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Hunting History: Archaeologists and detectorists to continue survey of Rosalia's Steptoe Battlefield
2005-05-21 |
Spokane treasure hunters helping look for clues about what really happened during battle nearly 150 years ago.
10:12 AM PDT on Friday, May 20, 2005
BY STEVE WARREN / KREM.COM | | ROSALIA, Washington -- 147 years ago on May 17,1858, a running battle took place between a United States Army detachment of mounted dragoons led by Lieutenant Colonel Edward Jenner Steptoe and warriors representing several Northwest Native American tribes. The battle began north of the sleepy hamlet of Rosalia, Washington and proceeded to what is now pasture and farmland located south of the town. Over the years, the Steptoe Battle or the Battle of Tohotonimme (the battle's local name) has become steeped in the rich history and lore of the Inland Northwest. | 
Gustavus Sohon's watercolor of the Steptoe battle in progress,
shows the engagement from the Indian's position.
is the only known presentation of the battle.
The Rosalia-area landscape resembles that of present-day.
Photo courtesy of Washington History.org | | Col. Steptoe, not only lost a battle to an overwhelming force of Native Americans, he also lost his army career. Even though an Inland Northwest town, two Washington state parks and a monument site bear the name of Steptoe, the actual events of the battle have remained clouded in mists of time. For the past year, two Eastern Washington University archaeologists have been working with a group of local metal detecting enthusiasts to strip away the mystery surrounding the battle. EWU?s Steve Emerson and Stan Gough are determined to dig up the truth about the events of the running battle. They are hopeful artifacts from the battlefield will tell them exactly what happened on that fateful day almost a century and a half ago. Rosalia town officials are also hopeful that interest in the Steptoe battlesite might cause a wave of tourism to come to this northern Whitman County town of 640 residents. It would be a mighty economic shot in the arm for the town as history buffs and other interested travelers would stop to tour the battlefield, visit the Rosalia Museum, (where the artifacts recovered from the survey will be displayed) while at the same time, spending their money at local establishments. |  Lieutenant Colonel Edward J. Steptoe,
United States Army
as he appeared later in life.
Read Lieutenant Colonel
Edward J. Steptoe?s Biography.
Photo Courtesy of Yakima Valley
Regional Library |  This Colt Dragoon revolver
with its hammer still in the cocked
position was found on
the Steptoe Battlefield
in the early 1890's. It was one of two revolvers
from the Steptoe site donated to the Eastern Washington
State Historical Society in 1952.
It is now a part of the collection of
the Northwest Museum of Arts
and Culture in Spokane.
Photo Courtesy of Northwest
Museum of Arts and Culture |
| | The Rosalia Engagement termed the 'Steptoe Disaster' by the U.S. Army |  | Lieutenant William Gaston was one
of the two officers killed during the
Steptoe battle. |
On May 6, 1858, Steptoe and 158 mounted dragoons departed Fort Walla Wall on an expedition to investigate the killing of two miners near Fort Colville. The troopers were poorly armed with outdated musketoons and old rifles. Additional ammunition for the command was deemed unnecessary by the officers and was left behind at the fort. Later it was reported that each man in the detachment was carrying less than the required 40 rounds of ammunition. Two 12-pound mountain howitzers also rolled along with the column. By May 16, Steptoe's force had reached a point north-northeast of Rosalia. It was near this location that a large force of Native Americans approached the army column. Although the reports on the actual numbers of Native Americans vary, the column encountered 600 to 1,600 angry warriors from the Spokane, Yakima, Palouse, Cayuse and Coeur d?Alene tribes. A conference was quickly held between Steptoe and the represented chiefs. Even though he was in clear violation of the recent treaty, the colonel informed the chiefs of his intent to continue traveling through their country to Fort Colville. The chiefs, however, remained unconvinced of his peaceful intent. By the following morning, Steptoe had decided to withdraw to Fort Walla Walla. |  | Captain Oliver Hazard Perry Taylor,
United States Army, was the senior officer
killed during the Steptoe battle near
Rosalia, Washington in 1858. |
