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Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows
Tells the story of the Mountain Meadows massacre, one of the West's most controversial historical subjects and the single most violent incident in the history of America's overland trails. Traces the crime from its origins in the bitter struggles of the Latter-day Saints in Missouri and Illinois to its legacy of lies and betrayal, which still haunts Utah today.
544 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
83 people are currently reading
1406 people want to read
About the author
Will Bagley
45 books17 followersWilliam Grant Bagley was a historian specializing in the history of the Western United States and the American Old West. Bagley wrote about the fur trade, overland emigration, American Indians, military history, frontier violence, railroads, mining, and Utah and the Mormons.
From the age of nine he was raised in Oceanside, California, where his father was a long-serving mayor in the 1980s. His younger brother Pat Bagley became the notable Salt Lake Tribune editorial cartoonist.
Bagley attended Brigham Young University in 1967–68, and then he transferred to University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC), where he obtained his B.A. in History in 1971. At Santa Cruz Bagley studied writing with Page Stegner and history with John Dizikes. He graduated from UCSC between Richard White and Patty Limerick, two of the leading lights of the "New Western History." He considered an integral part of his education a trip he took in 1969, on a homemade raft built of framing lumber and barrels, down the Mississippi River from Rock Island, Illinois to New Orleans. After graduation he spent three years in North Carolina studying the local Bluegrass music and culture, and playing in bands.
After college, Bagley worked as a laborer, carpenter, cabinet maker, and country musician for more than a decade. In 1979 he founded Groundhog Records to release his long playing record, "The Legend of Jesse James." In 1982 he abandoned music and hard labor to take a writing position at Evans & Sutherland, a pioneering computer graphics firm. He worked in various high-tech ventures until 1995, when he started his career as a professional historian. He has written more than twenty books, and in 2008 historian David Roberts dubbed him the "sharpest of all thorns in the side of the Mormon historical establishment."
Although he was raised as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), Bagley was no longer a member. He has publicly stated that he "never believed the theology since [he] was old enough to think about it." However, he was friends with believers and considered himself a "heritage Mormon," valuing his pioneer lineage.
In September 2014, the Utah State Historical Society granted Bagley its most prestigious honor as a Fellow, joining "the ranks of such luminaries as Dale Morgan, Wallace Stegner, Juanita Brooks, and Leonard Arrington." Western Writers of America gave Bagley its 2019 Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Contributions to Western Literature in 2019. He said it was "an expression of affection from my WWA friends that is appreciated and humbling, for it calls to mind the words 'I am not worthy!'
Bagley lived and worked in Salt Lake City, Utah until his death in 2021.
Abridged from Wikipedia
From the age of nine he was raised in Oceanside, California, where his father was a long-serving mayor in the 1980s. His younger brother Pat Bagley became the notable Salt Lake Tribune editorial cartoonist.
Bagley attended Brigham Young University in 1967–68, and then he transferred to University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC), where he obtained his B.A. in History in 1971. At Santa Cruz Bagley studied writing with Page Stegner and history with John Dizikes. He graduated from UCSC between Richard White and Patty Limerick, two of the leading lights of the "New Western History." He considered an integral part of his education a trip he took in 1969, on a homemade raft built of framing lumber and barrels, down the Mississippi River from Rock Island, Illinois to New Orleans. After graduation he spent three years in North Carolina studying the local Bluegrass music and culture, and playing in bands.
After college, Bagley worked as a laborer, carpenter, cabinet maker, and country musician for more than a decade. In 1979 he founded Groundhog Records to release his long playing record, "The Legend of Jesse James." In 1982 he abandoned music and hard labor to take a writing position at Evans & Sutherland, a pioneering computer graphics firm. He worked in various high-tech ventures until 1995, when he started his career as a professional historian. He has written more than twenty books, and in 2008 historian David Roberts dubbed him the "sharpest of all thorns in the side of the Mormon historical establishment."
Although he was raised as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), Bagley was no longer a member. He has publicly stated that he "never believed the theology since [he] was old enough to think about it." However, he was friends with believers and considered himself a "heritage Mormon," valuing his pioneer lineage.
In September 2014, the Utah State Historical Society granted Bagley its most prestigious honor as a Fellow, joining "the ranks of such luminaries as Dale Morgan, Wallace Stegner, Juanita Brooks, and Leonard Arrington." Western Writers of America gave Bagley its 2019 Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Contributions to Western Literature in 2019. He said it was "an expression of affection from my WWA friends that is appreciated and humbling, for it calls to mind the words 'I am not worthy!'
Bagley lived and worked in Salt Lake City, Utah until his death in 2021.
