Keyesville massacre


The Keyesville massacre occurred on April 19, 1863, in Tulare County, now Kern County, California, during the Owens Valley Indian War. White settlers and a detachment of the 2nd California Volunteer Cavalry under Captain Moses A. McLaughlin, killed 35 Tübatulabal and Owens Valley Paiute men, "about ten miles from Keysville , upon the right bank of Kern River".

The orders

In early April, Lieutenant Colonel William Jones received a petition from citizens of Keysville and vicinity asking military protection from Indian depredations. He forwarded the petition and notified his superiors in San Francisco of the action he was taking:

The report

Captain Moses A. McLaughlin, commanding the expedition to Keysville, made the following report about the incident:

Site of the massacre

The village where the Keyesville Massacre occurred has been identified by local Native American people as being on Tillie Creek, near the North Fork of the Kern River, now under Lake Isabella next to what is now Wofford Heights, California. This is used as the memorial site.
However this site does not meet the required ten mile distance up river from Keyesville mentioned by the report, being only six miles from that ghost town following the Keyesville Road to the river and following the right bank up river according to the topographic map of the area. The ten mile distance brings the location to the west bank of the Kern above Lake Isabella just below Kernville near the present location of the Kern Valley Golf Course. This seems a likely site for a village, with water and wood, level ground along the river with its resources, and is about ten miles from Keysville, upon the right bank of Kern River.