Remembrances of the Mountain Meadows Massacre

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Interpretive signage at the massacre site, with the 1999 monument seen in the background Signage at Mountain Meadows Massacre Site - 22 July 2020.jpg
Interpretive signage at the massacre site, with the 1999 monument seen in the background

There have been several remembrances of the Mountain Meadows Massacre including commemorative observances, the building of monuments and markers, and the creation of associations and other groups to help promote the massacre's history and ensure protection of the massacre site and grave sites.

Contents

Markers and monuments

In the State of Utah

1859

Southern/siege gravesite
A representation of the original 1859 cairn monument at Mountain Meadows. Mmm 1859 cairn.gif
A representation of the original 1859 cairn monument at Mountain Meadows.

In May 1859, Major James H. Carleton, of the U.S. Army, and Cavalry arrived at Mountain Meadows with orders to bury the bones of the massacre's victims. After searching the area, the remains of 34 victims were buried on the northern side of a ditch. (This ditch was a defensive trench dug by the emigrants to protect themselves from their attackers.) Around and above this grave a rude monument was built of loose granite stones, creating a cairn. It was conical in form, fifty feet in circumference at the base, twelve feet in height and supported a cross hewn from red cedar wood. From the ground to the top of the cross was twenty-four feet. On the transverse part of the cross, facing towards the north, was an inscription carved in the wood from Romans 12:19: [1]

Vengeance is mine: I will repay, saith the Lord.

On a crude slab of granite set in the earth and leaning against the northern base of the monument were cut the following words: [1]

Here 120 men, women, and children were massacred in cold blood early in September, 1857. They were from Arkansas.

During a tour of southern Utah Brigham Young, along with some 60 church members visited the massacre site in May 1861. After viewing the inscription on the cross, Wilford Woodruff recorded President Young as saying "it should be vengeance is mine and I have taken a little." The cross was then torn down and the rocks of the cairn were dismantled, leaving little of the original marker. [2]

Later reconstructions

In May 1864, Captain George F. Price and a company of Cavalry found the 1859 memorial and grave had been desecrated. The monument had been torn down, the cross taken away and the stones forming the monument scattered on the valley floor; while the mass-grave underneath had been defaced. [3]

Captain Price and the Cavalry immediately proceeded to repair the grave and rebuild the monument. The structure erected was of stone, creating a new cairn, measuring twelve feet square at the base and four feet high, compactly filled in with loose stone and earth. From the square rose a pyramidal column seven feet high. The center of column supported a cedar pole with a horizontal member attached representing the Christian Cross and making the height of the monument fourteen feet. On the side of the cross facing east were inscribed the words:

Early cairn at Mountain Meadows.
(Date unknown) Early Mountain Meadows cairn.jpg
Early cairn at Mountain Meadows.
(Date unknown)
Vengeance is mine, I will repay saith the Lord
Mountain Meadow massacre, September 1857

On the opposite side were the words:

Erected by the officers and men of Company M, 2d California Cavalry, May 24th and 25th, 1864.

The grave was repaired by filling it with earth, rounding it on the surface and covering it with a layer of protective stones. [3]

Lorenzo Brown, recorded that when passing through Mountain Meadows, on July 1, 1864, he noticed someone had carved "Remember Haun's Mill and Carthage Jail" just below the biblical passage on the cross. [5]

Following its reconstruction, the monument continued to face vandalism and was torn down at least one more time in 1870, only to be rebuilt soon after. [4]

Northern gravesites

Prior to the construction of Major Carleton's monument, while waiting to rendezvous with the major at Mountain Meadows in 1859, assistant surgeon Charles Brewer was placed in charge of a burial detail by Captain Reuben T. Campbell of Camp Floyd. Brewer gathered the remains of 26 victims, burying them in three mass graves (located one and one-half miles north of where Carleton would construct his monument). Each of these gravesites were marked by a mound of stones. [6] [7] Unlike the southern gravesite, the exact location of these graves was lost throughout time.

In 2014, archaeologist Everett Bassett discovered rock piles he believes mark the location of these northern graves. The locations of the possible graves are on private land and not at any of the monument sites owned by the LDS Church. The Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation has expressed their desire that the sites are conserved and given national monument status. [8] Other descendant groups have been more hesitant in accepting the sites as legitimate graves. [9]

1932

Because the cairn had been vandalized, destroyed and rebuilt several times over the 70 years since its original construction, the citizens of southern Utah decided that something more needed to be done. On August 20, 1932, 73 men began work on a new wall which would surround the remains of the 1859 cairn. [10] This wall enclosed an area of about 30 X 35 feet (11 m) and averaged 4 feet (1.2 m) high. [11] A small set of steps on the western side allowed access into the enclosed area so visitors could view the remains of the cairn. [12] The Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association installed a bronze plaque near the steps on which was written:

No. 17 – Erected 1932
Mountain Meadows
A favorite recruiting place on the Old Spanish Trail
In this vicinity, September 7–11, 1857 occurred one of the most lamentable tragedies in the annals of the west. A company of about 140 Arkansas and Missouri Emigrants led by Captain Charles Fancher, en route to California, was attacked by white men and Indians. All but 17, being small children, were killed. John D. Lee, who confessed participation as leader, was legally executed here March 23, 1877. Most of the Emigrants were buried in their own defense pits.