Abridged from Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
July 14, 2015
This was a long and detailed account of the Mountain Meadow Massacre, where over 100 pioneering men, woman and children were brutally murdered. Included was a mini history of the LDS religion and the circumstances that lead them to Utah in the 19th century.
The MMM happened over 150 years ago in a remote part of the U.S. territory. You can wiki it for details https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountai... It was prefaced by events that pitted the LDS settlers against pretty much everyone else and created a hostile climate for outsiders. Blame for the massacre was initially placed on the Native Americans (aka Indians), but as always happens, truth has a way of bubbling up enough to cast doubt on official accounts. There is no doubt that 'saints' were involved and little doubt that they instigated the the event. The question becomes how high up does the buck stop? Hint - there once was a break-in at the Watergate Hotel.
The author does does a very thorough job researching and analyzing the events. Much of his work and analysis piggybacks on the work of Juanita Brooks, an LDS feminist who wrote the The Mountain Meadows Massacre. (Note to self - look for a Juanita Brooks biography.) I felt that he did a solid job and objective, however I have seen him described as anti-church in reviews. I don't have a dog in that fight, and I felt he was objective with the material he had to work with.
audiobook comments (I received a free copy from an AudiobookBlast promo in exchange for an honest review) I would imagine that producing an audiobook for such a niche subject might be financially risky, and the temptation to cut corners might be great. If that was the case here, it is not evident to the listener. Sound quality was very good and narration was well done, very professional. I would suggest to anyone interested in taking this on, unless you are well versed in LDS historical figures of the time, grab a cheat sheet LDS characters from the wiki page. There are many many characters, some more important than others, and on audio that can sometimes be a challenge to track.
The MMM happened over 150 years ago in a remote part of the U.S. territory. You can wiki it for details https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountai... It was prefaced by events that pitted the LDS settlers against pretty much everyone else and created a hostile climate for outsiders. Blame for the massacre was initially placed on the Native Americans (aka Indians), but as always happens, truth has a way of bubbling up enough to cast doubt on official accounts. There is no doubt that 'saints' were involved and little doubt that they instigated the the event. The question becomes how high up does the buck stop? Hint - there once was a break-in at the Watergate Hotel.
The author does does a very thorough job researching and analyzing the events. Much of his work and analysis piggybacks on the work of Juanita Brooks, an LDS feminist who wrote the The Mountain Meadows Massacre. (Note to self - look for a Juanita Brooks biography.) I felt that he did a solid job and objective, however I have seen him described as anti-church in reviews. I don't have a dog in that fight, and I felt he was objective with the material he had to work with.
audiobook comments (I received a free copy from an AudiobookBlast promo in exchange for an honest review) I would imagine that producing an audiobook for such a niche subject might be financially risky, and the temptation to cut corners might be great. If that was the case here, it is not evident to the listener. Sound quality was very good and narration was well done, very professional. I would suggest to anyone interested in taking this on, unless you are well versed in LDS historical figures of the time, grab a cheat sheet LDS characters from the wiki page. There are many many characters, some more important than others, and on audio that can sometimes be a challenge to track.
July 28, 2010
I have rarely been more offended and disgusted by something I have read. The events described in this book merely confirm my contempt for the "religion" that perpetrated this foul massacre and that continues to embody hypocrisy by concealing the facts it knows about which points to the "church"'s complicity in the deed. Brigham Young was a motherfucking son-of-a-bitch and the "prophets" were nothing more than power- and money-hungry thugs. Get a grip, LDS leadership: admit your forebears' complicity in mass-murder, theft, lying and hypocrisy and come clean. The book is good, well-intentioned, but more of a data dump than an actual narrative.
March 16, 2022
This is the most exhaustive, credible, and unbiased book written about the Mountain Meadows Massacre. It expands on Juanita Brooks' wonderful Mountain Meadows Massacre (1961) with documents she did not then have access to and draws a horrifying picture of the murder of 120 American emigrants in Southern Utah by Mormon settlers with help from some Paiute natives.
A brilliant piece of research and writing that puts the massacre into context.
A brilliant piece of research and writing that puts the massacre into context.
March 24, 2017
I may have grown tired of reading about the Mountain Meadows Massacre after having read two thick, well-researched meaty books on the subject-matter (the latter just finished now and having read it considering it far more exhaustive in its research than the prior work of non-fiction) and a work of historical fiction, along with a chapter devoted to the massacre in a book on conspiracy theories and mentioned in numerous books read on homegrown terrorism---not forgetting to mention watching a film based on historical events---but I persevered and finished the book. I am glad for having read it and it was very well-written and extremely comprehensive. Generally, I consider myself an atheist sometimes and possibly agnostic during other times (not entirely sure I guess), so reading about religion (with a fairly religious upbringing I was always personally rebelling against) can be difficult for me at times. I think as a work of historical relevance about an atrocity it should be read, especially since these events probably will barely get a sentence or two of mention in a history book, if even that. That makes me wonder what modern history books are covering in grades K-12 nowadays, or even at the college level. Regardless, the book is worth reading, whether one is religious, satanic, agnostic, atheistic, or clueless like me most days.
