The Mountain Meadows Massacre

In early April 1857, the large Fancher-Baker wagon train left Caravan Spring south of Harrison for California and camped at this site on the way to intercept the Cherokee trail at the Grand Saline in Indian Territory. Months later, in southwest Utah at Mountain Meadows, the train came under siege by Mormons and Indians. On September 11, 1857, the Mormons murdered 121 men, women, and children after assuring their protection, and only 17 small children were spared. The dead remained exposed for 18 months until U.S. Army troops led by Major James H. Carleton buried the remains in several mass graves, placing a cross and stone over one gravesite containing 34 victims. The surviving children were brought back to Arkansas, spent their first night at the site of the Old Yell Lodge, and on September 25, 1859, were reunited with relatives in the Carrollton town square. In 1861, Brigham Young and his entourage visited the Utah gravesite, and after reading the words on the cross and saying, “Vengeance is mine and I have taken a little,” Young raised his arm in the Danite signal of the square, after which his followers destroyed the monument within minutes. Presently, the LDS Church owns the grave at Mountain Meadows in Utah and controls interpretation of the massacre.

Arkansas · United States