The Mormon Mountain Meadows Massacre

Nearly everyone who has read western history knows something about the Mountain Meadows massacre, which took place in southern Utah in September 7-11^th, 1857. Most of the facts connected with that episode have long since been made public. However, a diary in 1920 was discovered which sheds some new light on the affair, and is particularly interesting to readers of this novel. It shows that except for the treachery of a Mormon guide, that a company of Texans would have rescued unfortunate party of emigrants.

On the trail to California, and only a short distance behind the Arkansas party, was a company of Texans. Unfortunately we know very little about them. The only record available is the “Diary of Captain John I. Ginn.” Captain Ginn, then a young man, was on his way to California, and bought passage with a company of refugees from Utah, passing through the Mountain Meadows three weeks after the massacre, before any of the bodies had been buried. In his diary he says that this company of Texans, who were mostly frontiersmen, passed through (Zion) Salt Lake City only a few days after the Mountain Meadows company, and were hurrying to join them before they left the settlements of Utah and entered the Nevada desert. It may be that they suspected treachery, and hoped to strengthen the other party, which contained many women and children.

At any rate, the Texans started south, traveling rapidly. At Fillmore, they were induced to hire a Mormon guide, Jacob Hamblin, who knew all the trails, and who also knew what was to take place at the Mountain Meadows. It was a mistake-a fatal mistake for the Arkansas emigrants. Instead of following the well-known trail, Hamblin guided these Texans around the scene of the massacre, down Black Canyon, a very difficult trail over which no wagons had previously passed. As near as can be determined the Texans passed south of Cedar City on the very day the massacre took place at the Mountain Meadows.

After getting out of Black Canyon, the Texans hurried on, hoping each day to meet with the Arkansas company. Hamblin left them after his mission had been performed. When they again struck the main trail south of the Meadows they found that no wagons had passed recently. They presumed that the Arkansas Company had stopped to recruit their oxen some-where along the road, and would overtake them in a few days. They continued on until they reached San Bernardino, California, the end of the emigrant trail, where they waited two weeks for the Arkansas Company to arrive. When nothing was heard of them, the Texans organized a scouting party of eleven men to return over the trail and find out what had become of their friends.

This party of eleven men Texans rode east into Nevada, until they met the little company with which Captain Ginn was traveling. Ginn told them of the horrible sights he had seen at Mountain Meadows, and that the entire company had been wiped out. With such small numbers there was nothing the Texans could do but turn back with the sad news.

Retribution would have been visited on them before their bloody hands were dry. The sly Mormon guide knew what might happen, and so guided them away from the bloody ground. If they had disregarded his advice and used their own judgment, the blackest deed in American history might have been avoided.

Mormon records are absolutely silent on this Texas Party. The Texans passed through Salt Lake City after the Arkansans, when Mormon feeling against outsiders was at high pitch, yet they were not molested in any way. They spurned the idea of obtaining Brigham Young's permission to pass through the territory, and the Mormon cowards, who did not dare face armed men, let them pass without molestation. With all odds in their favor, the Mormons were afraid of the handful of Texans.

The great pity is that these resolute, fighting Texans did not reach' Mountain Meadows in time. If they had, they would have changed the history of Utah, and the Mormon Church would not now be trying to live down and forget the bloodiest episode in western history.

For all its worth, Captain Ginn goes into tremendous detail regarding this horrible tragedy. You will read what Captain Ginn personally witnessed and what he was told by key Mormon leaders at the time. (A fascinating read.)