June 6, 2012
Wow. How can you say, "I really liked" this book. The subject is heavy, especially for LDS folks like me who have grown up with the explanation of "The Indians made them do it." Some accounts or quotes are difficult to accept because as admitted by the author, they are hearsay and impossible to prove. But while the church has time and again argued Young's innocence, I believe this book effectively demonstrates his complicity both before and after the murders. Now I need to take my kids on a field trip to Mountain Meadows, because the topic is all-encompassing for a study of Utah history.
April 27, 2021
In September, 1857, a wagon train of Arkansans - around 140 of them - travelled through Utah on their way to a new home in California. They never arrived, as they were slaughtered wholesale in a lush valley called Mountain Meadow in southwestern Utah. A combination of white men and Paiute Indians attacked the train, which valiantly defended itself for multiple days, running out of water and the ability to care for their wounded before they finally agreed to give up their belongings in exchange for their lives. The men were lured away from the women, but both groups were cruelly butchered, even small children. Only seventeen children, deemed too small to ever remember the atrocity, were allowed to survive.
This book looks at the causes of the massacre, and finally absolves the migrants in the wagon train from responsibility for their own deaths. (Rumor had it that members of the train had murdered the prophet-founder of the Church, Joseph Smith, and had committed depredations on the local communities on their way through Utah.) It also shifts the blame from the Indian attackers and lands it squarely on the Mormon apostles who promised the Indians some of the migrants' cattle in exchange for "instigating" the massacre. The rapaciousness of the Mormon hierarchy just sickens me. They were the LEADERS of the church and they were outright responsible for stealing the migrants' possessions to enrich themselves! Yet they shifted the blame to the Indians and a few of the Mormon apostles in the southwest Utah. Only one Mormon, John D. Lee, was ever brought to trial and finally executed for participation in this crime. There have been decades - over a century now - of obfuscation and outright lies by the LDS church to protect the reputation of Brigham Young while sacrificing the reputations of some of his most-loyal followers. An interesting chapter is devoted to Juanita Brooks, a historian and loyal Mormon who wrote the first book about this massacre, which mostly absolved Young. This author, Bagley, believes Brooks did the best job she could considering the lack of cooperation from the LDS Church in allowing her access to archives.
This is an exhaustive look at the massacre, trying to ferret out the truth. The conclusion is that Young probably instigated the massacre to try to end immigration through Utah and thus the "interference" of the United States and the US Army, which was sent in to protect the migrant trains.
The leaders of "Deseret" wanted a theocracy for Utah, not for it to become part of the United States. But descendants of John D. Lee, and many of the Arkansan descendants of those who survived the massacrek have long wanted the truth and have worked for literal generations to unearth it.
Probably the most disturbing part of the book is the long history of outright desecration and poor memorialization of the massacre site. It took WEEKS for the poor butchered souls to even be buried, much less decently. Even months later, folks traveling through Mountain Meadow could see bones, skeletons, and womens' hair strewn about the meadow. Gah! Yikes. And Utah itself did a terrible job maintaining the site. Finally, in 1999, descendants and LDS Church President Gordon Hinckley devised a more fitting and lasting memorial. Hopefully, the poor souls are at rest now. Three stars b/c the author took a fascinating subject and made it so very dull, even though the annotation is extensive, and I did like the list at the end of the massacre victims and the survivors.
This book looks at the causes of the massacre, and finally absolves the migrants in the wagon train from responsibility for their own deaths. (Rumor had it that members of the train had murdered the prophet-founder of the Church, Joseph Smith, and had committed depredations on the local communities on their way through Utah.) It also shifts the blame from the Indian attackers and lands it squarely on the Mormon apostles who promised the Indians some of the migrants' cattle in exchange for "instigating" the massacre. The rapaciousness of the Mormon hierarchy just sickens me. They were the LEADERS of the church and they were outright responsible for stealing the migrants' possessions to enrich themselves! Yet they shifted the blame to the Indians and a few of the Mormon apostles in the southwest Utah. Only one Mormon, John D. Lee, was ever brought to trial and finally executed for participation in this crime. There have been decades - over a century now - of obfuscation and outright lies by the LDS church to protect the reputation of Brigham Young while sacrificing the reputations of some of his most-loyal followers. An interesting chapter is devoted to Juanita Brooks, a historian and loyal Mormon who wrote the first book about this massacre, which mostly absolved Young. This author, Bagley, believes Brooks did the best job she could considering the lack of cooperation from the LDS Church in allowing her access to archives.
