Clapper Creek

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For many years, Clapper Creek was thought to be the location where Peter Lassen and Edward Clapper were murdered in 1859.[1][2]

Black Rock Canyon is mentioned in a 1893 article about the death of Peter Lassen as the site of the deaths and states that after the murders the area was known as Clapper Creek.[3]

Fairfield (p. 171) writes:

"At the Black Rock range they camped one evening beside a small stream ever since known as Clapper creek. The camp was in a nook of the canyon overlooked by high bluffs on three sides There was a little feed for the horses and the place was a very pleasant if in those times dangerous location for a camp."

Ferol Egan's chapter about the Lassen-Clapper murders is titled "An Occurrence at Black Rock Canyon".[4] Egan states that the modern name of Black Rock Canyon is Clapper Canyon.

The Oregon-California Trails Association places the Lassen-Clapper murder site at T38N R26E S7 NE1/4,[5] (41°12'38.11"N 119° 3'2.28"W). Note that the grave site is not on Clapper Creek[6], it is in a small canyon south of Clapper Creek.

References

  1. Asa Merrill Fairfield, "Fairfield's Pioneer History of Lassen County, California," p. 173
  2. Santa Cruz Sentinel, "Skeleton May Be Lassen's Partner," February 17, 1992, p. 10.
  3. "Peter Lassen's Death," San Francisco Chronicle, December 3, 1893.
  4. "Sand In A Whirlwind," Ferol Egan, 2016.
  5. "Graves and Sites on the Oregon and California Trails," Randy Brown and Reg Duffin, 1989.
  6. Clapper Creek (GNIS)

External links