This monument was reverently dedicated September 10, 1932 by The Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association and The People of Southern Utah.

The dedication of this new memorial wall and plaque was held on September 10, 1932, and as many as 400 persons were reported to have been present. In the group was local LDS Stake President, William R. Palmer, the main proponent of the project. [12]

32 years later, in April 1965, the property (2.5 acres) on which the 1859 cairn and 1932 memorial wall stood was donated to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) by the Lytle Family. [13] Following this donation the Church began to "discourage visitors" to the site. Signs were removed along with a picnic table, and the condition of the road leading to the monument degraded and became impassable. [14] Later the signs were replaced and the County of Washington began to maintain the road so visitors could once again visit the site. In September 1990, the 1932 plaque was replaced with a newer marker in conjunction with construction of the 1990 monument on Dan Sill Hill. [15] The new plaque read:

MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE


This stone memorial marks the burial site for some of those killed in the Mountain Meadows Massacre in September 1857. The Baker-Fancher party camped here – a well-known stopping place along the Old Spanish Trail.

The first memorial was erected at this location in May 1859 by Brevet Major James H. Carleton and 80 soldiers of the First Dragoons from Fort Tejon, California. Assisting were Captains Reuben P. Campbell and Charles Brewer, with 201 from Camp Floyd, Utah. The bones of about 34 of the emigrants were buried here. The remains of others were buried one and one-half miles to the north, near the place of the massacre.

The original memorial – consisting of a stone cairn topped with a cedar cross and a small granite marker set against the north side of the cairn – was not maintained. The Utah Trails and Landmarks Association built a protective wall around what remained of the 1859 memorial and, on September 10, 1932, installed a bronze marker. That marker was replaced with the present inscription in conjunction with the dedication of the nearby memorial on September 15, 1990. [16] [17]

The 1932 stone wall was removed when the 1999 monument and cairn replica was constructed.

1990

1990 Monument
Mmm 1990 monument.JPG
1990 Monument at Mountain Meadows, as seen in 2010
1990 MMM monument - 22 July 2020.jpg
The monument following a reconfiguration and new signage that was added in 2017

On September 15, 1990, descendants with support from the LDS Church and the State of Utah dedicated a new monument to the victims. [18] The monument was constructed atop Dan Sill Hill, on property owned by the U.S. Forest Service, which overlooks the meadows. The monument is accessible from a small parking lot and is located on a path which winds its way around the rim of the hill.

This monument was built of granite and the names of the victims and survivors are inscribed on the front. In the middle of the monument a small inscription gives some interpretive information:

IN MEMORIAM

In the valley below between September 7 and 11, 1857, a company of more than 120 Arkansas emigrants led by Capt. John T. Baker And Capt. Alexander Fancher was attacked while en route to California. This event is known in history as the Mountain Meadows Massacre. [16]

During the dedication of this monument more than 2,000 people attended a memorial service at Southern Utah University. Participants in the memorial service included Judge Roger V. Logan, Jr. of Harrison, Arkansas, J. K. Fancher, representing the emigrant families, tribal chairwoman Geneal Anderson and spiritual leader Clifford Jake, representing the Paiute tribe, Rex E. Lee, representing descendants of LDS pioneer families from the area, and then–First Counselor in the LDS Church's First Presidency Gordon B. Hinckley, representing the Church. [18]

The following are quotes from an article, written about the event, in the Saint George, Utah, Spectrum newspaper:

J.K. Francher, a Harrison, Ark., pharmacist and freelance writer, said...[that he] never dreamed that a memorial service would come to fruition but "the spirit kicked in" and people of differing religious beliefs have reconciled. "The most difficult words for men to utter is 'I'm sorry and I forgive you'."Easing the burden of the victims was also the goal of Paiute Indian Tribal Chairwoman Geneal Anderson of Cedar City....

During the ceremony, descendants of both the victims and perpetrators joined arms on stage hugging and embracing each other following a challenge by Rex E. Lee, Brigham Young University president.... Gordon B. Hinckley...said he came as a representative of a church that has suffered much over what happened. While people can't comprehend what occurred...Hinckley said he was grateful for reconciliation by the descendants on both sides...."Now if there is need for forgiveness, we ask that it be granted." [19]

By 1999, President Hinckley's tone would change dramatically during a speech given at Mountain Meadows when he stated, "That which we have done here must never be construed as an acknowledgment of the part of the church of any complicity in the occurrences of that fateful day." [20] Following the memorial service at SUU buses took descendants and other guests to tour the new monument.

