Smith Rock

by Cindy Murphy

Title

Smith Rock

Artist

Cindy Murphy

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

Smith Rock State Park is an American state park located in central Oregon's High Desert near the communities of Redmond and Terrebonne. The day use area of the park is open daily from dawn to dusk. The park also has a camping area as well that accommodates tent camping only. Settlers and prospectors pouring into shrinking native hunting grounds in the mid 1800s turned the area into a "no man's land." U.S. soldiers were assigned to protect Indians on reservations. They were mostly there to prevent horse stealing, as horses were valuable commodities.

Chief Paulina, who chose to not join the Warm Springs Reservation, raided horses from the Indians that lived there. One night in October of 1863, Chief Paulina split his forces to elude the soldiers in preparation for such a raid. 30 of his men lay in ambush in the rocks of the now park area.

When the soldiers pursued the horse thieves into the canyon toward the only river crossing for 20 miles, they entered a bloody battle that went on for an hour. During the fight, Private Volk Smith scrambled to the top of Smith Summit with no ropes, in his cavalry boots for a vantage point. He lost his footing and fell to his death. img40 54c

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June 28th, 2020

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