Massacre at the Meadows

Rick and I went to St. George last winter so that Rick could attend a conference. As part of the conference, a class was held on the Mountain Mead*ws Massacre that happened about 40 miles south of St. George in 1857. A professor from Weber State talked to us for about two hours about the events that lead up to that fateful day. It was very sobering and very unsettling to learn what transpired. After the lecture, we all drove out to the site and the professor continued to teach us about what happened that day. He referred us to several books and accounts that have been written on the topic. An organization called the MMM association continues to coordinate efforts to preserve the site and to tell about what happened that day. Their web site can be found here. I was so intrigued by the events that happened that day, that I bought this book

published by Oxford University Press and I've read most of it. It's a tough read. It details a very disturbing and gut-wrenching chapter of Mormon history. A review can be found here.

On September 11, 1857, a band of Mormon militia, under a flag of truce, lured unarmed members of a party of emigrants from their fortified encampment and, with their Paiute allies, killed them. More than 120 men, women, and children perished in the slaughter. Massacre at Mountain Meadows offers the most thoroughly researched account of the massacre ever written. Drawn from documents previously not available to scholars and a careful re-reading of traditional sources, this gripping narrative offers fascinating new insight into why Mormons settlers in isolated southern Utah deceived the emigrant party with a promise of safety and then killed the adults and all but seventeen of the youngest children. The book sheds light on factors contributing to the tragic event, including the war hysteria that overcame the Mormons after President James Buchanan dispatched federal troops to Utah Territory to put down a supposed rebellion, the suspicion and conflicts that polarized the perpetrators and victims, and the reminders of attacks on Mormons in earlier settlements in Missouri and Illinois. It also analyzes the influence of Brigham Young's rhetoric and military strategy during the infamous "Utah War" and the role of local Mormon militia leaders in enticing Paiute Indians to join in the attack. Throughout the book, the authors paint finely drawn portraits of the key players in the drama, their backgrounds, personalities, and roles in the unfolding story of misunderstanding, misinformation, indecision, and personal vendettas. The Mountain Meadows Massacre stands as one of the darkest events in Mormon history. Neither a whitewash nor an expose, Massacre at Mountain Meadows provides the clearest and most accurate account of a key event in American religious history.