In 1998, damage from frost and a small earthquake toppled the slabs of granite and the monument lay in pieces until the fall of that year. [21] [22] Today the monument is maintained by the Utah State Division of Parks and Recreation.

1999

Following the visit of Church President Gordon B. Hinckley to the Meadows in October 1998, the Church announced plans to improve their property in the area, which included replacing the 1859 cairn and 1932 memorial wall. [23] The Church's architects drew up plans for the new monument and meetings were held with church representatives and descendants of the victims. Work began on the monument in May 1999, with much of it being contributed by a local Enterprise LDS Ward. [24]

The 1999 Monument and cairn replica Mmm 1999 cairn.jpg
The 1999 Monument and cairn replica

This monument was dedicated September 11, 1999, the 142nd anniversary of the massacre. 1,000 people attended, including President Hinckley, locals and many descendants.

This new monument consisted of a reconstructed cairn surrounded by a rock wall, which in turn was surrounded by a small plaza and black iron fence. To ensure that the walls of the monument would last longer than the original, it was required to dig footings, and a backhoe was brought in to do the work. On August 3, 1999, after only a few scoops of dirt, the backhoe's bucket brought up a large amount of skeletal remains and the digging was immediately stopped. Prior to the digging, the area had been tested and examined by experts from Brigham Young University, the U.S. Forest Service and The Army Corps of Engineers. [25] They had all agreed that the area was clear and okay to excavate. [25]

By August 6, Utah State archeologist Ken Jones had issued a permit to excavate the site and gather up the remains for an examination (as required by state law). At first the remains were taken to BYU where they were cleaned and sorted. Kevin Jones asked Shannon A. Novak of the University of Utah and her intern Derinna Kopp to do the analysis, and soon the remains were taken to the University of Utah's Department of Anthropology. [26] After learning of this accidental discovery of the remains, many of the descendants were upset and requested that the study not be released to the public and the remains be immediately reinterred. Originally it was decided that the remains—with the exception of the skulls and other cranial fragments—would be reinterred on September 10, 1999, in a family service. The skulls were to remain at the University of Utah for further study and analysis and would be interred with the other remains following the study. Both the descendants and LDS Church were opposed to this plan, so on September 8, Utah Governor Michael Leavitt ordered that all the remains, including the skulls, were to be reinterred during the family service in two days. [27] Shannon A. Novak had to rush through the remainder of the analysis to finish in time. Laurel Casjens of the Utah Museum of Natural History was brought in to photograph the bones and they were packed up and returned to BYU. [27] Shannon A. Novak later published a book, entitled House of Mourning: A Biocultural History of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, containing some of the results of her analysis.

Granite memorial markers for each known individual killed during the massacre were added to the 1999 monument in 2017; the markers pictured memorialize Alexander and Eliza Fancher Fancher markers at Mountain Meadows - 22 July 2020.jpg
Granite memorial markers for each known individual killed during the massacre were added to the 1999 monument in 2017; the markers pictured memorialize Alexander and Eliza Fancher

On the morning of September 10, BYU transported the remains to Spilsbury & Beard Mortuary in St. George, Utah, where they were packed into four oak ossuaries by descendants. Family members then held a small memorial service in the meadows and interred the ossuaries into a specially built vault under the newly finished 1999 monument. Family members who had arrived from Arkansas brought dirt from that state, which was added into the vault along with the ossuaries. Following the burial service, preparations began for the dedication of the new monument, which was to be held the following day.

The same day in which the remains were reinterred, the Mountain Meadows Association added two new interpretive signs along the path leading to the 1990 monument in order to help visitors understand the significance of the site. [28]

Soon after its construction, the 1999 monument began slipping into the nearby ravine, so during the summer of 2004 a cement retaining wall was constructed by the Church to help stabilize the area. [29] In 2007 a vault toilet was constructed near the monument. [30] The toilet was built by the State of Utah, which continues to maintain it.[ citation needed ] A 2001 attempt to build a toilet was stalled when a member of the Mountain Meadows Association complained that the association's name would not be included on the restroom. [31]

On September 9, 2017, the skull of a child was interred in a vault at the base of the cairn (next to the other remains buried in 1999). [32] The skull, which belonged to a child killed by a gunshot to the back of the head, was gathered by Major Carleton's soldiers during the burial of victims in May 1859. The skull was eventually forwarded to the Army Medical Museum (today known as the National Museum of Health and Medicine) in 1864, where it remained until 2017. [33] Additionally, in 2017, granite memorial markers containing the names of all known victims were placed around the interior perimeter of the fence which surrounds the 1999 monument. [34]

