During the 1850s a fortified mining camp known as Skull Bar occupied a large gravel bench a few hundred feet upstream from here, where Galice Creek enters the Rogue. On Oct. 17, 1855, the camp came under siege by Takelma and Applegate bands in what became known as the Battle at Skull Bar. Barricaded behind a makeshift breastwork of earthen mounds and flour sacks, about 40 white and Chinese miners and packers were pinned down by flaming arrows and rifle fire for about eight hours before the Indians retreated, leaving four miners dead and several more wounded. The incident was one of the many retaliatory raids carried out as the Indians fled deeper into the Rogue wilderness after the Lupton Massacre of Oct. 8, 1855.