Returning to Mountain Meadows

On a chilly Autumn afternoon before my parents passed away, we drove from their home in Cedar City, Utah southwestward toward Enterprise. My dad was a sheep farmer and knew the local land, its water sources, and backroads as if they were his birthright. As we traveled, he told me about the Old Spanish Trail and the many springs that once provided respite along these valleys for 19th century travelers passing through. We arrived at our destination, the Mountain Meadows Massacre Memorial. My parents had been defensive about it in the car, perhaps because our settler ancestors had been there for the massacre. But once on the site, reading the historical markers and seeing the rock cairns scattered throughout the otherwise empty valley, they became quiet. I felt (and feel) shame, anger, and heartbreak for the events of September 7-11, 1857. I want to make sense of something I suspect I’ll never fully comprehend. Two new books on the subject might help. They are Vengeance Is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath (Oxford University Press) by Richard E. Turley and Barbara Jones Brown and Convicting the Mormons: The Mountain Meadows Massacre in American Culture (University of North Carolina Press) by Janiece Johnson. – Glen Nelson (Vengeance Is Mine and Convicting the Mormons are to be released on the same day, May 30.)