Post by trekster on Dec 15, 2009 21:20:51 GMT -8
My Grandson, Christian, and I were cruising some trails in Owyhee County, Idaho, west of Silver City. Silver City is an old mining/ghost town about 3 hours southwest of Boise. It was a chance to really try out the drive train in the parts truck. We found the old freight wagon road (French John Road) and followed it into the desert, when we came on to the stone marker shown below. 
On one side it had an arrow pointing to Sands Basin and the other was a grave marker for a "victim of violence." We couldn't make out the name of the victim. But the rest of the inscription read " Victim of violence, May 2, 1885, grave 1/4 mile east in draw". When we were in Silver City later on, I asked some of the old timers if they new anything about it. They said his name was Charles Brown and that someone had shot up the marker a few years back. Well, no one knew the circumstances of his unfortunate demise. Oddly enough, the other day I was looking on the internet for some more trails to run in the area, when I ran across this old newspaper article from the newspaper in Silver City back in the 1880's. I thought it was a fascinating story. Be warned, some of the descriptions of the aftermath are a little gruesome.
I'll say Christian and I had a great time solving the "mystery" and got some good wheelin' in!
On one side it had an arrow pointing to Sands Basin and the other was a grave marker for a "victim of violence." We couldn't make out the name of the victim. But the rest of the inscription read " Victim of violence, May 2, 1885, grave 1/4 mile east in draw". When we were in Silver City later on, I asked some of the old timers if they new anything about it. They said his name was Charles Brown and that someone had shot up the marker a few years back. Well, no one knew the circumstances of his unfortunate demise. Oddly enough, the other day I was looking on the internet for some more trails to run in the area, when I ran across this old newspaper article from the newspaper in Silver City back in the 1880's. I thought it was a fascinating story. Be warned, some of the descriptions of the aftermath are a little gruesome.
I'll say Christian and I had a great time solving the "mystery" and got some good wheelin' in!
