Barton Mound

Seven men rode out of Los Angeles on the night of January 22, 1857, after the gang that had killed the San Juan Capistrano storekeeper George Pflugardt; the bronze counts the posse at five. Near here Sheriff James Barton, Deputy Charles Daly and Constables William Little and Charles Baker were shot dead, the first Los Angeles County officers killed on duty. Three got away. The mound itself appears to have gone under the 405 and 133 interchange. The bronze came in 2024, eighty-nine years after registration, from the sheriffs' relief association and the city.

What the plaque says

Barton Mound California Registered Historical Landmark No. 218 In January 1857, a group of outlaws were terrorizing the citizens of San Juan Capistrano committing robbery and murder. Los Angeles County Sheriff James R. Barton formed a posse of five men and rode south. On January 23, 1857, near this mound, a large battle ensued between Barton's posse and the outlaws. During the gunfight Sheriff James R. Barton, Deputy Charles T. Daly, and Constables William H. Little and Charles K. Baker were slain. Multiple posses from Los Angeles eventually tracked down and arrested the outlaws responsible for their murder. Plaque is Courtesy of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department's - Sheriffs' Relief Association and In Cooperation with The City of Irvine

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Puvungna — 23 mi
  The Acjachemen and Tongva place of creation: twenty-two acres of open ground on a university campus, still not in the hands of its people.
• Planes of Fame Air Museum — 24 mi
  On the field where the country smelted its surplus warplanes — and about thirty of the aircraft here still fly.
• California Citrus State Historic Park — 26 mi
  A state park that is still a working orange grove — the last big piece of Riverside's citrus landscape left standing.
• Sherman Institute & the Sherman Indian Museum — 26 mi
  The federal Indian boarding school Riverside lobbied to get — still a school today, its 1902 building now a museum.

More markers nearby

• Old Town Irvine — 1.9 mi
• The Serrano Adobe — 3.7 mi
• Crystal Cove Historic District — 7.1 mi
• Red Hill — 7.9 mi