Mountain Charlie Bear Fight - Santa Cruz County, CA - E Clampus Vitus Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

He was a native of Ireland who served with the British army in New Zealand. Charlie came to California in 1849 where he engaged in mining and freighting by pack mule to the Trinity River diggings. His business was prosperous until the local natives ran "his mules" off, forcing him to move to Santa Clara County. After settling in the Santa Cruz mountains in 1850, he became legendary as a hunter, rancher, teamster, road builder, lumberman, and "celestial" Clampatriarch of Mountain Charlie Chapter No. 1850, E Clampus Vitus. His Motto was "Right Wrongs Nobody."

The Mountain Charlie History Tour near san Jose, California, is a series of E Clampus Vitus monuments pertaining to Mountain Charlie, that can be visited in a day.

Mountain Charlie Waymarks on the tour:

Mountain Charlie Grave, at Oak Hill Memorial Park in San Jose.
Mountain Charlie Road, 50 Feet from Summit Road, just west of Highway 17
Mountain Charlie's Cabin, on Mountain Charlie Road, 50 yards east of Riva Ridge Road
Mountain Charlie Bear Fight, on Pierce Road, off Mountain Charlie Road
Mountain Charlie Big Tree, 450 feet from the old Glenwood Highway
Patchen, intersection of Old Santa Cruz Highway and Mountain Charlie Road

The Mountain Charlie Bear Fight plaque is located on Pierce Road. From Mountain Charlie Road, turn west on Pierce Road (2.1 miles south of Summit Road/Hwy.17 intersection). Make an immediate right turn onto a private road and follow it two-tenths of a mile to the monument located on your right, under a large Oak tree.

MOUNTAIN CHARLIE
BEAR FIGHT

NEAR HERE IN MOUNTAIN CHARLIE GULCH ON
MAY 8, 1854, CHARLES "MOUNTAIN CHARLIE"
McKIERNAN AND A FRIEND NAMED TAYLOR WERE
ATTACKED BY A GRIZZLY BEAR. THE BEAR
SPRANG FROM A THICKET, BOTH MEN FIRED,
BUT THE BEAR GRABBED MOUNTAIN CHARLIE,
BITING HIM ON THE ARMS AND FACE. A PIECE
OF SKULL ABOUT 4 INCHES SQUARE WAS
BITTEN FROM OVER MOUNTAIN CHARLIE'S LEFT
EYE AND NOSE BY THE BEAR.
DR. T.J. INGERSOLL OF SAN JOSE PREPARED A
PLATE OF SILVER AND APPLIED IT TO THE AREA
OF THE MISSING SKULL AT McKIERNAN'S REQUEST.
IN THE ENSUING WEEK, THE PLATE WAS NOT
HEALING AND IT WAS REMOVED AGAINST MOUN-
TAIN CHARLIE'S PROTESTS. ABOUT A YEAR LATER
AN OPERATION TO REMOVE AN ABSCESS UNDER
THE BRAIN RELIEVED HIS INTOLERABLE PAIN.
MOUNTAIN CHARLIE WAS MUCH DISFIGURED FROM
HIS WOUNDS, BUT HE SURVIVED ANOTHER 38
YEARS. THUS BEGAN THE LEGEND AND FOLKLORE
ABOUT THE MAN WITH THE "SILVER SKULL."
DEDICATED OCTOBER 15, 1983 IN MEMORY OF
CLAMPER CHRIS MISNER BY HIS FAMILY AND

MOUNTAIN CHARLIE CHAPTER No.1850.
E CLAMPUS VITUS.
"RIGHT WRONGS NOBODY"