2011

Monuments added in the 2010s
2011 MMM Men and Boys Monument - 30 April 2014.jpg
2011 Men and Boys Monument
2014 MMM Women, Children, and Wounded Monument - 25 June 2015.jpg
2014 Women, Children, and Wounded Monument
2014 MMM Siege Monument - 25 June 2015.jpg
2014 Siege Monument/"Monument to the 10"

During May 2009, in accordance to the wishes of some descendants, the LDS Church purchased 16 more acres of land in the Meadows. [35] This parcel of land is believed to be the location where the men and boys of the wagon train were killed and may contain the "upper gravesite." [35] On September 10, 2011, a new memorial site, built by the LDS Church in remembrance of the men and boys who were killed, was dedicated on this land. The memorial, located a mile northeast of the siege site and 1999 monument, includes a large polished stone monument and a rock embedded in the surrounding cement. Etched into the rock is a cross and it is believed the rock was once part of a cairn erected to cover the human remains found in the years following the massacre; two stone benches and an interpretive marker were also erected as part of the memorial. [36]

2014

On September 11, 2014, two new monuments in the Meadows were dedicated. [37] The first monument, sometimes referred to as the "Monument to the 10," was built overlooking the siege site and honors those killed in the initial attack. To provide access to this monument, a looped walking trail leading from the 1999 monument and cairn replica was constructed. The second monument dedicated that day honors the women, children, and wounded who were killed during the massacre. This monument is believed to be located near the site where these individuals were killed, and is located the furthest from the location of the initial attack of the massacre.

Also in September 2014, a "Remembrance and Reconciliation Quilt" was unveiled in the historic Washington County Courthouse in St. George, Utah. [38] A second companion quilt hangs at the Carroll County Historical and Genealogical Society, in Berryville, Arkansas. [39]

2017

In 2017, 19 new signs containing interpretive information were added to all monument sites in the meadows. [32] The information on each sign was written by a sign committee composed of representatives from the three descendant groups and the LDS Church, with input from other stakeholders. [40] The new signage replaced most of the older interpretive signs added at the various monuments throughout the years. The 2017 signs present, in a uniform format, a consistent history of the massacre, based on the most recent scholarship.

Historical site status

A majority of the Mountain Meadows massacre site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been since 1975; the site was also designated a National Historic Landmark in 2011. [41] [42] The LDS Church began working on National Historic Landmark status for the site—following requests from descendant groups—in 2007. [43] [44] The Church hired an independent company, Paula S. Reed and Associates, Inc., to research the massacre and prepare the necessary documentation for the landmark application. [45] The application for landmark status was presented to the Landmark Committee of the National Park Service Advisory Board by representatives of the Church and descendant groups in Washington, D.C., on November 3, 2010. [46] The Landmark Committee reviewed the application and took public comment on the issue, and then recommended to the National Park Service Advisory Board approval of the nomination. The Advisory Board met on April 13, 2011, to review the application and submitted their recommendation to the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar. [47] On June 30, 2011, Salazar announced that the site had been designated a National Historic Landmark. [42] [48]

In 2015, the boundaries of the national historic landmark designation were expanded to include a third parcel of land, which includes the area believed to be where the women, children and wounded were killed. [49] [50]

Mmm 1999 cairn.gif
Panoramic view of the 1999 Monument at Mountain Meadows

In the State of Arkansas

1936

A small metal marker was placed near Milum Spring, (Also known as Beller's Spring or Caravan Spring) the site where some of the emigrants began their journey from Arkansas to California. The following is inscribed upon this marker:

Boone County – Caravan Spring

Near this spring, in September 1857, gathered a caravan of 150 men women and children. Who here began the ill-fated journey to California. The entire party with the exception of seventeen small children was massacred at Mountain Meadows, Utah, by a body of Mormons disguised as Indians.

1955

1955 monument, showing map and short summary of the massacre. Mountain Meadows Massacre Monument-Harrison AR.jpg
1955 monument, showing map and short summary of the massacre.

To commemorate the massacre a monument was installed in the town square of Harrison, Arkansas. It was unveiled during a Fancher Family reunion on September 4, 1955. [51] [52] [53] On one side of this monument is a map and short summary of the massacre, while the opposite side contains a list of the victims.

2005

Replica of Carleton's 1859 marker, erected in 2005 in Carrollton, Arkansas. Mmmonument.jpg
Replica of Carleton's 1859 marker, erected in 2005 in Carrollton, Arkansas.

