Its September 11th, 2007 and the remembrance of 911 dominates the news.  So you decide to go for a short motorcycle ride.  A leisurely trip up Utah's Highway 18 from Saint George takes you past the spectacular Anasazi sandstone cliffs of Snow Canyon to the west.   As you climb higher onto the Colorado Plateau, you wind past the 25 Million year old Veyo cinder cone shadowing the sleepy town of Veyo just a mile to the north.  It is here you pass the Old Spanish Trail where hundreds of wagon trains crossed with their passengers, weary from the distances they've traveled over the previous months from states such as Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas.

Driving further north, you pass Pine Valley Mountain, towering over 10,000 feet, with the cool shade of its trees visible from the scorching Mojave Desert far to the southwest.  Winding past the mountain, you pass the road to Pinto, a gravel road to the east leading to a small ghost town between Cedar City and Mountain Meadows.  Mountain Meadows... is now just a few miles away, just to the west of the highway, an inviting meadow for a wagon train, with grass for grazing livestock and a place to replenish water and dispatch for supplies in Cedar City to the east.

As you drive nearer, you see a small road sign announcing "Mountain Meadows Memorial 1/2 Mile".  At first you think, what a beautiful place and it is.  On your first trip exploring Highway 18 north of Saint George, you may pass it by, just enjoying the view and the cooler air.  But its September 11th, and you have time.  As you pull in the parking area - surprisingly its filled - and with out-of-state license plates, you notice one has Arkansas tags, another and another, families walking quietly together up the path to the top of the hill carrying flowers...

THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE 

by Juanita A. Brooks 

Led by Captains John T. Baker and Alexander Fancher, a California-bound wagon train from Arkansas camped in this valley in the late summer of 1857 during the time of the so-called Utah War. In the early morning hours of September 7th, a party of local Mormon settlers and Indians attacked and laid siege to the encampment. For reasons not fully understood, a contingent of territorial militia joined the attackers. This Iron County Militia consisted of local Latter-day Saints (Mormons) acting on orders from their local religious leaders and military commanders headquartered thirty-five miles to the northeast in Cedar City.

Complex animosities and political issues intertwined with deep religious beliefs motivated the Mormons, but the exact causes and circumstances fostering the sad events that ensued over the next five days at Mountain Meadows still defy any clear or simple explanation.   During the siege, fifteen emigrant men were killed in the fighting or while trying to escape. Then late Friday afternoon, September 11th, the emigrants were persuaded to give up their weapons and leave their corralled wagons in exchange for a promise of safe passage to Cedar City.

Under heavy guard, they made their way out of the encirclement. When they were all out of the corral and some of them more than a mile up the valley, they were suddenly and without warning attacked by their supposed benefactors. The local Indians joined in the slaughter, and in a matter of minutes fourteen adult male emigrants, twelve women, and thirty-five children were struck down. Nine hired hands driving cattle were also killed along with at least thirty-five other unknown victims. At least 120 souls died in what became known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Seventeen children under the age of eight survived the ordeal and were eventually returned to Arkansas. One or more other children may have remained in Utah. - by Juanita A. Brooks

150 Years later and humbled by what you have witnessed, you get on the bike and slowly retrace the route home.  As you pass Veyo and the Old Spanish Trail crossing, Mountain Meadows calls back to you.... - Glenn Bonner

This handmade wreath was laid by the Baker family, 13 of the Bakers died that day, the oldest was 52, the youngest just 7.

The above marker, erected in 1932 was replaced by a more fitting Memorial above and was dedicated by LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley himself on September 11th, 1999. 

Here are some links with more information on Mountain Meadows.

Mountain Meadows Association

Ralph R. Rea's Mountain Meadows Story

Juanita A. Brooks, a local Saint George historian documented the massacre in her book - The Mountain Meadows Massacre