This is an exhaustive look at the massacre, trying to ferret out the truth. The conclusion is that Young probably instigated the massacre to try to end immigration through Utah and thus the "interference" of the United States and the US Army, which was sent in to protect the migrant trains.
The leaders of "Deseret" wanted a theocracy for Utah, not for it to become part of the United States. But descendants of John D. Lee, and many of the Arkansan descendants of those who survived the massacrek have long wanted the truth and have worked for literal generations to unearth it.
Probably the most disturbing part of the book is the long history of outright desecration and poor memorialization of the massacre site. It took WEEKS for the poor butchered souls to even be buried, much less decently. Even months later, folks traveling through Mountain Meadow could see bones, skeletons, and womens' hair strewn about the meadow. Gah! Yikes. And Utah itself did a terrible job maintaining the site. Finally, in 1999, descendants and LDS Church President Gordon Hinckley devised a more fitting and lasting memorial. Hopefully, the poor souls are at rest now. Three stars b/c the author took a fascinating subject and made it so very dull, even though the annotation is extensive, and I did like the list at the end of the massacre victims and the survivors.
March 8, 2017
--dnb
This is a compelling read, but the compelling narrative can make it a difficult read as you read to judge it for historicity.
Bagley inserts hundreds of sentence fragment quotes into his narrative, and a paragraph with several sentence fragment quotes may have one or several footnotes. I found myself referring to the footnotes (in the back!) constantly, to get a feel for the nature of the quotes. Sometimes they were from a newspaper account, in which case the fragments could have been from multiple original sources or from the journalist himself. Sometimes the fragments all came from a single source, like a speech in the Journal of Discourses. In those cases it was easier to guess at fairness, but still, they were fragments. It was a relief when the author described a source and evaluated it against others, and in fairness, this was done often enough.
In the end, was there enough documentation to judge the author's conclusions? Yes. Excellent research, but not enough evaluative descriptions of sources. Is the book still worth reading? Very much so. In addition to good information on Mountain Meadows, the book gives valuable insight into many other interesting areas -- Mormon pioneer life, invasive Church authoritarianism, history and perception of the Mormon Law of Consecration, and more. After reading Blood of the Prophets I understand better at least a source of the conservatism of my grandfather and father.
An appreciated surprise was a chapter on Juanita Brooks. As a very young school teacher, Brooks met the Nephi Johnson who was "at" Mountain Meadows, and he told her that he wanted her to write for him things that his "eyes had witnessed", but his "tongue had never uttered". [my fragments from the actual quote!] At the time Juanita didn't know that Nephi had been at Mountain Meadows, and he fell ill and died before relating to her a word of his tale! Years later, Brooks began intensive and persistent research into Mountain Meadows, which culminated in her 1950 book, The Mountain Meadows Massacre. A faithful Mormon from southern Utah, Brook's perseverance in finding the truth (that she assumed would be the only thing good enough for her church) was inspiring. I have not yet read her book, but from Bagley's account of her efforts, she is already one of my heroes.
Finally, an unanticipated effect of Bagley's book was that it drove apart what I can feel towards my Mormon friends and relatives and what I can feel for Mormon Church leadership. Is that a reason to avoid the book? No. There is no shortage of writing on Mormon history that is not worth the scan of a page, but this book is not of that category.
--dnb
May 23, 2018
I loved this book because it tells the truth about what happened at Mountain Meadows. I think it could have been condensed down into a shorter book, otherwise I would have rated it higher. A lot of times while reading this book, I found myself thinking that sadly, many things haven’t changed much in Utah in the past 160 years.
June 1, 2017
Along with No Man Knows My History, this confirms my testimony in the insanity of Mormon faith and that there is no God but the god of vanity, lies, and deceit.
September 17, 2021
An exhaustive and detailed recounting of the events leading up to the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the event itself and afterward up to more recent times. Why don’t we know more about this heinous crime? It would be hard to put “the good guys” in a favorable light on this one. Who REALLY was to blame and who would “they” like you to believe was to blame? Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. You decide.
July 14, 2019
Incredible thorough telling of the story of the horrible murder of 120 members of an emigrant party from Arkansas who got caught in the violence of Brigham Young and the Mormons. Will has combed and dissected every scrap of history he could find to piece together what did happen. This is one of the most lurid and falsified events in Mormon history.
March 15, 2021
Good book covering a lot of information regarding the massacre.
