The site of Camp Watson is located off the county road a few miles. None of the Camp itself remains, but the grave markers of Second Lieutenant Stephan Watson and his men of the First Oregon Volunteer Cavalry, who were massacred on May 17, 1864, are still intact. Camp Watson was one of the military bases used to protect miners and settlers heading inland, and also as a depot for the Canyon City Road Expedition. The Camp itself housed probably 100 troops in log buildings with shingled roofs and in the formation of a stockade.
As you view these grave markers, miles from even a lone farm house, a sort of nostalgic admiration overcomes you - an admiration for the pride and bravery of those who lost their lives in the settlement of this great country."