Historian surveying kin of Mtn. Meadows victims

ST. GEORGE — A family historian is surveying descendants of those killed in the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre with the hope of finding common ground, something that has been missing among the hundreds who claim ancestry to the slain emigrants.

Lynn-Marie Fancher, an indirect descendant of a massacre victim, hopes her survey will focus the "vast diversity of views and interpretations regarding the status of the meadows."

Questions and concerns regarding the site's status have grown the past 15 years as the number of visitors to the rolling valley just off U-18 in Washington County has increased.

A dirt and gravel road leads to a graded parking lot and a paved walkway. It wends through native brush and willow trees, ending at a memorial built by the LDS Church and dedicated in 1999 to replace a poorly constructed one built in 1990.

A key question and likely the most emotionally charged issue facing descendants is not knowing the burial site for about 90 of the 120 slain emigrants. Of the 148 members with the Fancher/Baker wagon train, only 17 children under the age of 8 survived the attack.

Descendants know many of the victims were hastily buried and that some of their remains were scattered by wolves and then reburied. It's the location of these burial plots, somewhere in the meadow, that eludes the hundreds of descendants and others who continue research on the tragedy.

Although scientists had used ground-penetrating radar to scan for remains, excavation for the new monument unearthed bones of some victims, shocking everyone involved and raising concerns about disturbing any more ground. The remains were quickly reburied under the rock cairn after preliminary forensic studies were conducted, which raised even more questions about the proper burial location for the victims.

Since then descendants have questioned the radar search results, which Fancher said are controversial and could have falsely identified or missed other burial spots in the meadows.

The survey should help identify what kind of further scientific research descendants think should be conducted at the site before any more pathways, memorials or other commemorative work is approved, she said.

A related question for groups of the victims' descendants — whose total membership is about 400 — is how to address the fact that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owns the land where some of the victims are buried and memorialized. Mormon militiamen were blamed for the killings, and the only man ever tried and executed for his part in the massacre, John D. Lee , was an adopted son of early church President Brigham Young.