Bear River Massacre

For the Newe, the Northwestern Shoshone, this bend of the river is Boa Ogoi, and the bronzes at this pullout show how slowly the settlers' descendants came to call what happened by its name. The 1932 plaque named a battle and blamed the dead. The 1953 Daughters of Utah Pioneers plaque, still in place, praises the Franklin women who nursed the soldiers. In 1990 the Park Service named it a massacre site. In 2021 the Daughters took down the 1932 bronze and put up one approved by Darren Parry, a past leader of the Band's tribal council.

What the plaque says

Pioneer Women No. 186 Erected July, 1953 Attacks by the Indians on the peaceful inhabitants in this vicinity led to the final battle here January 29, 1863. The conflict occurred in deep snow and bitter cold. Scores of wounded and frozen soldiers were taken from the battlefield to the Latter Day Saint community of Franklin. Here pioneer women, trained through trials and necessity of frontier living, accepted the responsibility of caring for the wounded until they could be removed to Camp Douglas, Utah. Two Indian women and three children, found alive after the encounter, were given homes in Franklin. Franklin County Bear River Massacre Site has been designated a National Historic Landmark This site possesses national significance in commemorating the history of the United States of America 1990 National Park Service United States Department of the Interior Bear River Massacre In memory of the estimated 400 men, women, and children of the Northwestern Shoshone Nation who were brutally massacred in this vicinity on January 29, 1863, by the United States Army California Volunteers from Fort Douglas, Utah, under the command of Colonel Patrick E. Connor. The attack took place in the early morning hours against a group of people with limited defense and without peaceful means first being sought when a conflict arose. As a result of the encounter, 23 soldiers died. Chief Sagwitch and other survivors joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, established a thriving farming community known as Washakie, and many helped build the Logan Temple. 2021 No. 590 Franklin Company Daughters of Utah Pioneers Bear River Massacre Very few Northwestern Shoshoni survived a battle here that turned into a massacre by Col. P.E. Connor's California Volunteers. In 1863, Connor and his force set out from Salt Lake City on a cold January campaign in response to friction between Indians and white travelers. They found more than 400 Shoshoni settled in a winter camp on Battle Creek. When Connor struck at daybreak on January 29, the Shoshoni suffered a massacre unrivaled in Western history. 216 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Boa Ogoi (Bear River Massacre Site) — steps away
  The Northwestern Band bought back the ground where its people were killed in 1863, and is turning farm fields back into the river bottom they knew.
• Preston and Napoleon Dynamite — 3.9 mi
  A farm town in the north end of Cache Valley that a former student turned into a set in the summer of 2003, without changing much of anything.
• Minnetonka Cave — 20 mi
  Found by a grouse hunter, named first for a porcupine and then in a language from the far side of the Rockies. Five kinds of bats winter inside.
• Tony Grove Lake — 22 mi
  A glacial alpine lake at 8,100 feet surrounded by wildflower meadows

More markers nearby

• Utah & Northern Railway — steps away
• Old Delta Sediments — 4.4 mi
• Hatch House — 10 mi
• Idaho's Oldest Town — 10 mi