Background:
I first read about this story randomly a couple years ago but revisited the story today while thinking about the recent mass shootings. Back in the day they called these tragedies massacres but whats interesting about this wild west shootout is the randomness of victims is closer to today's mass shooting motivations to kill indiscriminately... perhaps the first mass shooting in Oregon?, 1852, 17 innocent dead shot randomly. I remembered this story because the first time I read about this it was also mentioned the bad guys tactical advantage using then new Colt percussion revolvers where most people at the time still had single shot pistols and rifles. Reminds me of the semi vs revolver advantage, or the single stack vs double stack. I'm not familiar with the exact evolution or function of percussion pistols so the black powder aficionados here are welcome to correct me, but the tactical advantage being they could fire 5 shots in a row before having to reload is obvious, also quickly swap preloaded cylinders? This reminds me of the attempts to ban magazines larger than 10 rounds.
Note: The only citation I have for this story is various blogs nothing official that Ive found yet (do share if you find something), the story seems passed down word of mouth over the generations yet is out there easily found from various sources, the exact details probably vary but Id guess the event in itself is true.
www.oregongold.net
The shootout: (paraphrased, the link tells a much more captivating story...)
In short, the Triskett Gang was on the run from a California crime spree and headed north into Oregon country and wound up in a booming gold rush town called Sailors Diggins, which was eventually renamed Waldo (and now a Ghost town). The gang spent the day in the saloon getting drunk and upon leaving one of them randomly gunned down a person in the street, this triggered the rest of the gang to start shooting more people randomly in the end, 17 people dead in the street. They then went and robbed the towns coffers of gold before the miners could return. The miners hearing the distant gunfire and figured out something was wrong... returned to town saw what happened, 17 dead in the street... and took pursuit. The gang had fled with a head start but laden heavily with gold and loot didn't get far and in the end the gang was gunned down.
The resulting mystery was the towns gold loot was no where to be found and to this day is still believed in the area and the subject of treasure hunters.
the guns used:
This is where I recall the first time I read about this, but I can no longer find the link to that particular story but it also suggested a firepower advantage the gang had with new percussion revolver technology, such as the Colt Drangoon at the time were more expensive while most people still had single shot black powder firearms... leaving the towns mostly unguarded citizens way under-gunned. Im sure with the towns miners being working in the field it was part of their sinister plan but the randomness of the victims struck a correlation to todays mass shootings. Evil will always exist and technology cant be erased and I just thought this story interesting in the sense of how new technology affected events the same as todays gun technology does even if this story escaped historys documentation by todays standards it would have been national news.
I first read about this story randomly a couple years ago but revisited the story today while thinking about the recent mass shootings. Back in the day they called these tragedies massacres but whats interesting about this wild west shootout is the randomness of victims is closer to today's mass shooting motivations to kill indiscriminately... perhaps the first mass shooting in Oregon?, 1852, 17 innocent dead shot randomly. I remembered this story because the first time I read about this it was also mentioned the bad guys tactical advantage using then new Colt percussion revolvers where most people at the time still had single shot pistols and rifles. Reminds me of the semi vs revolver advantage, or the single stack vs double stack. I'm not familiar with the exact evolution or function of percussion pistols so the black powder aficionados here are welcome to correct me, but the tactical advantage being they could fire 5 shots in a row before having to reload is obvious, also quickly swap preloaded cylinders? This reminds me of the attempts to ban magazines larger than 10 rounds.
Note: The only citation I have for this story is various blogs nothing official that Ive found yet (do share if you find something), the story seems passed down word of mouth over the generations yet is out there easily found from various sources, the exact details probably vary but Id guess the event in itself is true.
Triskett Gang - Oregon Gold
Oregon gold prospecting locations and Oregon gold mining history. Gold panning and gold mining in the State of Oregon. Where to find gold in Oregon.
The shootout: (paraphrased, the link tells a much more captivating story...)
In short, the Triskett Gang was on the run from a California crime spree and headed north into Oregon country and wound up in a booming gold rush town called Sailors Diggins, which was eventually renamed Waldo (and now a Ghost town). The gang spent the day in the saloon getting drunk and upon leaving one of them randomly gunned down a person in the street, this triggered the rest of the gang to start shooting more people randomly in the end, 17 people dead in the street. They then went and robbed the towns coffers of gold before the miners could return. The miners hearing the distant gunfire and figured out something was wrong... returned to town saw what happened, 17 dead in the street... and took pursuit. The gang had fled with a head start but laden heavily with gold and loot didn't get far and in the end the gang was gunned down.
The resulting mystery was the towns gold loot was no where to be found and to this day is still believed in the area and the subject of treasure hunters.
the guns used:
This is where I recall the first time I read about this, but I can no longer find the link to that particular story but it also suggested a firepower advantage the gang had with new percussion revolver technology, such as the Colt Drangoon at the time were more expensive while most people still had single shot black powder firearms... leaving the towns mostly unguarded citizens way under-gunned. Im sure with the towns miners being working in the field it was part of their sinister plan but the randomness of the victims struck a correlation to todays mass shootings. Evil will always exist and technology cant be erased and I just thought this story interesting in the sense of how new technology affected events the same as todays gun technology does even if this story escaped historys documentation by todays standards it would have been national news.
