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Mountain Meadow Massacre Memorial

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Mountain Meadow Massacre Memorial
Mountain Meadow Massacre Memorial
Mountain Meadow Massacre Memorial
Mountain Meadow Massacre Memorial
Mountain Meadow Massacre Memorial
Mountain Meadow Massacre Memorial
Mountain Meadow Massacre Memorial
Mountain Meadow Massacre Memorial
Mountain Meadow Massacre Memorial
Mountain Meadow Massacre Memorial
Mountain Meadow Massacre Memorial
Mountain Meadow Massacre Memorial
Mountain Meadow Massacre Memorial
Mountain Meadow Massacre Memorial
Mountain Meadow Massacre Memorial
Phone:
+1 800-200-1160

Address:
Mountain Meadow Monument Trail, Mountain Meadows, UT 84722, USA

The Mountain Meadows Massacre was a series of attacks on the Baker–Fancher emigrant wagon train, at Mountain Meadows in Utah. The attacks began on September 7, 1857, and culminated on September 11, 1857, resulting in the mass slaughter of the emigrant party by members of the Utah Territorial Militia from the Iron County district. The militia, officially called the Nauvoo Legion, was composed of southern Utah's Mormon settlers . The wagon train, mostly families from Arkansas, was bound for California on a route that passed through the Utah Territory, during a conflict later known as the Utah War. While the emigrants were camped at the meadow, nearby militia leaders organized an attack on the wagon train. Intending to give the appearance of Native American aggression, the militia's plan was to arm some Southern Paiutes and persuade them to join with a larger party of their own militiamen—disguised as Native Americans—in an attack. The extent to which the Paiutes participated in the massacre is disputed, with some early reports — since discredited — placing much of the blame for the massacre to the Native Americans. During the militia's first assault on the wagon train the emigrants fought back, and a five-day siege ensued. Eventually fear spread among the militia's leaders that some emigrants had caught sight of white men and had likely discovered the identity of their attackers. As a result militia commander William H. Dame ordered his forces to kill the emigrants—about 120 men, women, and children in total. Seventeen children, all younger than seven, were spared. Following the massacre, the perpetrators hastily buried the victims. Local families took in the surviving children, and many of the victims' possessions were sold by auction. Investigations, after interruption by the American Civil War, resulted in nine indictments during 1874. Of the men indicted, only John D. Lee was tried in a court of law. After two trials in the Utah Territory, Lee was convicted by a jury, sentenced to death, and executed by a firing squad on March 23, 1877. Today, historians attribute the massacre to a combination of factors, including war hysteria about possible invasion of Mormon territory and hyperbolic Mormon teachings against outsiders, which were part of the excesses of the Mormon Reformation period.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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