Free Republic

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - The southern Utah site where Mormons massacred the members of a 19th Century Arkansas wagon train is on its way to becoming a National Historic Landmark. In November, a National Parks Service Advisory Board subcommittee voted unanimously to recommend a petition to elevate the Mountain Meadows Massacre site to landmark status, parks historian Lysa Wegman-French said. SNIP On Sept. 11, 1857, 120 men, women and children from the Baker-Fancher wagon train were attacked and killed at Mountain Meadows by Cedar City-area church and militia leaders. The Arkansas-based travelers were bound for California when their stopover...

Descendants of victims of the Mountain Meadows massacre -- a sorrowful chapter in the history of the American West -- meet next month in Tulare to learn more about the tragedy's connection to Tulare County. The Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation will be in town Sept. 10-12 because Tulare County was the destination of a wagon train that left Arkansas in 1857 -- but never arrived. They were headed here to join John Fancher, brother of wagon train captain Alexander Fancher... "They were on their way to their dreams," said Harley Fancher, a descendant. The wagon train made it into Utah...