of the troubles below and was wholly unsuspicious of danger. As usual, they asked for food. After partaking of it, they bantered him to trade rifles. After some dickering a trade was made. They then proposed shooting at a mark. Accordingly, a mark was set up, and after Marble had shot at it, the Indians turned on him and riddled him with bullets. They then proceeded to appropriate such things as they could make use of and to destroy the balance, after which they took Mrs. Marble with them to their camp, thus bringing the number of prisoners up to four. At night a war dance was held to celebrate the achievements of the day, at which they recounted with pantomimic gestures and energetic action the wonderful deeds in which they had so recently participated. Before leaving this place the Indians removed the bark from an ash tree and delineated on the white surface by signs and characters a hieroglyphical representation of their recent exploits. Many of the writers who have mentioned this incident have made more of it than the facts would warrant. The three or four published accounts which have been given to the public agree in stating that the picture record gave the position and number of victims correctly, and also represented those killed as being pierced with arrows. Now this is mainly fiction. The first discovery of the tree on which the hieroglyphics were delineated was by a party consisting of O. C. Howe, R. U. Wheelock and the writer sometime in May. They were the first party to take a trip on the west side of Spirit Lake after the massacre. The tree was first noticed by Mr. Howe, and he called the attention of the rest of the party to it. It was a white ash tree standing a little way to the southeast of the door of the Marble cabin. It was about eight inches in diameter, not over ten at the most. The rough outside bark had been hewed off for a distance of some twelve or fifteen inches up and down the tree. Upon the smoothed surface thus INDIANS AT HERON LAKE 71 made were the representations. The number of cabins (six) was correctly given, the largest of which was represented as being in flames. There were also representations of human figures and with the help of the imagination it was possible to distinguish which were meant for the whites and which the Indians. There were not over ten or a dozen all told, and except for the hint contained in the cabins, the largest one being in flames, we could not have figured any meaning out of it. This talk of the victims being pierced with arrows and their number and position given, is all nonsense. Mr. Howe and the writer spent some time studying it, and, while they came to the conclusion that it would convey a definite meaning to those understanding it, they could not make much out of it. After leaving Marble's place, the Indians traveled slowly to the northwest, camping in the groves that border on the small lakes in that direction, never stopping more than one night in a place, until they arrived at Heron Lake, about thirtyfive miles northwest of Spirit Lake, sometime about the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth of March. CHAPTER VI. DISCOVERY OF THE MASSACRE- MARKHAM'S NAR- VOLUNTEERS CALLED FOR TWO COMPANIES BODY TURNS BACK DETACHMENT THREE PROCEED TO THE LAKE. OF TWENTY HE DISCOVERY of the massacre and the manner in which it was made public now deserve a passing notice. Reference has formerly been made to a trapper by the name of Markham who was boarding in the family of J. M. Thatcher. It seems that early in the winter some cattle belonging to Markham had strayed away and that he was unable to get any tidings of them until near spring, when he heard they were at Mud Lake (or Big Island Grove, as it was then called) in Emmet County. He went over there, found and identified the cattle, made arrangements for their care, spent some time in that locality, and finally started for home on the ninth of March. It will be remembered this was the day on which the Howe and Thatcher families were murdered and the day after the balance of the massacre. Shortly after he started for the lakes there came up one of the fearful storms DISCOVERY OF THE MASSACRE 73 so common that winter. The weather was intensely cold for the season of the year but there was no alternative but to press through if possible. He lost his course and struck farther south than he intended, and about eleven o'clock in the evening he reached the house of Mr. Gardner cold, hungry and uearly exhausted. Upon his arrival he was not a little surprised to find the place apparently deserted and everything about the house in confusion, and although he did not encounter any dead bodies, he was pretty sure that there had been trouble with the Indians. He then started down through the grove for the Mattock place. The old foot path followed substantially the same track as is now the highway through the grove. The night was uncommonly dark and objects could not be distinguished at all any distance away. When he had nearly reached Mattock's cabin his attention was attracted by the barking of a dog and the voices of individuals. He stopped to listen, and after taking a careful survey of the situation he found that he had unconsciously walked into the center of the Indian camp, they having pitched their tepees in a circle on both sides of the path. To withdraw from the proximity of his unwelcome neighbors without attracting their attention was an exceedingly difficult job and required all of his tact and address. Aided by the darkness he finally succeeded. He now took his course up across East Okoboji Lake to the cabin of Mr. Howe, where he found everything destroyed and in confusion and the bodies of the murdered victims scattered around. From there he went to the cabin of Mr. Thatcher, where he had been boarding through the winter, but the condition of affairs was similar here to what he found it at the other places. Thinking it unsafe to stay in the house, he went into a deep ravine a short distance away, and spent the remainder of the night. In the mórning he found that his feet were partially frozen, but he immediately started for the Des Moines River, which he sue ceeded in reaching at the George Granger place. Here he fell in with some trappers, two of whom started immediately for Fort Dodge, where they gave the first account of the massacre. But having received the particulars at second hand, and being badly frightened at them, their story was so incoherent and their statements so contradictory, they were not believed and but very little notice was taken of them. Markham, in the meantime, went up the river to Springfield and carried the news of the massacre at the lakes to that settlement so that they had warning that trouble might be expected. Mention has previously been made of the party from Jasper County, consisting of Howe, Wheelock and Parmenter, who were here in the fall and passed Inkpadutah's camp at Loon Lake at that time. Before leaving the lakes they had determined to make permanent settlement there in the spring. This party left Newton not far from the first of March. At Fort Dodge they crossed the river and came up all of the way on the west side. By so doing they missed the trappers who went down with the news of the massacre, as they went down on the east side, consequently they heard nothing of the troubles until their arrival there. They were traveling with ox teams through the deep snow, and of course their progress was necessarily slow. On the night of the fifteenth they camped in a small grove on the bank of Mud Creek, in Lloyd township. The next morning they took an early start, thinking to reach the Gardner place before night, but a storm came up and they lost their course. Having their spring and summer supplies, of course they were heavily loaded. They abandoned their load in a slough some two or three miles east of Gar Lake and struck for the settlement, which they reached about midnight. They first went to Thatcher's, where they found everything in confusion, but did not happen on any dead bodies. Then they went to Howe's, where they camped for |