Mountain Charlie Bear Fight

Near Mountain Charlie Gulch on May 8, 1854, Charles Henry “Mountain Charlie” McKiernan and a friend named Taylor were attacked by a grizzly bear when it sprang from a thicket. Both men fired, but the bear grabbed Mountain Charlie and bit his arms and face, tearing away a piece of skull about 4 inches square from over his left eye and nose. Dr. T.J. Ingersoll of San Jose prepared a silver plate and applied it at McKiernan's request to cover the missing skull, but it was removed the following week when it was not healing, despite Mountain Charlie’s protests. About a year later, an operation to remove an abscess under the brain relieved his intolerable pain. Though badly disfigured by the attack, Mountain Charlie survived another 38 years, and from this came the legend and folklore of the man with the “silver skull.”

California · United States