Before the withdrawal could begin, groups of warriors began attacking the army position at approximately 8:00 a.m. Two young and promising officers were slain during the early phase of the fighting as the soldiers continued an organized retreat to the south. By noon, the engagement focused on a hill and its western slope, which descended to the bottom created by Ingossman Creek. Steptoe is generally criticized by historians for not managing the engagement well. According to one writer, "He arranged his men in a circle around the supplies and remaining animals. His dragoons were not performing well as skirmishers and the howitzers were ineffectively handled." | | As night fell, Steptoe found his position was very weak. He was convinced by his officers to retreat under the cover of darkness toward the safety of Fort Walla Walla. The bodies of the fallen soldiers that could be recovered were quickly buried in shallow graves. The two howitzers were taken off of their carriages and also cached to be recovered later. Although we do not know how many Native American warriors fell during the fight, five U.S. soldiers, two officers, three Nez Perce scouts were reported killed. Also noted in Steptoe's report were the approximately 30 dead horses and mules also lost during the battle. Accounts differ as to how the soldiers were able to get away. One account says an Indian guided the soldiers to safety. Another story says that a Jesuit priest interceeded on the soldiers behalf. And even another account says that the Indians let the soldiers leave the field. | |
| Read one account of the battle from a newspaper article written in 1931. In official reports and even in training manuals printed years afterward, the United States Army termed the battle as 'The Steptoe Disaster.'  | Steptoe's command had two 12-pound
mountain howitzers like the one pictured
above during the battle.
Photo courtesy of National Park Service |
A few months later, General George Wright led an expedition of 700 soldiers with the intent of a retaliatory and a lethal strike against the Native American tribes. Before his troops fought the Battle of Four Lakes, Wright sent a detachment to the site of the Steptoe battlefield. This group of soldiers included Lieutenant John Mullan, whose name would later become well-known for building a road through the Northwest that would be called The Mullan Road. Wright ordered Mullan's group to recover the bodies of the fallen, the two howitzers and any serviceable equipment. Mullan, along with his draftsman Theodore Kolecki, also mapped the battlefield. To view the digital map of Col. Steptoe's Battlefield on the Ingossomen Creek, May 15th, 16th, & 17th, 1858, drawn by Kolecki and Mullan, CLICK HERE, After the bodies of the men and the tubes of the howitzers had been recovered, the detachment also collected all of the remaining equipment found on the field. These 'relics' were placed around a large cross fashioned from the remains of the two artillery carriages. The purpose of the cross, according to one officer, was to mark the site of battlefield and remind the passersby who saw it of the brave men who had died there. | | The Preservation Movement and The Battlefield Surveys | | The efforts to mark and preserve the Steptoe battlefield began in 2003, when local history buffs Diane and Jim Nebel of Rosalia applied for a grant for an archaeological and cultural survey of the Steptoe battlefield. With help from the Washington State Parks Department, they were ultimately awarded $25,000 from the American Battlefield Protection Program. Realizing the tourism potential of a battlefield in their own backyard, in February of 2004 all of the Rosalia property owners in the survey area agreed to allow archaeological work to proceed on their property. |  | Members of Spokane's North West Treasure
Hunters Club line up to help with the first
archaeological survey of the Steptoe
Battlefield in June 2004. |
Then in the spring of 2004, Emerson, the program director for EWU's archaeologiacal and historical services, attended a meeting of the Northwest Treasure Hunters Club of Spokane (NWTHC) and asked for volunteers to help with the battlefield survey. More than 30 people showed up to work on the first survey in June 2004. "We were honored to be invited to help with the survey," said Clay Soliday, NWTHC president. "Some of our members also helped with the Custer Battlefield survey several years ago. It is not very often in the Pacific Northwest that folks who enjoy the hobby of metal detecting get to work with archaeologists on a battle site." Emerson agrees with Soliday. "Worked or manufactured metal as detected by detectorists is quite recent in the interior northwest, so detecting is only useful for investigations of historic-period events. Thus such detectors are not usually in the tool kit of archaeologists,: he continued. "Also such devices do not penetrate as deeply as archaeologists normally dig. We do, however, think detectors are helpful when historic artifacts are all that is expected and the material is relatively close to or on the surface." | 