During the summer of 2005 permission was granted to construct a replica of the 1859 cairn in Carrollton, Arkansas. This replica was built between a cemetery and the Old Yell Lodge. [54] It was here at the site of the lodge that the surviving children of the massacre were returned to their relatives in 1859. The original lodge was destroyed by fire around the time of the Civil War, and the current lodge was not constructed until 1879 for a local group of Freemasons. But still The Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation along with a local chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars have renovated and restored the lodge and it currently houses displays and interpretive information about the massacre and surviving children.

The replica was dedicated on September 25, 2005, with many descendants of the massacre victims and locals in the crowd. [55] During the dedication the stories of the surviving children were told while their descendants placed stones brought from southern Utah upon the cairn. [56] This replica is much smaller in terms of stones than the original, but it does include a large cross facing west, towards Utah, with the words "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord" carved into it. To the side of the replica cairn sits a large interpretative sign with the following inscription:

The Mountain Meadows Massacre


In early 1857 a large wagon train known as the Fancher-Baker train left Caravan Spring (South of Harrison) and headed for California. They camped at this site en route to intercept the Cherokee Trail at the Grand Saline in Indian Territory. Months later, the wagon train came under siege by the Mormons and Indians in Southwest Utah at a place called Mountain Meadows. On September 11, 1857, the Mormons brutally murdered 121 Men, Women, and Children after assuring their protection. Only 17 Small Children were spared from the massacre.

The dead were left exposed to the elements until 18 months later, when U.S. Army Troops led by Major James H. Carleton buried the remains in several mass graves. A cross and stone were placed over one such gravesite containing 34 of the victims. This is a scaled replica of Carleton's original cairn.

The surviving children were brought back to Arkansas and spent their first night at the site of the Old Yell Lodge. On September 25, 1859, the orphaned children were reunited with relatives in the Carrollton Town Square.

Source: Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation, Inc. [57]

Today this monument is often the site of descendant gatherings.

Other markers and monuments

The Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation has been instrumental in making sure the gravesites of all the surviving children have been marked with special plaques telling their stories. [58]

Commemorative observances

150th Anniversary of the Massacre

On September 11, 2007, approximately 400 people, including many descendants of those slain at Mountain Meadows, gathered to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the massacre. At this commemoration, Elder Henry B. Eyring of the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles issued a statement on behalf of the LDS Church's First Presidency expressing regret for the actions of local church leaders in the massacre. During the commemoration, Elder Eyring stated, "We express profound regret for the massacre carried out in this valley 150 years ago today, and for the undue and untold suffering experienced by the victims then and by their relatives to the present time... What was done here long ago by members of our church represents a terrible and inexcusable departure from Christian teachings and conduct. We cannot change what happened, but we can remember and honor those who were killed here." [59] [60] [61]

150th Anniversary of the Return of the Children

To celebrate when the surviving children were returned to their relatives in Arkansas a commemoration was held at the Mountain Meadows massacre site on May 30, 2009. A similar commemoration was held in Arkansas on September 15, 2009, to celebrate "The Return of the Children". [62]

Other observances

A commemorative wagon-train encampment assembled at Beller Spring, Arkansas on April 21–22, 2007, with some participants in period dress, to honor the sesquicentennial of their ancestors' embarkation on the ill-fated journey. [63] Some descendants gathered at the meadows on May 30, 2009, in memorialize the burial of their ancestors by Major J.H. Carlton, and to begin the year-long celebration of the "Return of the Children". [64]

Several other smaller observances, family reunions, and other group gatherings have occurred throughout the years and many still continue to be held on regular basis.

Associations and groups

Mountain Meadows Association

Following a meeting between massacre victim descendant Ron Loving, and John D. Lee descendant, Verne Lee, the decision to form an association, to ensure the protection of the site and proper remembrance of the massacre, was made. By the end of 1988 the Mountain Meadows Association (MMA) [65] had been formed and was beginning to work with the LDS Church and State of Utah towards a proper memorial at the massacre site. Following the dedication of the 1990 monument the MMA became almost non-existent, but was reorganized following the 1998 earthquake which damaged that monument. Today the MMA serves as a middle-man between the LDS Church and many of the descendants of the massacre victims.

Mountain Meadows Massacre Descendants

The Mountain Meadows Massacre Descendants (MMMD) [66] organization was created to help descendants of the victims stay in touch with one another, and to work with the other organizations in helping protect the massacre site and ensure proper remembrance of the massacre and victims.

Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation

During 1999 some members of the MMA had become dissatisfied with the organization and created their own, The Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation, Inc. (MMMF). [67] The main goal of the MMMF is to get the massacre site in the control of the U.S. Federal Government instead of the LDS Church. [68] The MMMF has been instrumental in making sure the gravesites of all the surviving children have been marked with special plaques, and have helped to gather books about the massacre to donate to local libraries. [69]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Carleton, James H. (1902). Special Report of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Government Printing Office. p. 15.
  2. Woodruff, Wilford (May 25, 1861). Personal Journal.
  3. 1 2 George F. Price (June 8, 1864). "Letter from Captain George F. Price". Union Vedette.
  4. 1 2 "Mountain Meadows Monument". The Salt Lake Tribune. May 27, 1874.
  5. Bagley 2002 , p. 247
  6. Thompson, Jacob (1860). Message of the President of the United States: communicating, in compliance with a resolution of the Senate, information in relation to the massacre at Mountain Meadows, and other massacres in Utah. U.S. Dept. of the Interior. pp. 16–17.
  7. Mountain Meadows Association. "1999 Plaques" . Retrieved July 30, 2010.
  8. Osinski, Nichole (September 20, 2015). "Archaeologist: Mountain Meadows Massacre graves found". The (St. George, Utah) Spectrum. Retrieved October 4, 2020.
  9. Osinski, Nichole (November 14, 2015). "Voices of the Mountain Meadows descendants". The Spectrum. St. George, Utah. Retrieved October 4, 2020.
  10. "Marker Erected at Mountain Meadows on September 10th". Millard County Chronicle. September 15, 1932.
  11. Shirts, Morris A. (1994), "Mountain Meadows Massacre", in Powell, Allan Kent (ed.), Utah History Encyclopedia, Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press, ISBN   0-87480-425-6, OCLC   30473917, The most enduring was a wall which still stands at the siege site. It was erected in 1932 and surrounds the 1859 cairn.
  12. 1 2 Bagley 2002 , p. 351
  13. Bagley 2002 , p. 371
  14. Brooks, Juanita (1991). The Mountain Meadows Massacre. University of Oklahoma Press. p. xxiv.
  15. Loewen, James W. (1999). Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong. New York: New Press. p. 98.
  16. 1 2 "Mountain Meadows Memorial" (PDF). Mtn-meadows-assoc.com. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
  17. Photograph of 1990 Plaque mrm.org
  18. 1 2 "Mountain Meadows Association – 1990 MONUMENT". Mountain Meadows Association. 2007. Archived from the original on December 20, 2007. Retrieved August 21, 2007.
  19. Webb 1990 [ full citation needed ]
  20. Wadley, Carma (September 12, 1999). "Monument instills healing at Mountain Meadows site: Pres. Hinckley dedicates massacre-site memorial". Deseret News.
  21. Bagley 2002 , pp. 370–371
  22. Smith, Christopher (September 29, 1998). "Descendants of those massacred in valley insist on restoring Mountain Meadows Marker". Salt Lake Tribune. Vol. 256, no. 168. Salt Lake City, Utah. pp. A-1, A-5.
  23. See pictures of 1999 Monument at mtn-meadows-assoc.com
  24. Bagley 2002 , p. 372
  25. 1 2 Bagley 2002 , p. 373
  26. Novak 2008 , p. xv
  27. 1 2 Novak 2008 , p. 7
  28. Bagley 2002 , pp. 374
  29. "2004 Archived Guest Book". Mtn-meadows-assoc.com. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
  30. Historic Sites Committee (December 16, 2008). "Mountain Meadows Massacre Historic Site: Master Plan Proposal" (PDF). Mountain Meadows Association. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  31. Perkins, Nancy (September 2, 2001). "Tiff on restrooms slows project at massacre site". Deseret News. Salt Lake City, Utah. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  32. 1 2 Maffly, Brian (September 9, 2017). "Skull of unknown Mountain Meadows Massacre child victim buried as descendants, Mormon church mourn 1857 tragedy". Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City, Utah. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
  33. Maffly, Brian (July 18, 2017). "Child victim's skull set for return to Utah's Mountain Meadows, but not everyone agrees that's the proper resting place". Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City, Utah. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
  34. "Mountain Meadows Massacre Descendants: December 2017 Newsletter" (PDF). mmmd1857.org. Mountain Meadows Massacre Descendants. December 2017. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
  35. 1 2 Mountain Meadows Association (July 2009). Late News From The Meadows: The Mountain Meadows Association Newsletter (PDF). Retrieved November 7, 2010.
  36. "Men & Boys Memorial". Mountain Meadows Association website. Mountain Meadows Association. Retrieved May 16, 2014.
  37. Norris, Patty (February 2015). "February 2015 Newsletter" (PDF). Mountain Meadows Massacre Descendants. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  38. "Mountain Meadows Massacre quilt to be unveiled". Daily Herald. Provo, Utah. Associated Press. September 10, 2014. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  39. "1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre Remembrance & Reconciliation Quilt". www.mtn-meadows-assoc.com. Mountain Meadows Association. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  40. "2017-09-09 The New Interpretative Signs at Mountain Meadows". Friends of the Mountain Meadows Association Facebook page. Friends of the Mountain Meadows Association. September 16, 2017. Retrieved September 5, 2020. The Sign Committee, composed of representatives of the "Descendants" (MMMD), "Foundation (MMMF), "Association" (MMA), and the LDS Church, had spent roughly two years in periodic meetings to compose, draft, revise, and finalize the new interpretative signs. The final product was circulated to other stakeholders -- U.S. Forest Service, National Park Advisory Committee, Utah Parks & Recreation -- before the signs were constructed and installed at the site.
  41. "NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY: NOMINATION FORM" (PDF). Pdfhost.focus.nps.gov. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
  42. 1 2 "Secretary Salazar Designates 14 New National Historic Landmarks" (Press release). U.S. Department of the Interior. June 30, 2011. Retrieved July 13, 2011.
  43. "Church Seeks National Historic Landmark Designation", MormonNewsroom.org, LDS Church, March 28, 2008, retrieved October 21, 2014
  44. Groote, Michael De (February 14, 2010). "Monument to a massacre". Deseret News.
  45. Paula S. Reed and Associates, Inc. (2010). "Projects". CulturalResourceEvaluation.com. Retrieved July 13, 2011.
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See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mountain Meadows Massacre</span> 1857 massacre of California-bound emigrants by Nauvoo Legion militiamen

