on a subzero morning. Though the battleor massacre, if you must be realistictook race. late In January, 1863, it is still a favorite among Prestonians after all the years. It is the small city's major claim to being associated with a historic event of important nce In the Great West ' . ,.. :11 L alloarricaxiild'g marches and, at dawn on the day of battle, they swooped down on the camp with deadly swiftness. The battle was brief and bloodY. The canyon stronghold proved to be a deathtrap for the Bannocks. They were caught in an enfilade fire as troops attacked from the banks surrounding the ravine. According to Colonel Connor, those who tried to escape through the ravine's. north Tnd were shot while the rest, trying to flee by swimming the river, were shot in the water. There was no surrender. EtEOLICS V . By PALMER CHASE - - Anomie, Stet' Writer - -- 4 Inifica , I .. 1 1 ' i 4 .1 1 t ,;. '' , - SIMPLE STONE shaft, topped with a ministure tepee, stands about 20 yards off U. S. Highway 91 northwest of Preston to commemorate the battle. Less than a mile away to the west, lies the battle scene, a quiet piece of southern Idaho 'ant., It bears not the slightest trace of what occurred there nearly a century ago. The Post Office mural was done in 1941 by a young Seattle artist, Edmond James Fitzgerald, whose tether fought with the U. S. Cavalry in the Modoc War of 1872 and later against the same tribe trapped at Bear Riverthe Bannocks. Hence, Mr. Fitzgerald's interest in the Preston mural was more than academic. , BY his own admission, however, the wall Lilt With its drama of burning tepees and despernot pretend ate Indian and white warriors res it is a to depict the actual battle scene of the Vanishing and event the of symbolboth One catches the pathos, the futility of American. ' ' the Bannock resistance. -- , ' . . , As the story goes, the Indians in a measure brought the trouble on themselves, though even Preston folk admit that attempted extermination of the tribe was harsh punishment. For several years prior to the battle, Bannock Indians had obJected to settlers in the West and had plundered' and burned pioneers' property. They would steal cattle and even kill a settler or his family if caught unprotected, so it's told. Several small bands of Bannock' were ,known to be in the Preston vicinity during the winter of 1882-6- : - I HE FEDERAL troops 'suffered killed, 49 wounded. The band of Bannocks was reported to 14 3. ACCORDINGLY. Colonel Patrick E. Connor at - volunFort Douglas with his California-Nevad- a tees (the Civil War was on), mobilized some 300 men to put down' the depredations for once' and for all.- - His column, made' up of infantry, mounted troops, baggage wagons and reportedly a howitzer, ' moved northward from Salt Lake City in sub zero weather. Seventy soldiers are said to have been disabled by frozen feet. As one version of the story goes, Colonel Connor schemed out a plan, from his knowl- edge of Indian fighting, to catch the Bannock off have been wiped out to a man, though a number of the women and children were later cared for by the settlers. The battle lasted scarcely four hours. There is one phase of the story, however, which lingers persistently among Prestonians, though its historical authenticity has never been proved. They say that several Indians made good their escape by swimming Bear' River that hitter cold morning. How could they survive such a swim even if they , ' survived rifle halls? Prestoniana will .tell you that a number of natural warm springs bubbled from the earth near the hook in the river where the Indians camped. One of the reasons they camped there, so the explanation, goes, was that the Bannocks co9,1d warm themelter from selves a hit in the water as well as find icy winds in the ravine near by: And some Prestonians will even tell you that at least one or possibly two Indians hid themselves for several hours in the warmth of the Bear River waters, escaping after the troops had moved off. A few warm springs still bubble in the neighborhood, the folks of Preston say, as .evidence of that story. Yes, in many ways the Battle of Bear River lingers with Preston just as the drama of the War Between the States lingers with the' South. That's why the .Post Office mural is a symbh1 t - - balance. He sent pn shied as a sort of decoy an obvious, ly weak detachment of infantry with baggage wagons and the howitzer. Spying this from their look- in at out posts, the Indians gathered their strength main stronghold, a gorge some 20 feet by 40 feet on the bank of the Bear Riveir. Then they lay in Wait for what they thought woulds,be the kill. But the wily colonel, meanwhile mimed up strong raver); reinforcements . by forced night s k, to Preston.. , , . SUNDAY, APRIL 141, 1949 11, - |
