White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1911-08-27
MASSACRE At
PYRAMID LAKE
WOODBURY. =. BRINTNALL TELLS
INTERESTING STORY IN CAR
son CITY NEWS OF CONDITIONS
IN NEVADA LONG AGO.

The following story of the massa-
ere that took place on the shores of
Pyramid Lake is told by a survivor
of the bloody affair. As it is beliey-
ed that the Pyramid reservation is
soon to be thrown open to settle
ment, this story becomes OF interest
to all.-Ed.
"Old man Guerne" tells the story
of a battle with the Snakes and
Piutes, unwritten, save these
lines. of a man named Elliott,
who would find silver where
the Colorado, rushing through nigh
ty canyons, wears away the rock of
ages; of a handful of white men,
Californians who rode and fought,
and rode far into the hours of night,
rode until the sun rising, again sunk
in the far east, leaving but the stars
and the darkness to shroud the field
of massacre, the silent ~staring-eyed
bodies of Elliott ana they who with
him fell.
Little children come to look upon
him with something akin to awe.
Men passing by stop and listen; be-
come one of the attentive group; and
as he talks the children, staring in
the direction the old mans hand may
point out, breathe more quickly,
glance askance at deepening shadods,
for it is in the twilight time when
his stories are most sought-that
elusive hour when vague shadowy
shapes lurk among the tall trees and
every whisper of the evenings cool
ing breeze sends little thrills of ap--
~prehension creeping over one. Soft
feathery wreaths of fragrant weed
curl upward from pipe and cigarette
as the story unfolds-anon the timid
girl cries out in fear, men half start
at the rustic of waving grass. In the
hill country. at evening time, ..ere
are many curious sounds.
Paints No Picture.
He paints no word picture, does
"Old Man Guerne." You but listen
TO the story of an old man who is
telling facts. not romance. He might
well be on the witness stand, so
prosaic are his utterances. Yet, long
before he is finished the little wreaths
OF smoke have ceased to be, and the
fhroats CO his audience are as dry as
vas tn sagebrush on that battlefield
I g years ago, when "Ormsby'
tght the Pfutes and the Snakes,
Pyramid Lake.
Between Santa Rosa and Sonoma
IN the year 1860 was an inn called
the Halfway House an was a
boy of % then"
So he begins, linking the old inn
with his almost boyhood days. letting
memory retrace her steps as ne
~momentarily pauses.
Il am not then living in Guerne-
vile, as now he continues. NO, |
am then living on my fathers ranch
near there, an | come to now a man
ramed A. Elliott, who thinks to find
silver where the Colorado flows. An
he fire my blood with dreams of
wealth, an so, when he organize a
party to there prospect ] too join.
An some of the men from zeal my
home an others they are from Clear
Lake. There is Professor Scott. a
New York man, he who built the
first college in Heraldsbury, an Joe
Baldwin, 10 years old, an the son OF
a California judge. ! am the next
oldest, an there is a man named
William Spur, who have fought in
the Mexican vi an then well
known in Sonoma county, an | re-
member Cammell brothers, the first
men there to operate a grist mill, an
Dick Shsttuck. whose father is also
a judge; and there is George Drum
buler and Richard Lawrence OF
Clear Lake. Others there were
whose names ! have forgotten.
Raid Williams Station.
1T is on the morning of March Is,
1860, that We started from the Half
Way House. an in our party are
about fifty men. Our route it is to
Sacramento. Placerville, Genoa, Car
son, an from there across the Car
son river, where we are 10 await 9TH
er men. An we are camp there
for perhaps a week when word il
reach us by a runner hat the Piutes
and the Snakes have massacreed viii
liams brothers, who are stockmen
These Williams they keep a sort Of
inn, Williams Station it is on the
main emigrant road some fifty milei
east of Virginia City. Well, we hav,