Picture of the Day - Reed Family Mass Grave

Today I partook in my first fire chase of this year's fire season. I heard CAL FIRE SLU North County ground and air resources dispatched to CAL FIRE BEU's adjacent South County in Indian Valley outside of San Miguel/Bradley near the intersection of Indian Valley Road and Hare Canyon Road. The fire burned about 3 acres and I only traveled as far north as San Miguel as I noted no header. To make the short jaunt north worth my while, I stopped at Mission San Miguel Arcángel and shot this image of the Reed Family mass grave. The Reed-Vallejo Clan who occupied the mission property were slaughtered by six men (5 whites recently arrived from the Gold Country and a local Indian) in an armed robbery resulting in 11 deaths. I had previously not understood the significance of this cross until an employee of the mission over at the mission event center told me about it the last time I worked there. I had previously looked for this grave marker expecting to see a name on it. For some reason this family is buried in an unmarked grave. Were they not good Catholics? The property was secularized and privately owned at the time of the Mission San Miguel Massacre/Reed Family Murders in 1848. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).