Klamath Lake Massacre, May 11, 1846
John C. Frémont’s third expedition left St. Louis in 1845 and made its way to Klamath, Oregon. As the party slept, Indians crept into the camp and killed Kit Carson’s friend Basil Lajeunesse with a single hatchet blow to the head. Two other of Frémont’s men are also killed. Carson leads a retaliatory attack on a Klamath tribe fishing village where 150 braves live. By the end of the day, most of the Indians had been killed and the village burned to the ground. Later it was discovered that the tribe probably had not been involved in the initial attack.