Massacre Rocks
From Ft. Hall, the trail headed west along the Snake River. If an attack by a local tribe was going to occur on the Oregon Trail--this was the most likely region. For years, the Hudson's Bay Company had been a calming force on the Native Americans in the region--but when the British fur-trading company pulled out in the early 1850s, attacks on emigrants increased substantially.
The best-known incident happened near a place now known as Massacre Rocks. It was Saturday, August ninth 1862. Suddenly--without warning--the attack came. Within minutes, five emigrants were dead. The next morning the survivors regrouped and fought back. In the resulting battle, four more emigrants were killed.
See Massacre Rocks incident on Native Americans page