Want to read
February 18, 2008Juanita Brooks's The Mountain Meadows Massacre has for decades been the classic account of this event, which was a personal tragedy on many levels as well as an embarrassment (one that persists to this day) for the Mormon Church. Since then, other books, e.g., Sally Denton's American Massacre, have contributed even more to our knowledge of this massacre and its aftermath. Will Bagley's work (Blood of the Prophets), I'm told, is a very scholarly updating, taking into account new evidence. As always, a book like this will attract both ardent defenders and passionate detractors, but Bagley has a well-earned reputation as a solid historian, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he has to say. There are also those who would prefer to let sleeping dogs lie, but as Brigham Young (who appears to have been far more complicit in this tragedy than he has generally credited in being but who was also a fascinating and multifaceted character, just as was John D. Lee) once said, "'Shall I sit down and read the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Covenants all the time?' says one. Yes, if you please, and when you have done, you may be nothing but a sectarian after all. It is your duty to study to know everything upon the face of the earth in addition to reading those books. We should not only study good, and its effects upon our race, but also evil, and its consequences." The Mountain Meadows Massacre is a terrible example of the evil that men can commit when they think that they're really doing good. It's a story of good intentions gone awry, of war-fever propaganda and prejudice, and of a perfect storm of historical coincidences and tragic cultural misunderstandings as well as struggles for political and theocratic power. It's very relevant to today, and it's also a real-life account of the same themes addressed in Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow and Children of God and in Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind. For an introduction, watch the movie September Morn (q.v.); then read this book!
March 4, 2011
Having long ago read Juanita Brooks' The Mountain Meadows Massacre and the more recent Massacre at Mountain Meadows by Ron Walker et al (which actually followed Blood of the Prophets in publishing sequence), it didn't seem to me that there was anything revelatory, as suggested by one professional reviewer, about Bagley's take on this most heinous and gruesome episode. The only real addition was Bagley's decidedly accusatory attitude toward Brigham Young and George A. Smith, which seems to have been his main objective in writing yet another thoroughly researched account. Whether reading Brooks, Bagley or Walker, one gains the sense that the atmosphere in 1857 Utah was set for a terrible outcome for a train of California-bound pioneers who found themselves caught in a bad place at the wrong time. Like the other historians, Bagley reviews the story in detail with the intent to place blame on multiple players and to shift the historical blame from the wrong targets (mostly Paiute Native Americans) to those whom he sees as the real culprits, the LDS Church's leadership. Strident hearsay and opinion seem to overcome real evidence for his strongest accusations, but he does provide evidence, although not new, that shores up Brooks' previous cautious suggestion that LDS Church leaders at the top were culpable, especially in the 20-years-long cover up of the crime. This was an informative account, but I found the other two more appealing for their lack of obvious vindictiveness.
July 26, 2012
I think that even if we had a "smoking gun" document that revealed that BY ordered the massacre, it still wouldn't explain the biggest mystery in my mind...which is WHY the massacre took place. I don't know that we'll ever really find that out (in this life anyway), but I (like thousands of others) remain fascinated by this horrible event in LDS and Western history.
I had some real issues with this man's conclusions and choice of words which reveal his bias and/or personal opinions. He also uses a lot of questionable first-source documents and rehashed secondary sources. While I enjoyed his breadth and depth, his accuracy really concerns me. I really couldn't give this more than two stars...especially in light of the new book by Turley et al.
I had some real issues with this man's conclusions and choice of words which reveal his bias and/or personal opinions. He also uses a lot of questionable first-source documents and rehashed secondary sources. While I enjoyed his breadth and depth, his accuracy really concerns me. I really couldn't give this more than two stars...especially in light of the new book by Turley et al.
January 28, 2012
This was the second Will Bagley book I read, right after So Rugged and Mountainous. I've known about the Mountain Meadows massacre for years due to the places I've lived and worked, but details have always been sketchy. This is exhaustively researched and for me it was fascinating. The various roles, players, and motivations are catalogued with precision and Bagley stacks facts to allow the reader to reach his own conclusion. I will re-read this.
December 10, 2017
This book is well deserving of the "classic" moniker. This is easily the best treatise on the Mountain Meadows Massacre that I've read to date.
I was especially impressed with Bagley's prose in this work. I've always admired his research and scholarship skills, but the riveting prose kept me engaged from cover to cover.
I expect to be coming back and drinking from this well, again and again, going forward.
I was especially impressed with Bagley's prose in this work. I've always admired his research and scholarship skills, but the riveting prose kept me engaged from cover to cover.
I expect to be coming back and drinking from this well, again and again, going forward.
