Here Is Where: Discovering America's Great Forgotten History

by Andrew Carroll

September 11, as the Arkansans were being escorted out of the valley by militia members, the commanding officers yelled to their men, “Do your duty!” Hearing the prearranged signal, the Mormons suddenly raised their rifles and began shooting the unarmed Arkansans where they stood, sparing only eighteen infants and children considered too young to be witnesses. (After leaving the parents’ bodies to rot, the Mormons took the children home to raise as their own. When the Arkansans’ remains were found two years later by U.S. Army investigators, most of the children were located and returned to relatives.) None of the Mormon militia members were punished except Colonel John Lee, who was excommunicated from the church, tried by an all-Mormon jury, and sentenced to death. Under Utah territorial law, Lee could choose whether he wanted to be hanged, beheaded, or shot, and he chose the last. Authorities brought him back to Mountain Meadows, where he was placed before a firing squad and executed. According to my contact at the Caldwell County sheriff’s office, a historical marker once stood at Haun’s Mill describing in detail what had occurred here, but it was repeatedly defaced and then stolen. And that one was the replacement for another sign that had also been vandalized. “Ancestors of the militiamen still live around there,” I was told. “It’s not a proud moment in local history, and the signs kept getting torn down.” Which is a pity because remembering places like Haun’s Mill and...