Hi Park enthusiasts, I'm your host Delia de Ambrose.

And the story I'm going to tell you about today happened 165 years ago,

which officially makes it the oldest case I've ever featured on this show. It's the tale of two murders that were

so noteworthy and shocking that the victim's names are now memorialized in parts of the landscape

in the Western United States.

I'm talking about the shooting deaths of pioneer explorer Peter Lassen and his friend Edward Clapper.

Today, the exact location of where these two men were gunned down in cold blood while on a prospecting

expedition is unknown.

But it's believed to have happened somewhere inside of or near Black Rock Canyon in

Northwest Nevada. There's a creek in Black Rock Desert that's now named Clapper Creek, commemorating Edward.

But Peter Lassen got a much cooler honor, in my opinion,

because Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northeastern California bears his name.

Back in 1859 when Peter and Edward embarked on a journey through this rugged terrain

that few people had ever ventured into, it was truly

considered to be the Wild West in every sense of that phrase.

The more I've researched what happened to these men, the more I've come to realize that their demise

might not be a simple case of two silver prospectors just stumbling upon

unforeseen danger in an unpredictable landscape their killer might have been a predator right in their midst

who was masquerading as a friend.

This is Park Predators. creditors. On the morning of Thursday, April 28th 1859, a man named F.N. Spalding was at a ranch near

Susanville, California in Honey Lake Valley, when a bizarre scene unfolded in front of him.

In the distance, Spalding and some other people working at the ranch saw a man riding toward them at full speed,

...