Battle of Cameron Dam 1904
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1904 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | United States | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | North America | Natural Earth |
| Coordinates | 45.7550, -90.8930 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Cameron Dam was a prolonged property and logging dispute in Sawyer County, Wisconsin, between farmer John F. Dietz—whose surname was also frequently spelled Deitz—and the Chippewa Lumber and Boom Company. After the Dietz family settled beside Cameron Dam on the Thornapple River in 1904, Dietz prevented the company from sluicing logs through it, maintaining that the dam lay partly on his property and that he was entitled to compensation. The company obtained injunctions against him, but repeated attempts to serve legal process or arrest him were unsuccessful.
The dispute developed into a series of confrontations rather than a continuous armed engagement. The most serious occurred on July 25, 1906, when a sheriff's posse exchanged gunfire with members of the Dietz family, and on October 8, 1910, when another posse surrounded the family home. Deputy Oscar Harp was killed during the final siege, and John and his son Leslie were wounded before the family surrendered. Dietz was convicted of Harp's murder in 1911 and sentenced to life imprisonment. His resistance to the lumber company nevertheless attracted a national following, and supporters portrayed him as a defender of private property against corporate power.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Cameron Dam (revision 1379158714), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Browse more: battles in United States · North America · 19th century battles