In the early 1850s a ferry run by Coyote Evans operated just east of here at the present-day City of Rogue River, not far from a small Takelma village at the creek's junction with the Rogue. On July 18, 1852, the day after attending an abortive peace conference upriver that ended in a melee, John Lamerick's Jacksonville volunteers attacked the village and killed several women. The peace conference had been called by Indian Agent Alonzo Skinner at Big Bar across from Lower Table Rock, but disintegrated when a volunteer opened fire and the warriors scattered. Reports differ on how many Indians were killed, ranging from four, according to Skinner, to at least 20, according to newspaper accounts. The agitated volunteers then broke into small groups and left Big Bar with calls for “extermination” raids along the Rogue.