Mountain Meadows Massacre

The Mountain Meadows Massacre began on September 11, 1857 in Mountain Meadows, Utah where Mormon settlers and indians ambushed emigrants, a group of Arkansas farming families known as the Fancher party, traveling from Arkansas to California. They killed around 120 men, women and older children; some of the younger children were returned to relatives in Arkansas and some were raised in Mormon families. The massacre ended after a siege of four days as the Mormons promised safe passage if the migrants would surrender their weapons whereupon all but 17 young children were slaughtered. Brigham Young denied responsibility or knowledge until after the fact, but skeptics are unconvinced. John D. Lee was excommunicated and later executed for murder years after the incident for leading the ambush. A pair of Latter-day Saint writers have recently been granted access to restricted documents in the archives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and will be publishing an account of the incident in 2003.

Further Reading

• Juanita Brooks; Mountain Meadows Massacre; University of Oklahoma Press (Tdr); ISBN 0806123184 (softcover, 318 pages, May 1991)
• Will Bagley; Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows; University of Oklahoma Press; ISBN 0806134267 (hardcover, 544 pages, October 2002)
• Sally Denton; American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows; Knopf; ISBN 0375412085 (hardcover, 336 pages, June 2003)

External Links

• An account of the incident sponsored by the Utah State Government (http://historytogo.utah.gov/mtmeadows)
• New York Times article of October 12, 2002 Reopening a Mormon Murder Mystery By Emily Eakin (http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/12/arts/12MORM?todaysheadlines)
• [1] (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/15814)