Decidedly Grim

Today’s Virtually Exterminated Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Before the invasion of non-natives, California was a virtual paradise for the people living there. A pleasant climate, a variety of plants, and plenty of fish and game made life fairly easy for the natives. The tribes bartered and intermarried with each other and violent conflict of any kind was relatively rare. But once the Spaniards arrived in California, life as the natives knew it was over. They were enslaved by the Spanish, then by the Mexicans, and finally they were virtually exterminated by the Caucasians. The Native Americans of California were hunted down and slaughtered like animals. Thousands were assassinated or lynched for no reason other than the color of their skin. For instance, in the spring of 1863, a group of ranchers from Butte County lost some of their horses and immediately blamed the loss on Native Americans. They captured the first Native Americans that they found and hung them from a large oak tree in Helltown. The next day, the horses – which had merely wandered off to forage in the hills – came walking back to their barns. Until the mid-1970’s, a Yuba City tavern proudly displayed a large photo of dozens of Native Americans hanging by their necks from a tree, like a macabre Christmas tree.

Culled from: California Justice: Shootouts, Lynchings and Assassinations in the Golden State

This fact was taken from the above referenced California Justice by David Kulczyk, which I recently finished reading. It is a fascinating collection of lynchings, shootouts, and assassinations that occurred in California spanning the 1850’s to the modern era. As a native Californian, I recognized many of the communities discussed, which gave the book an added interest, but the morbid tales are interesting enough to appeal to those who have never visited the state. Even more interesting are the historic lynching photographs that accompany many of the stories. Horrifying and fascinating. (More morbid book selections can be found at The Library Eclectica.)

Incidentally, back to this particular fact, Helltown is located very near Paradise, California – the town where I spent my “formative” years. Being familiar with the area, I somehow think that the modern residents might not be particularly appalled by the actions of their forebears, if you know what I mean…

I just got back from a trip back “home” where I took many photographs to document my wretched (okay, sometimes nice, but mostly wretched) life there. I took a drive up past Helltown and came across a rather creepy memorial to a murdered man, complete with a can of Coors as an offering:

Perhaps you can see why I moved away from the area?

Oh, and for those of you interested in more of my depressing and trivial, and trivially depressing, musings – my full “Where I’m From” series is located here.

Facts