In September of 1756, John Pattin, a bullock guard, was tending cattle outside of Fort Augusta when he decided to visit the nearby spring for a drink of water.
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While drinking, a group of natives who feared that they might be discovered too close to the fort, attacked.
Shot and scalped, his body fell into the spring and leaked into the waters, turning the stream into the color of blood. Since that time it has been named “Bloody Spring”.
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Photographs are courtesy of the Northumberland County Historical Society