The Mountain Meadows Massacre was a series of attacks during the Utah War that resulted in the mass murder of at least 120 members of the Baker–Fancher emigrant wagon train. The massacre occurred in the southern Utah Territory at Mountain Meadows, and was perpetrated by settlers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints involved with the Utah Territorial Militia who recruited and were aided by some Southern Paiute Native Americans. The wagon train, made up mostly of families from Arkansas, was bound for California, traveling on the Old Spanish Trail that passed through the Territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John D. Lee</span> American LDS leader and mass murderer (1812–1877)

John Doyle Lee was an American pioneer, and prominent early member of the Latter Day Saint Movement in Utah. Lee was later convicted of mass murder for his complicity in the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre and sentenced to death. In 1877, he was executed by firing squad at the site of the massacre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George A. Smith</span> Early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement

George Albert Smith was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement. He served in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and as a member of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parley P. Pratt</span> Early leader of the Latter Day Saint movement (1807–1857)

Parley Parker Pratt Sr. was an early leader of the Latter Day Saint movement whose writings became a significant early nineteenth-century exposition of the Latter Day Saint faith. Named in 1835 as one of the first members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Pratt was part of the Quorum's successful mission to Great Britain from 1839 to 1841. Pratt has been called "the Apostle Paul of Mormonism" for his promotion of distinctive Mormon doctrines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacob Hamblin</span> American diplomat (1819–1886)

Jacob Hamblin was a Western pioneer, a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and a diplomat to various Native American tribes of the Southwest and Great Basin. He aided European-American settlement of large areas of southern Utah and northern Arizona, where he was seen as an honest broker between Latter-day Saint settlers and the Natives. He is sometimes referred to as the "Buckskin Apostle", or the "Apostle to the Lamanites". In 1958, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baker–Fancher party</span> Ill-fated 1857 emigrant group

The Baker–Fancher party was a group of American western emigrants from Marion, Crawford, Carroll, and Johnson counties in Arkansas, who departed Carroll County in April 1857 and "were attacked by the Mormons near the rim of the Great Basin, and about fifty miles from Cedar City, in Utah Territory, and that all of the emigrants, with the exception of 17 children, were then and there massacred and murdered" in the Mountain Meadows massacre. Sources estimate that between 120 and 140 men, women and children were killed on September 11, 1857, at Mountain Meadows, a rest stop on the Old Spanish Trail, in the Utah Territory. Some children of up to six years old were taken in by the Mormon families in Southern Utah, presumably because they had been judged to be too young to tell others about the massacre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isaac C. Haight</span> American politician

Isaac Chauncey Haight, was a pioneer of the American West best remembered as a ringleader in the Mountain Meadows massacre. An early convert to the Latter Day Saint movement, he was raised on a farm in New York, and became a Baptist at age 18, hoping to become a missionary in Burma. He educated himself, and found work as a schoolteacher. He converted to Mormonism and set out to convert others in his neighborhood, building up a branch with forty members. To escape religious persecution, his family arrived in Nauvoo, Illinois in July, 1842.

Although the Mountain Meadows massacre was covered to some extent in the media during the 1850s, its first period of intense nationwide publicity began around 1872. This was after investigators obtained the confession of Philip Klingensmith, a Mormon bishop at the time of the massacre and a private in the Utah militia. National newspapers also covered the John D. Lee trials closely from 1874 to 1876, and his execution in 1877 was widely publicized. The first detailed work using modern historical methods was published in 1950, and the massacre has been the subject of several historical works since that time.

