Welcome to the home page of the Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation. The Foundation is dedicated to a number of goals for the Mountain Meadows Massacre site. One goal of the Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation is federal stewardship for the massacre site at Mountain Meadows in Utah. Since our organization’s inception, talks within the Foundation and with LDS representatives in Utah centered on our desire for National Monument (NM) status. A number of members of MMMF were involved in this push but most notably Burr Fancher and Scott Fancher, the MMMF’s first president. The Foundation was not supported by other organizations who claimed to represent the victim families. Several years of discussions had not produced any results.
In early 2007, the MMMF resolved to push harder. In the spring, Phil Bolinger, President, and Bob Fancher attended a screening of the movie "September Dawn" in Salt Lake City. The visit provided an opportunity to visit LDS authorities again to make the case for NM status. This effort was again rebuffed. During 2007, a number of visits were made with Phil and Bob and Scott Fancher and others continuing to present the Foundation’s case. It became apparent that National Monument designation was not be supported by the LDS church at that time. Phil then asked for an application for National Landmark status which would offer protection for the site from developers and provide for continuous access for visitors.
As a second front, the MMMF began circulating petitions and securing signatures in support of the request for some federal recognition. Several letters of support from Arkansas state senators and officials were gathered also. In September 2007, during the observance of the 150th anniversary of the massacre, these hundreds of signatures and letters were presented to the LDS officials. The number of signatures made an impression.
Membership in the Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation is open to all who seek to support the goals and objectves of this organization. The programs and accomplishments thus far achieved by the MMMF have been funded by dues and by special donations from our members. Join Here
MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE
One of the largest civilian massacres in the history of our country occurred at Mountain Meadows, South of Cedar City, Utah on September 11, 1857. The victims of the massacre were 121 men, women, and children of a California-bound wagon train under the leadership of Captain Alexander Fancher and Captain John Twitty Baker. All of the families were from Benton, Carroll, Johnson, and Marion Counties of Northwest Arkansas.
After the 54 members of the Iron County Militia finished their grisly act at dusk on September 11, the bodies of the massacre victims were left exposed to the ravages of birds and wild animals. Seventeen children, seven years and younger, were spared the fate of their parents and siblings because of a religious doctrine of “innocent blood,” A wagon containing the children delivered them to Jacob Hamblin’s ranch at the north end of Mountain Meadows.
In 1859 Major James H. Carleton and a contingent of dragoons from Ft. Tejon, California met Captain Reuben Campbell’s soldiers from Camp Floyd, Utah at the massacre site. The two commands collected the scattered remains of the massacre victims and interred them into four gravesites.
Captain James Lynch and Dr. Jacob Forney recovered the surviving children from Mormon homes. Fifteen of the survivors were escorted back to their Arkansas relatives. Two of the older boys, John C. Miller and Milam Tackett, remained in Utah as witnesses for U.S. Attorney Alexander Wilson and were returned sometime later. On June 28, 1859, the fifteen survivors left for Ft. Leavenworth in three army ambulances pulled by mules and accompanied by one baggage wagon. They were escorted by eight adults, three men and five women. Major D.P. Whiting was in charge of the overall operation, which included a company of dragoons for a safety escort and an Army Chaplin, Rev. Vaux.
The heavily guarded contingent reached Ft. Leavenworth on August 25, 1859. William C. Mitchell of Carroll County, Arkansas met the children at Ft. Leavenworth and escorted them on to Arkansas. The children arrived at Carrollton on September 25. Their first night home was spent in the original Yell Lodge at Carrollton. Next day the children were met by over 200 relatives and well-wishers and taken into the homes of loving relatives.
John D. Lee was the only one of the 54 members of the Iron County Militia to be brought to justice. He was escorted to the site of the massacre and executed twenty years later.
