Posted on 07/14/2011 2:54:04 PM PDT by Colofornian
ROGERS, Ark. -- For more than 150 years, an important piece of Arkansas and American history has been relegated to obscurity.
In early 1857, a wagon train left Northwest Arkansas and headed west, bound for California.
The Francher-Baker train was made up of 14 large Arkansas families, about 800 cattle and around 30 wagons.
"They were en route to California for a better life and little did they know that Brigham Young had declared war on the United States two weeks before they entered the Salt Lake Valley," said Phil Bolinger, with the Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation.
So without knowing tensions were running high between the U.S. government and Brigham Young, the leader of the Chuch of Latter-Day Saints (also known as the Mormon Church), the families decided to camp in southwest Utah, in a place called Mountain Meadows.
For most of the families, it would be their final resting place.
"They were attacked by a few indians, but mainly Mormon militia men," Bolinger said.
"Under one order -- the order was 'do your duty' -- each man killed his man, in other words, point-blank, execution-style murder. And then the women and children weren't so lucky. They were mainly bludgeoned to death with rocks or gun stocks," Bolinger said.
On September 11, 1857, 121 men, women and children were murdered. Only 17 small children, all under the age of 6, were spared. Two years later, the orphans were reunited with relatives in Arkansas.
"Everyone who lived in Northwest Arkansas at that time, had some blood relatives that were members of this wagon train," said Scott Fancher, a descendant who has 27 relatives who died that day.
For years the Mormon church denied allegations of involvement and blamed local Native Americans for the slaughter.
Descedents of the victims have always wanted the church to own up and have wanted to get federal protection for the massacre site.
In the last 10 years, there has been movies and media coverage and trips to washington to fight for the site of the massacre to become a national historic landmark, and on July 2, it did.
"Finally we have some serious, bonafied, high order federal protection for the site to protect it from development or encroachment. We also have the recognition of the site as a nationally significant historic site," Fancher said.
Francher and Bolinger say the massacre was America's first 9/11.
"Interestingly enough, it was also an act of religious extremism, and that's another sort of eerie parallel between that and are more recent 9/11. But in both cases, religious extremists did basically horrible things to basically innocent people," Fancher said.
But in this case, more than a hundred years later, both sides have been able to reconcile.
"We're 150 years-plus into this story, and it's taken that long for the players to kind of meet in the middle and agree to be civil and both agree we won't get everything that we want but we get something better for everyone that's involved," Fancher said.
The national landmark dedication ceremony will be held in Utah at the site of the Mountain Meadows massacre on September 11.
Wow. They really are evil. 8 items. Yikes.
I wonder if there is a web site where you can do some work and find out of any of your relatives were killed. Since I am from Arkansas it would be interesting to know.
Fancher at one time owned 200 acres about two miles south of me.
That's strange, I've known about this massacre since I was a child(read it in a history book). There has been at least one movie made about it, that shows that mormons were the perps and not Indians. Plus, I know about other crimes committed by mormons of that time period against other wagon trains, many travelers were warned about going through Utah but many did not heed. I also know about the group of murders that the mormons called the Avenging Angels.
The mormons in the 19th century were not very nice people when it came to getting along with others.
***I moved to Rogers last year ***
Welcome to NW Arkansas, the Tick and chigger capitol of the US!
Post #24, this statement “the group of murders” should read the group of murderers”.
Actually, the Indians’ traditional method of warfare could be appropriately considered terrorism, considerably preceding the formation of the country.
knee jerk responder alert
I agree completely.
***I’m currently reading the book “Massacre at Mountain Meadows” by William Wise.***
If you really want to get your blood to boil, read MASSACRES OF THE MOUNTAINS by JR DUNN Jr, written in the 1880s when people still remembered these things!
Did you know that the also Mormons attacked two other wagon trains? The Shepherd Train and the Miltmore train, both which had people killed by the mormon attackers.
Ya that one really gets to me too.
If you research the history, this has been one of the longest running coverups in our nation.
To this day no one will come strait out and say that Smith ordered, it, but at least one witness stated that Smith “Made it clear what he wanted”.
There have been many attempts to destroy the site over the years, look up what happened when some of the bodies were accidentally recovered, and how the forensic investigation was quashed.
My reading also appears to state that “Most” or “Many” of the children were returned to their relatives, but no one was certain that all were.
IIRC, the LDS Church admitted the massacre. The historical fact is that when the US Army rode in and found the blood soaked cloths of the slain stored in a warehouse, that it was difficult for the Cavalry officers to restrain the troops.
With the discovery of the clothes, all LDS claims of non-participation in the Mountain Meadows Massacre were rendered transparent falsehoods.
Had the officers not restrained their troops, the murders would have been avenged at that moment.
History was. Politics is.
Given that the LDS members had been on the receiving end of numerous attacks including murders and arson, property de facto confiscation, etc., I am surprised that the LDS and the Feddies didn’t make a historical site with the history of the entire chain of religious motivated murders culminating at Mountain Meadows.
The Mountain Meadows site could/should be an example in our American history of what happens when religion is allowed to become a motivating factor in public policy rather than a private matter of the individual citizen.
I hope to hear from some LDS FReepers as to their perspectives on this rather hasty post.
I could see the timing on this as an anti-Romney move, bringing negative attention to his religion, since he’s still ahead in the polls.
If it were an anti-Romney move, they would have waited until next year.
To this day no one will come strait out and say that Smith ordered, it, but at least one witness stated that Smith “Made it clear what he wanted”.
Smith was dead by then. This was on Brigham Young's watch.
OK, been a while since I looked into this.
I remember the “Code of silence” was pretty unbreakable, it was clear the order came from the top.
Few were prosecuted, as I recall only one guy was executed?
Eye opening if you do research on it.
Zealots are still a problem today.
It’s about time.
This took place on Sept. 11th of whate'er year you are citing?
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