Local color post; Went for a little ride with my dad and some of his friends on Wednesday. We left Poison Creek just past the old stage stop and rode out across the border into Oregon to Succor Creek canyon.
On our way back we made a detour to the homestead and gravesite of Spanish Charley.
I don't know if it's historically accurate but legend goes that Charley was a shepherd living in a valley above Succor Creek with his sheep. There is water in the lowland at the homestead but it dried up in the late summer. In order to get his sheep to water he was forced to cross the corner of someone else's land. That land owner warned him not to do it again. Unfortunately his sheep still needed water and the next time Charley attempted to cross, the neighbor shot him dead. A couple days later the neighbor went in to town to turn himself in. He was later acquitted.
Lesson? No trespassing means no trespassing. (We had to jump a fence to get pics)
About all that remains of the homestead was 3 stone structures. Obviously several fires have gone through over the last 130 years so the only artifacts we saw were broken pieces of an old stove. Might be an interesting place to use a metal detector.
The most impressive thing to me was the stone fence that had been stacked. It went up one hill to the rock outcropping, down the other side, then another section beyond the next ridge. I would conservatively estimate 2-3 miles in length. Most of the stones were basketball sized or larger. I guess when you're living in the middle of nowhere in the 1800s there isn't much else to do. You may have to zoom in on the last photo to see it in the distance.
This is looking down into the valley from the homestead spot. Succor Creek runs through the bottom.
On the way back there were about half a dozen water crossings. I stayed dry until the last one that was deeper than it looked. I was in 18-20 inches of water with my legs up when my engine bogged and I had to put both feet on the creek bottom to keep from falling over. Oh well, I was mostly dry by the time we got back to the loading spot. The loop was only about 50 miles so it made a great 1/2 day trip.