May 6, 2025
Will Bagley, raised as a Mormon, arrived at adulthood saying he never believed the theology since he was old enough to think about it. He considered himself a heritage Mormon. After college, he worked as a laborer, carpenter, cabinet maker and country musician. A little less than a decade later, he gave up music and hard labor. He took a writing position at a computer graphics firm. Ten or more years later, he started his career as a professional historian, writing more than twenty books. Blood of the Prophets is one of them.
Bagley starts by informing us the first reliable report of the murder at Mountain Meadows did not reach the American public until almost two years after the event. News spread all the way to California and back across the Missouri River, but much of it could not be believed and was not reliable. Still, the news scandalized the nation for decades. The hideous truth of this American drama remained elusive.
Bagley promises to answer the most frequently asked questions about Mountain Meadows: What did Brigham Young know, and when did he know it? Most Federal Officers were convinced the Mormon prophet, who was also Utah Territory’s governor and Indian superintendent, explicitly ordered the massacre. But, the historical record for this crime was riddled with contradictory sources and outright lies. The men who investigated the crime failed to produce enough evidence to bring President Young to trial.
The LDS Church made a concerted effort to eliminate any mention of the massacre in its own history, At least one librarian openly admitted to deliberately purging documents with controversial passages before publication. “I never allow anything into print that I think will be injurious to my church.” Much of the Mountain Meadows history has been destroyed.
Piecing events together: The group started out with two hundred and forty persons known as the Baker / Fancher Wagon Train. The families split up from time to time so the number in the party varied. Who was responsible for these murders? Did the prophet, Brigham Young, order the massacre as federal officers were convinced he did? What caused such animosity?
The area known as Mountain Meadows had been known to the Southern Paiutes for six hundred years. Time passed swiftly and powerful bands of Utes preyed on the Paiutes, stealing their children and selling them as slaves. By the mid-nineteenth century, the meadow had become a place of rest for those on their way to and from California gold fields.
Then came the Saints. They entered the Great Salt Lake Valley in July of 1847 and, as the years passed, built town after town in southern Utah. These whites liked to think they shared the blood of Israel with the red men who they called Lamanites (characters from Book of Mormon stories). They gained great favor with the Paiutes when they stopped the theft of their children. Still, the white man’s need for land, water, and grass seemed without end.
In September of 1857, the Fancher party stopped at Mountain Meadows to rest and consider their situation. They had stopped at a nearby farmhouse and were informed orders were to give no supplies to the travelers. The train’s supplies were insufficient to face their long trek west. They drove their cattle, around eight hundred head, into an appropriate place in the meadow and began to set-up camp for the night.
Bagley states the Paiutes joined the “Mormonees” in this ritual of blood and vengeance on the fateful day of the September 7, 1857. It was close to dawn on Monday when officers of the Utah Territorial Militia led warriors and men disguised as Indians on an attack on the Fancher train.
There were five days of shooting. On Friday, the fifth day, after receiving a promise of protection from the Paiutes, the remaining Fancher party surrendered their arms to the Mormons. The elders divided the party into three groups. The infants and wounded were loaded into a wagon, the women walked behind, and the men were ordered to lag even farther behind Seventeen children under the age of eight years were spared so as not to shed innocent blood, or because the elders felt sure they would not have memories to share with others.
The men who carried the weapons and fired the shots became known as the Mountain Meadows Dogs. They had taken oaths of silence, and held their tongues for a time, but eventually details, some true and others not, surfaced. After twenty years of off-and-on hiding in the mountains or in Mexico, one person paid the price for the crime.
John D. Lee placed his empty coffin on a spot of ground near where the tragedy took place and sat in front of it. He boldly waited until the impact of the executioner’s bullet pushed his lifeless body into the wooden box. Men were standing by with shovels in hand.
John D. Lee had a family who loved him. He was, basically, a good man. He had been excommunicated from the church he served and loved for so many decades. This, for the family that remained, was a hurtful thing. In April, 1961, Lee was absolved of any guilt and readmitted in good standing with the church.
Wil Bagley, as always, did an excellent job of telling this so, so sad story in a way that is easy to read. He was a really great researcher and writer. I was truly saddened when I leaned he has left this earth. I'm so glad he left so much writing behind. He is missed.
Bagley starts by informing us the first reliable report of the murder at Mountain Meadows did not reach the American public until almost two years after the event. News spread all the way to California and back across the Missouri River, but much of it could not be believed and was not reliable. Still, the news scandalized the nation for decades. The hideous truth of this American drama remained elusive.
Bagley promises to answer the most frequently asked questions about Mountain Meadows: What did Brigham Young know, and when did he know it? Most Federal Officers were convinced the Mormon prophet, who was also Utah Territory’s governor and Indian superintendent, explicitly ordered the massacre. But, the historical record for this crime was riddled with contradictory sources and outright lies. The men who investigated the crime failed to produce enough evidence to bring President Young to trial.