Mormon public relations have evolved with respect to the Mountain Meadows Massacre since it occurred on September 11, 1857. After a period of official public silence concerning the massacre, and denials of any Mormon involvement, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints took action in 1872 to excommunicate some of the participants for their role in the massacre. Since then, the LDS Church has consistently condemned the massacre, though acknowledging involvement by some local Mormon leaders.

<i>Burying the Past</i> 2004 American film

Burying the Past: Legacy of the Mountain Meadows Massacre is a 2004 documentary film about the Mountain Meadows massacre. It was directed by Brian Patrick and has won 11 awards, but the producers were unable to obtain theatrical release for the film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kanosh (chief)</span> Chief, Pahvant band of the Ute Tribe

Kanosh was a nineteenth-century leader of the Pahvant band of the Ute Indians of what is now central Utah having succeeded the more belligerent Chuick as principal chief. His band had "a major camp at Corn Creek." He is remembered for having been "friendly toward early Mormon Pioneer settlers."

The Mountain Meadows Massacre was caused in part by events relating to the Utah War, an armed confrontation in Utah Territory between the United States Army and Mormon Settlers. In the summer of 1857, however, Mormons experienced a wave of war hysteria, expecting an all-out invasion of apocalyptic significance. From July to September 1857, Mormon leaders prepared Mormons for a seven-year siege predicted by Brigham Young. Mormons were to stockpile grain, and were prevented from selling grain to emigrants for use as cattle feed. As far-off Mormon colonies retreated, Parowan and Cedar City became isolated and vulnerable outposts. Brigham Young sought to enlist the help of Indian tribes in fighting the "Americans", encouraging them to steal cattle from emigrant trains, and to join Mormons in fighting the approaching army.

Mormon theology has long been thought to be one of the causes of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The victims of the massacre, known as the Baker–Fancher party, were passing through the Utah Territory to California in 1857. For the decade prior the emigrants' arrival, Utah Territory had existed as a theocracy led by Brigham Young. As part of Young's vision of a pre-millennial "Kingdom of God," Young established colonies along the California and Old Spanish Trails, where Mormon officials governed as leaders of church, state, and military. Two of the southernmost establishments were Parowan and Cedar City, led respectively by Stake Presidents William H. Dame and Isaac C. Haight. Haight and Dame were, in addition, the senior regional military leaders of the Mormon militia. During the period just before the massacre, known as the Mormon Reformation, Mormon teachings were dramatic and strident. The religion had undergone a period of intense persecution in the American mid-west.

The pursuit of the perpetrators of the Mountain Meadows massacre, which atrocity occurred September 11, 1857, had to await the conclusion of the American Civil War to begin in earnest.

The conspiracy and siege of the Mountain Meadows Massacre was initially planned by its Mormon perpetrators to be a short "Indian" attack, against the Baker–Fancher party. But the planned attack was repulsed and soon turned into a siege, which later culminated in the massacre of the remaining emigrants, on September 11, 1857.

The Mountain Meadows massacre was a series of attacks on the Baker–Fancher emigrant wagon train, at Mountain Meadows in southern Utah. The attacks culminated on September 11, 1857 in the mass slaughter of the emigrant party by the Iron County district of the Utah Territorial Militia and some local Indians.

William Grant Bagley was a historian specializing in the history of the Western United States and the American Old West. Bagley wrote about the fur trade, overland emigration, American Indians, military history, frontier violence, railroads, mining, and Utah and the Mormons.

<i>The Mountain Meadows Massacre</i> (book)

The Mountain Meadows Massacre (1950) by Juanita Brooks was the first definitive study of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

Richard Eyring "Rick" Turley Jr. is an American historian and genealogist. He previously served as both an Assistant Church Historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and as managing director of the church's public affairs department.

In 1857, at the time of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Brigham Young, was serving as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and as Governor of Utah Territory. He was replaced as governor the following year by Alfred Cumming. Evidence as to whether or not Young ordered the attack on the migrant column is conflicted. Historians still debate the autonomy and precise roles of local Cedar City LDS Church officials in ordering the massacre and Young's concealing of evidence in its aftermath. Young's use of inflammatory and violent language in response to a federal expedition to the territory added to the tense atmosphere at the time of the attack. After the massacre, Young stated in public forums that God had taken vengeance on the Baker–Fancher party. It is unclear whether Young held this view because of a possible belief that this specific group posed a threat to colonists or that they were responsible for past crimes against Mormons. According to historian William P. MacKinnon, "After the war, Buchanan implied that face-to-face communications with Brigham Young might have averted the Utah War, and Young argued that a north–south telegraph line in Utah could have prevented the Mountain Meadows Massacre."

References