After the murder of Peter Lassen in the spring of 1859, tension between the settlers and the Indians became intense. Within a year the region experienced the Pyramid Lake War. On June 17, 1860, Horace Adams was murdered by the Indians at his ranch near Lathrop’s Station in the Honey Lake Valley. Two days laters, Col. Frederick W. Lander and Captain William Weatherlow gathered a group of men together to locate the Indians responsible for Adams’ death. They followed the Indians’ tracks north to the Madeline Plains. From there, they headed east through a canyon. Just before entering a valley there, they were ambushed by the Indians, Alexander A. Painter was mortally wounded. Painter’s body was moved a mile northeast from where he died. He was buried there beneath a cedar tree.