Mountain Meadows
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WHITE MEN AND INDIANS. ALL BUT 17, BEING SMALL CHILDREN, WERE KILLED. JOHN D. LEE,6 WHO CONFESSED PARTICIPATION AS LEADER, WAS LEGALLY EXECUTED HERE MARCH 23, 1877. MOST OF THE EMIGRANTS WERE BURIED IN THEIR OWN DEFENSE PITS. THIS MONUMENT WAS REVERENTLY DEDICATED SEPTEMBER 10, 1932 BY THE PIONEER TRAILS AND LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION AND THE PEOPLE OF SOUTHERN UTAH
That was 35 years ago. Now the wall is crumbling and cracking, the land surrounding it is more bleak and barren than ever, and the road to it is almost impassable. Yet here lie the remains of 120 American citizens. Such other spots are suitably preserved, as witness the site of the Donner tragedy. Does not this one deserve better treatment — some trees and greenery about it, an access road and path so that the hundreds of citizens who visit here annually would not find this dismal sight? Would not it be in the best American tradition that this site on the Spanish Trail be given the dignity and continuity of some suitable recognition? 6 F o r the biography of the only m a n executed for the M o u n t a i n Meadows Massacre see J u a n i t a Brooks, John Doyle Lee, Zealot-Pioneer Builder-Scapegoat (Glendale, 1961).
Mountain Meadows Burial Detachment, 1859: TOMMY GORDON'S DIARY BY A. F . CARDON
T
he spring following the Mountain Meadows Massacre saw Albert Sidney Johnston's army march through Salt Lake City and establish M r . C a r d o n , the son of " T o m m y G o r d o n , " has previously contributed articles to t h e Quarterly. H e is a retired government employee living presently in Los Altos, California.
