Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Zion
Posts: 4517

Sitting quietly 30 miles northwest of St. George Utah lies a pretty little valley that is possibly the saddest place in Utah. In 1857 John T. Baker and Alexander Francher were leading a wagon train of approximately 140 south towards California. On September 7th they were attacked by mormon settlers and local indians in this valley.



The wagon train fought hard for 4 days and lost 15 men. The wagon train was running low on food, water and ammunition. The attackers persuaded the wagon train to surrender peacefully in exchange for free passage back to the north. When the wagon train did so, they were slaughtered in this valley. Men, women and children were led out in seperate groups under close supervision and then the attackers turned on them..



Out of 140 people, there were only 17 survivors, all under the age of 7.



John D. Lee, a local mormon leader was tried 20 years later and executed on the spot of the masacre. He felt he was the skapegoat and nobody else was ever tried for the crimes.



The children were taken in by mormon settlers but later returned to family in Arkansas. For many years there really was no memorial or grave sight for the people that died in this beautiful meadow. Memebers of the US military later scraped some bones together in 1859 of some of the bodies they could locate and buried them where the monument is today.



In 1999 the LDS church, together with a society dedicated to the massacre decided to erect a fitting memorial. On August 3rd of that year, while digging footings for the new memorial, one of the graves was uncovered. The remains were buried in the wall of the new monuement.



The memorial was dedicated on September 11, 1999 by the president of the LDS church.

Sitting on the hillside about a mile away is a granite wall dedicated to those who died in this valley.



It has a nice overlook of the whole valley.





It's quiet there. A beautiful place, really. And a place that still creates tension in conversations with most mormon officials.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Beatrice, Nebraska
Posts: 18808

Like I needed another reason to laugh at Mormons.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Beyond Mason-Dixon Line
Posts: 16327

Thanks Cruise. Yes, it's quite a story. I'll be back on the subject after I finish the book. I also intend to visit the site in the future.

Amen.

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Norfolk, VA
Posts: 4688

Er...why did they attack these people?

Weren't they just passing through?

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Zion
Posts: 4517

quote:

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Originally posted by squee
Er...why did they attack these people?

Weren't they just passing through?

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