Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 May 1883 — Some Odd Pits in California. [ARTICLE]

Some Odd Pits in California.

The English spell the name of Pit river with an additional* letter, as if after the name of an eminent statesmen. But I think the above is right, as the name is certainly derived from the deep and dangerous pits that once made a vast region known at Pit river valley very dangerous ground for strangers. These pits, Ting in trails and passes by squaws, who carried the dirt Wway in baskets, wdre from tdn; to twenty feet deep, v jug-shaped and covered with twigs and reeds and leaves. At the bottom lay sharpened elk and deer antlers; and sometimes they sharpened flints and spears pointed up to receive

the victim. Even if one wete%ot disemboweled on first falling into the pit, the ugly shape of it made it not only impossible for man, but even the most savage and supple beast, to climb again to the light and darkness and a lingering death was the inevitable end. These pits, of course, made the land a terror, and it was not until as late as 1856 that this most lovely valley in all California was fairly possessed by settlers. Once in possession, the white mon of course soon found out .and marked the location of the secret pits, and they gradually filled up as the fell into disuse.