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By Dottie Smith of the Redding Record Searchlight

Travelin' in Time is a weekly look at historic places or people in the north state.

The location

Various places in Shasta County.

The history

During the early days of Shasta County, the pioneers found ways to entertain themselves with some gruesome and bloody activities.

One such activity was bull and bear fights, a popular pastime left over from the Mexican vaqueros who lived in the area before the Gold Rush. When the Gold Rush erupted in 1849, the gruesome entertainment continued.

The fights were usually held on Sundays, the day the pioneers held events to amuse themselves. Other similar events included bull and lion fights, bull fights, and the much more humane horse races, mule races and pig races.

The bull and bear fights weren't just fights. They were tortuous battles to the death forced upon unwilling bulls and grizzly bears that did not want to fight each other.

There evidently wasn't a standard way of conducting a fight. Sometimes the bull was allowed to run free inside the arena while the bear was chained. In other fights, the bull and bear were chained to each other.

The fights were advertised in the local newspapers. They were very popular and well-attended. Large wagers were bet on the animals. The animal that survived the battle was declared the winner.

A bull and bear fight was held during the 1860s in Millville on a flat toward Clover Creek to which a large crowd of men attended — women were excluded. The bull was named Jeff Davis and the bear (brown) was named Abe Lincoln. The bull gored the bear to death. The betting was heavy and patriotism ran high.

Supposedly the crowd lined up on whichever side their sympathies lay, and the fist fight that followed made the bull and bear fight look like a very mild affair.

Charles "Charley" Ogburn was one of the first settlers in the Shingletown area and built a fighting arena for bull and bear fighting.

Charley supposedly blazed a trail from the area of Balls Ferry to the Shingletown Ridge and settled there in 1848 at the present day location of Midway. He then traveled home to North Carolina and returned with his brother John and friend Isaac Shouse. Together they planted large vegetable gardens and sold the vegetables to travelers on the nearby Nobles' Emigrant Trail. They also improved and expanded the homestead into a roadhouse and stopping place popularly known as Charlie's Place. The place became famous for his peach brandy and blacksmithing. A distillery was on the premises as well as a sawmill. The distilling process started with the peach season and continued until all the fruit was made into brandy.

Bull and bear fights were held on the property; supposedly a bear chain rung is still embedded in an oak tree and remnants of the bear pens still exist. Hundreds of people came to witness the fights; some came from as far away as Sacramento. A barbecue and dance lasting until daylight followed the fights. The last fight was held in September 1859. Soon after, the law stepped in to put a stop to this sport.

Charlie's fighting arena was built of logs around a deep trench. Poles about 20 feet high were buried 3 feet into the ground, placed close together and nailed securely at the top. It was round and about 60 feet across with a drop door made from a slab of a large log. Wagons were backed up to the door and the bear was prodded into the arena with hot irons where a bull was waiting for it. The spectators sat around on the outside of the stockade where they could look down on the fight on elevated seats.

Two plaques locate the place; each has contradicting information about the history and the name. One is named Charley's Place while the other is named Charlies Place. One states the place wasn't settled by Ogburn until 1853 while the other says he built a road to the site in 1848. Herbert "Ringtail" Johnson purchased the ranch in 1942.

The present

Ever wonder why the stock markets are referred to as the bull and bear markets?

The terms "bull" and "bear" are thought to derive from the way each animal attacks his or her opponent. A bull will thrust its horns up into the air, while a bear will swipe down. These actions were then related metaphorically to the movement of a market: if the trend was up, it was considered a bull market; if the trend was down, it was a bear market.