PRESTON, IDAHO—On January 29, 1863, a regiment of 200 California Volunteers approached the confluence of the Bear River and a frozen creek, where a Northwestern Band of Shoshone were wintering. The regiment’s commander, Col. Patrick Connor, wrote in a letter to the War Department that he sent troops into the village to “chastise” the Shoshone for recent raids and deadly attacks on white settlers. The Shoshone returned fire, and Conner sent in another wave of troops. “That set up what initially was a battle, but that lasted a very short period of time. The Shoshone probably ran out of ammunition, and they were overwhelmed by the California Volunteers,” archaeologist Ken Cannon of USU Archaeological Services told Western Digs. He and his team from Utah State University have used ground-penetrating radar, magnetic gradiometer, and metal detectors, in addition to witness accounts and maps, to look for the site where approximately 23 soldiers and 250 Shoshone died in what is now known as the Bear River Massacre. The land has been disturbed by railroad, canal, and highway construction, so the team began by looking for what became known as Battle Creek to try to find the missing village. “That was the most important landmark for us—to understand where the course of Battle Creek was—because that’s where the village was,” Cannon said. So far, the team has found some anomalies that could be traces of lodges from the village. “Nobody knows about these events. They’ve been lost, and yet they’re incredibly important,” he said. To read about close relatives of the Shoshone, see "Searching for the Comanche Empire."