Photographer Matthews and the massacre at little high rock Canyon

Abstract

G. L. Matthews, a little-known studio and landscape photographer from Cedarville, California, was present when the news of the murder of four Basque sheepmen came to the town of Eagleville in Surprise Valley, north-eastern Modoc County, California in 1911. ‘He packed his equipment, and joined the party so he could record pictorially the important scenes of tragedy’¹. Later that year he published a nine-page portfolio representing the journey and discovery of the four murdered men. A printed text, Views at Little High Rock Canyon, Nevada, accompanied the seven pictures in the series. On the original mission, he omitted to record the massacre of eight native American Indians from the family of 12 who were accused of the murders. His photographs are structured accounts of the ‘official’ journey and the grizzly discovery of the partially naked and somewhat mutilated bodies of the sheepmen. They are sombre images, reflecting the nature of the crime committed and the environment in which the murders occurred. Two of the photographs verify the existence of the corpses and suggest the need for retribution (Figures 3 and 4). These were used as the first pictures in the portfolio, to attract Matthews' hoped-for audience. The massive geologic structures and endless Nevada sage-brush create the illusion of ‘frontier hardship’, and the images the ingenuity and know-how of a posse chasing marauding Indians.