We are petitioning the Idaho State Historical Society and the U.S. Forest Service to update the official historical markers along the Magruder Corridor to explicitly acknowledge and memorialize the dozens of pack animals brutally slaughtered in the 1863 massacre.

In October 1863, a horrific crime took place in the Bitterroot Mountains. While the legal records focus entirely on the human victims and the stolen gold, history has largely erased the suffering of the most vulnerable members of the expedition: up to 40 innocent pack mules and horses.

To cover their tracks, the murderers drove these loyal, working animals into a deep ravine—now known as Dead Mule Canyon—and methodically slaughtered them one by one.

For over 160 years, the official state historical signs along the road have ignored this mass slaughter. They treat these animals as invisible footnotes, despite the fact that a surviving horse named Italy was the exact clue that allowed law enforcement to track down the killers.

Geography dictates that we cannot build a monument in the protected wilderness where they died, but justice dictates that we can use the legal roadside signs to tell their full story.

Sign this petition to demand that the State of Idaho updates its historical markers to honor the memory, labor, and tragic sacrifice of these animals. Their suffering should not be wiped from history.