The Victims Of The Mountain Meadows Massacre In Arkansas

The Mountain Meadows Massacre happened in Mountain Meadows Utah on September 11, 1857. Most of the victims of this massacre were from the state of Arkansas. Mountain Meadows is located in a mountain valley about 35 miles southwest of Cedar City, Utah. This group was part of the Baker-Fancher wagon train. How did the party run into the mormons? After leaving Arkansas, the wagon train traveled west into the Kansas and Nebraska Territories before getting into the Utah Territory. In Utah, the train headed through Fort Bridger and Salt Lake City before reaching Cedar City. Cedar City was where the last stop before California was.

In Cedar City, the Fancher party tried to buy grain and supplies from the local mormons but they refused in not wanting

In 1859 they released from their callings stake president Isaac Haight and other prominent Church leaders in Cedar City who had a role in the massacre. In 1870 they excommunicated Isaac Haight and John D. Lee from the Church. In 1874 a territorial grand jury indicted nine men for their role in the massacre. Most of them were eventually arrested, though only Lee was tried, convicted, and executed for the crime. Another indicted man turned state’s evidence, and others spent many years running from the law. Other militiamen who carried out the massacre labored the rest of their lives under a horrible sense of guilt and recurring nightmares of what they had done and seen. Families of the men who masterminded the crime suffered as neighbors ostracized them or claimed curses had fallen upon them. For decades, the Paiutes also suffered unjustly as others blamed them for the crime, calling them and their descendants “wagon burners,” “savages,” and “hostiles.” The massacre became an indelible blot on the history of the region. Today, some massacre victims’ descendants and collateral relatives are Latter-day Saints. These individuals are in an uncommon position because they know how it feels to be both a Church member and a relative of a victim. The Mountain Meadows Massacre has continued to cause pain and controversy for 150 years. During the past two decades, descendants and other relatives of the emigrants and the perpetrators have at times worked together to memorialize the victims. These efforts have had the support of President Gordon B. Hinckley, officials of the state of Utah, and other institutions and individuals. Among the products of this cooperation have been the construction of two memorials at the massacre site and the