The LDS Church made a concerted effort to eliminate any mention of the massacre in its own history, At least one librarian openly admitted to deliberately purging documents with controversial passages before publication. “I never allow anything into print that I think will be injurious to my church.” Much of the Mountain Meadows history has been destroyed.
Piecing events together: The group started out with two hundred and forty persons known as the Baker / Fancher Wagon Train. The families split up from time to time so the number in the party varied. Who was responsible for these murders? Did the prophet, Brigham Young, order the massacre as federal officers were convinced he did? What caused such animosity?
The area known as Mountain Meadows had been known to the Southern Paiutes for six hundred years. Time passed swiftly and powerful bands of Utes preyed on the Paiutes, stealing their children and selling them as slaves. By the mid-nineteenth century, the meadow had become a place of rest for those on their way to and from California gold fields.
Then came the Saints. They entered the Great Salt Lake Valley in July of 1847 and, as the years passed, built town after town in southern Utah. These whites liked to think they shared the blood of Israel with the red men who they called Lamanites (characters from Book of Mormon stories). They gained great favor with the Paiutes when they stopped the theft of their children. Still, the white man’s need for land, water, and grass seemed without end.
In September of 1857, the Fancher party stopped at Mountain Meadows to rest and consider their situation. They had stopped at a nearby farmhouse and were informed orders were to give no supplies to the travelers. The train’s supplies were insufficient to face their long trek west. They drove their cattle, around eight hundred head, into an appropriate place in the meadow and began to set-up camp for the night.
Bagley states the Paiutes joined the “Mormonees” in this ritual of blood and vengeance on the fateful day of the September 7, 1857. It was close to dawn on Monday when officers of the Utah Territorial Militia led warriors and men disguised as Indians on an attack on the Fancher train.
There were five days of shooting. On Friday, the fifth day, after receiving a promise of protection from the Paiutes, the remaining Fancher party surrendered their arms to the Mormons. The elders divided the party into three groups. The infants and wounded were loaded into a wagon, the women walked behind, and the men were ordered to lag even farther behind Seventeen children under the age of eight years were spared so as not to shed innocent blood, or because the elders felt sure they would not have memories to share with others.
The men who carried the weapons and fired the shots became known as the Mountain Meadows Dogs. They had taken oaths of silence, and held their tongues for a time, but eventually details, some true and others not, surfaced. After twenty years of off-and-on hiding in the mountains or in Mexico, one person paid the price for the crime.
John D. Lee placed his empty coffin on a spot of ground near where the tragedy took place and sat in front of it. He boldly waited until the impact of the executioner’s bullet pushed his lifeless body into the wooden box. Men were standing by with shovels in hand.
John D. Lee had a family who loved him. He was, basically, a good man. He had been excommunicated from the church he served and loved for so many decades. This, for the family that remained, was a hurtful thing. In April, 1961, Lee was absolved of any guilt and readmitted in good standing with the church.
Wil Bagley, as always, did an excellent job of telling this so, so sad story in a way that is easy to read. He was a really great researcher and writer. I was truly saddened when I leaned he has left this earth. I'm so glad he left so much writing behind. He is missed.
November 27, 2017
Very interesting book. There is definitely a lot more to this story than I had ever known before. It gives you a lot to think about.
February 19, 2018
Super Interesting ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fascinating & important book ... if at all interested in this time period & topic ... learned lots, more than expected 😢
Fascinating & important book ... if at all interested in this time period & topic ... learned lots, more than expected 😢
December 13, 2021
I could only give this book a three but to many mormon members they would give it a higher mark . As a past Mormon member i found this book very disturbing as it shot so many holes into the beliefs that we were taught as young members of the church. The hate and anger and murders that was done in the name of god took all my feelings of the church to death. Brigham Young to me was a truant who had power and wheeled it to gain wealth not only power over the members that suffered such great loses, but he took women for his wives with out caring how family etc felt. He had a death group that wielded his power. I bought this book because i wanted to learn more about the massacre of mountain meadows , but what i learned of the mormon death squad and the Brigham Young , changed all that i had held dear to my heart. they should have been held responsible for all the death of men, women and children that they massacred . Members were brainwashed beyond poor while those that worshiped and followed Brigham Young were keep on higher standard. But on the good side this book held alot of genealogy for those who lost their families in the massacre. He fought against the U.S government and wanted a land of his own with his determined rights and rules separate from he supreme courts and president of the U.S. but used his reasoning for the power of revelation from god. It was taught the Indians were of the descendants of Israel and it was important to collect them into the gathering. Even then they took away the natives best hunting and farming land and left so many in poorer conditions. Even my gg grandfather who was one of the immigrants to the end of his life left the mormon church.