Emerson, Gough, graduate assistants and a small army of detectorists descended upon the most likely place to find relics of the battle ? the Steptoe monument which sits in a small state park south of town. It was here that the final stand by Steptoe reportedly took place. According to Emerson, the monument park is the site described by battle survivors. During the first survey at the monument site, the archaeologists realized they were looking at a bigger job than they had imagined. The detectorists were instructed to place a small flag on the ground where they found a solid target. A recovery team made up of Emerson, Gough, graduate assistants and other volunteers would then dig for the artifacts. By the time the group took a lunch break, hundreds of small flags covered the hillside. "It was at this point that we went to Steve and Stan and offered to dig our own signals," Soliday recalled. "They quickly accepted our offer and we made sure all of the items recovered were tagged and bagged for later study." | | The archaeologists and the detectorists made three surveys during the summer of 2004 with no significant recovery of battle artifacts. Emerson, however, is not dismayed. "We think Mullan's map is extremely accurate and allows us to closely determine where individual actions occurred with an excellent degree of accuracy," he said. "Although sedimentation has occurred in low areas such as the small lake on the map, we find that the basic topography of creeks and ridges is very similar now to what it was in 1858. A painting by Gustave Sohon, who accompanied Mullan's expedition, presents a very accurate rendition of the final stand hill site (where the monument now stands)." | 
So far, metal detectors have failed to turn up anything definitely associated with the battle. Emerson offers offers some considerations that may explain why no battle artifacts have been recovered. First, the various battlefield areas have been combed by souvenir hunters for nearly 150 years. The Indians took things left at the field by those fleeing to Walla Walla. |  | Photo of the crowd at the dedication
of the DAR granite monument
on the Steptoe Battlefield in 1908.
The site was deeded to Whitman County in 1914 and to
the state in 1950, when it was
made a Washington State Park.
The park was named to the National
Register of Historic Places in 1976. |
Second, local farmers recovered items when plowing their fields. Third, for several years prior to the survey, other people searched some areas of the battlesite with metal detectors. Large items such as rifles or sabres would have been obvious and picked up first, although not too many of them were discarded. Up to four complete cap and ball revolvers have been found, but these were rare at the battle, since only officers carried them. According to Emerson, a number of cannonballs have apparently been recovered by local folks, but not many were fired during the battle, making location of more of them unlikely. Finally, metal cartridge casings, such as those that allowed archaeologists and detectors to determine the scenario of battle events at the Custer site, were not in use in the older technology present at the Steptoe fight. All of these considerations mean that detecting at the Steptoe battlesite is like the proverbial search for the needle in the haystack. However, historic documentation is adequate to determine the course of the battle and notable locations. | | More Battlefield Survey Digs Planned This Summer | | Emerson is planning to call his all volunteer army of detectorists together again this summer and fall to investigate other sites around Rosalia. He's waiting on all of the necessary permits as well as the permission he must obtain before digging on private land. "The people of Rosalia, although they don't always agree on the story of the battle, are very eager and helpful to mark the battle and bring attention to their hometown for both historical and economic reasons," he noted. | | Rosalia's 36th annual Battle Days celebration kicks off Friday, June 3rd with events planned all weekend, including a rodeo, downtown parade, craft fair and a Step-n-toe Retreat fun run. For more information on the hobby of metal detecting, visit the website of Spokane's North West Treasure Hunters Club. | 
The Steptoe monument as it appears
today in the Steptoe Battlefield
State Park.Photo by Steve Warren | 
Survivors of the Steptoe battle pose
for the camera in their later years.
Left to right, J.J. Rohn, Michael Kenney and Thomas Beall. |
| | This article originally appeared on krem.com May 20, 2005 here. |
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