Historical Marker · No. 16
Infernal Caverns Battleground, 1867
Likely, Modoc County · California
The register says six soldiers were buried at the foot of this slope. Seven white headstones stand there: the seventh was added in 1995 for Private Willoughby Sawyer, whose marker had gone missing. The defenders have none. Paiute and Pit River people, with a few Modoc, held the lava caves above against George Crook's troops on September 26 and 27, 1867, and some fifteen to twenty of them died, by most counts. Nothing cast marks the battleground itself; the headstones are the graves. The site is reached through ranch gates.
Where it stands
41.27260, -120.57728 · Directions
More markers nearby
- Evans and Bailey Fight-1861 — 15 mi
- Chimney Rock — 21 mi
- Old Emigrant Trail — 24 mi
- Bonner Grade — 26 mi