User:Perdustin/sandbox

Pomponio Creek and Pomponio State Beach were named for Indian Chief Pomponio, a famed rebel against the mission system who hid out in their vicinity and was captured and shot in 1824.

One of Pomponio's men, Gonzalo from Carmel, was captured and put in irons, but cut off both heels to escape. A fictionalized account of this incident has Pomponio cutting off his own heels. ( Charles Franklin Carter, Stories of the old Missions of California, Paul Elder&Company, 1927, pp. N/A ) After a career as a robber, Gonzalo asked Pomponio to bring a priest to make his dying confession. Pomponio ran him through with a lance to prevent anything not to his (Pomponio's) benefit from being said. (Hubert Howe Bancroft, California Pastoral 1769-1848, The History Company, San Francisco, 1888, pp. 682-3)

A cave at the headwaters of Pomponio Creek, south of San Gregorio, is said to have been his headquarters.

Pomponio was captured by a party of four soldiers and tried by court martial at Monterey, in and shot, February 6, 1824.