From Deseret News archives:
Mountain Meadows: Church asked to turn over site, take names off records
Church asked to turn over site, take names off record
When three separate groups gather in southern Utah next weekend to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, it won't be a simple case of the living honoring the dead.
Two groups that include descendants of Mountain Meadows victims and survivors want The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to allow either federal control or a private trusteeship of the site about 35 miles northwest of St. George. One is seeking to have the church remove from LDS baptismal rolls the names of all wagon train victims and survivors.
And a third group said they simply are seeking to perpetuate a spirit of love and forgiveness.
While the LDS Church will be there to honor the memory of those who died, church historian Elder Marlin K. Jensen said the church has no plans to relinquish control of the site, where it owns about 125 acres, despite the anticipated requests.
He told the Deseret Morning News the church already has "indicated we're not interested in doing that, that we've owned much of the property for many years."
At that so-called upper grave site, the church is working in cooperation with the three descendant groups to "provide parking and a walkway to the actual site where the grave apparently existed, along with some type of memorial structure. We've sought to preserve it and to provide an appropriate memorial for those who were killed there," Elder Jensen said. "We'll keep that commitment into the future and attempt to do it in a cooperative way with the three interested organizations.
"I don't think our position on that will change."
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