October 15, 2021
Wow. This story is shocking; but very enlightening. I just closed probate in Cache County, Logan, Utah for my dear mother. She wasn't from Utah and had never lived in Utah before being taken to Utah by her estranged adult daughter. My mother died in Logan, Utah a year later. RIP Mom. This book describing the false foundation of the LDS church, and the bad behaviors of Mormons show me just how little has changed. It's still a cesspool of liars and connivers who ignore the rule of law. I've never seen anything like it in my life and I've lived a lot of places, and abroad. My mother's legacy and her uncontested will was disrespected and dishonored. Mr. Bagley, RIP, does a magnificent job in describing a story that's factual, noting where disputes remain. Brigham Young was a conniving bastard and the murderers who posed as indians, I hope they're in the hottest hell...still. It's a horror story from start to finish. That's my experience with present day, 2021, Utah too. The whole lot of them are miscreants, still. I just ordered Juanita Brooks book to further my education. I highly recommend this book.
November 18, 2020
This book is fascinating in terms of all the wealth of contextual information you gain about what was going on at that time period (early Utah history, early Mormon history, Utah war, pre-railroad travel, US history, Native American history, etc.). I had never understood how such a massacre could take place. Since reading it, I can understand why it happened, even though of course it can never, ever be justified. It is heart-wrenching and devastating as you read about the horrific massacre that took place and how it affected those involved, particularly the little children. It is incredibly well-researched and the author takes care to ensure you know what information is backed up, what should be questioned, etc. I highly recommend this to everyone.
November 5, 2018
I usually don't stop reading a book. I tried really hard for 200 pages, but it is so pedantic and repetitive that I could not take it anymore. Stopped reading. Didn't finish. Though I would ultimately prefer to review books I finished, my inability to force myself to finish puts this as a solid 2 at this time... if I ever brave it again, I will adjust accordingly...
On the good side, there are a lot of meetings, journals, conversations, etc. documented. I just found I didn't care to hear it repeat over and over and over again. I would have loved to see the story pulled together in a succinct account that was closer to 200 pages.
On the good side, there are a lot of meetings, journals, conversations, etc. documented. I just found I didn't care to hear it repeat over and over and over again. I would have loved to see the story pulled together in a succinct account that was closer to 200 pages.
December 14, 2024
“After the massacre, when the surviving children made it clear that Mormons had orchestrated the murders and events outran his ability to control the situation, Brigham Young resolved to shield the perpetrators from justice. As governor and superintendent of Indian affairs for Utah Territory, it was his duty to protect American citizens and prosecute their murderers. Claiming that Brigham Young had nothing to do with Mountain Meadows is akin to arguing that Abraham Lincoln had nothing to do with the Civil War.”
December 14, 2020
I give it three starts because while it is a thorough investigation into Mountain Meadows, it is limited to the facts. Except for one allusion to Nixon, it doesn't push beyond the facts to ask the bigger questions. Mountain Meadows, and the years of obfuscation and scapegoating are unique in the particulars, but not much else. I would have liked more exploration of what this tells us about religious movements in general. Overall, good though, I recommend.
October 14, 2024
When I first read this book several years ago, it was considered one of the go-to sources on the Mountain Meadows Massacre, a horrifying (albeit
underemphasized) event in the history of the American West. Since its publication, though, new sources have surpassed it. Nevertheless, it's still a fascinating read, and I continue to recommend it to those who study Mormon history and the history of the American West.
underemphasized) event in the history of the American West. Since its publication, though, new sources have surpassed it. Nevertheless, it's still a fascinating read, and I continue to recommend it to those who study Mormon history and the history of the American West.
September 11, 2020
My mom is from Southern Utah and I remember attending the unveiling of the LDS Church's memorial marker. The stories I was told as a child regarding this atrocity were very different from what I learned in this book. About 1/3rd of the book is dedicated to talking about the LDS Church's attempts at flushing this down the memory hole. Great book that really brings this atrocity to life.
May 15, 2022
Very readable, comprehensive and best modern book on the subject. No agenda other than the truth. The Morman religion-- as it was then practiced -- encouraged, carried out, and then covered up an atrocity and then blamed indigenous people and the victims for it (and many of its members still do). Disheartening.
June 11, 2023
I lost steam on this one! After spending weeks immersed in the Donner Party saga -- which is a relatively "contained" story -- there was far too much (unfamiliar-to-me Mormon) history for me to wrap my head around. The book is good enough, but I just don't feel like I have enough background to engage meaningfully with the material!
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