In the journal of Maj. Heintzelman while at Fort Yuma under date of Sat. March 8, 1851: "When I got back I learned my men have returned from their search after the distressed emigrants. They found the wagon diverted over a hundred feet from and two dead bodies, covered over with large stones. One they took to be a man but could not decide about the other. There was nothing of an consequence left in or about the wagon. In the Florence Arizona Enterprise for 13 June 1891, Mr. Charles D. Poston said: "In after years I was passing Oatman Flat with a train, and stopped long enough to gather the bleaching bones and inter them in one grave which was surrounded with pickets." "This gravesite has been noted and described by a number of desert travelers during subsequent years. One of these was Mr. Waterman L. Ormsby the only through passenger on the first westbound Butterfield Overland Mail Stage in 1858: "The graves of the father and mother are directly in the road, and the teams often pass over them. They lie some distance from the scene of the murder, which took place on a hill half a mile off. Mr. Jacobs, the road agent on this section of the line, intends having the graves enclosed with a fence so as to turn the road aside." Oatman Massacre The Oatman family were Mormon pioneers in a party that left Independence, MO, in August, 1850. The original party of 85-93 schismatic Brewsterites, further splintered as it travelled west, until the Oatman family was going it alone when they reached this area. Despite being warned about hostile Indians, they proceeded. It was not a wise choice. The parents, Royce and Mary, and four of the seven children were killed. A son, Lorenzo, 15, escaped despite being wounded. 14-year old Olive, and 7-year old Mary Ann were captured. Mary Ann died during a later famine at age 10 or 11, while Olive assimilated, possibly having children, before being repatriated at age 19. The Daughters of the American Revolution erected a memorial to the Oatman family in 1954. It, however, is not the massacre site, which is where the Oatmans who perished are buried. The actual massacre site is a quarter mile WSW, on top of the Gila River's south bluff, a short additional walk. https://hikearizona.com/decoder.php?ZTN=19692