Published by maritime historians Bert Webber, Margie Webber, and J.M. Kirkpatrick, Battle Rock: The Hero's Story chronicles the harrowing 1851 clash between a small party of American gold-seekers led by Captain William Tichenor and the local Quat-a-qtie (Tututni) people on the southern Oregon coast. The book details the group's desperate defense atop a rocky sea stack in present-day Port Orford after an initial exploratory landing provoked fierce Indigenous resistance to protect their ancestral territory. Drawing on historical documents, pioneer journals, and local accounts, the text preserves a violent and foundational episode of frontier expansion. A keen insight drawn from the work is how regional historical documentation often elevates colonial survival narratives while obscuring the broader geopolitical trauma; by framing the skirmish through the heroic lens of isolated pioneers under siege, the account masks the reality that the true assault was an unprovoked imperial intrusion onto sovereign Indigenous land.

1847-1865, History, Pacific Coast Indians, Wars with, 1847-1865, Peuples autochtones Guerres Pacifique, Côte du (Amérique du Nord) 1847-1865, Port Oxford (Or.) History

"How a small canon done its work--a desperate encounter of nine men with three hundred Indians at Port Orford."Thoroughly rev. and updated ed. of: The hero of Battle Rock / J.M. Kirkpatrick. 1978

"How a small canon done its work--a desperate encounter of nine men with three hundred Indians at Port Orford."Thoroughly rev. and updated ed. of: The hero of Battle Rock / J.M. Kirkpatrick. 1978