Groups want church to back historic landmark status

MOUNTAIN MEADOWS, Washington County — Descendants of 120 people massacred at Mountain Meadows 150 years ago Tuesday publicly asked the LDS Church for its help in securing national historic landmark status at the site during a commemorative service held there.

Phil Bolinger, president of the Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation, presented Elder Henry B. Eyring of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Quorum of the Twelve with a letter he read from two U.S. senators from Arkansas — Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor — supporting the foundation's quest.

Bolinger also gave Elder Eyring a packet of additional support letters, which he said included requests from Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe and 55 members of the Arkansas State Legislature "requesting that the LDS Church cooperate in securing national historic landmark designation."

He said the packet also contained letters from descendants of more than 400 massacre victims, and a signed petition. Bolinger asked Elder Eyring to let LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley know that "his cooperation would truly help us close the book of the past and signal the beginning of the honest forgiveness we all seem to want."

Elder Eyring had earlier delivered a message expressing "profound regret" for the fact that local church leaders in Cedar City had planned the massacre and ordered LDS militiamen to participate in the slaughter of 120 unarmed men, women and children. He took the packet but did not offer any further remarks.

Harley Fancher, who is the secretary of MMMF, said he was disappointed "we didn't get the support of the church for the historical site designation and what I felt was a full apology rather than just a regret."

Fancher said he appreciates the church's efforts to help preserve the site but said his group will press on with efforts to make the Mountain Meadows Massacre ground a national historic landmark.

"The bottom line is, I have no animosity toward any Mormon," he said. "We're not anti-Mormon, we're pro-history, and we like the facts."

Patty Norris, who leads the Mountain Meadows Massacre Descendants group, said members voted Monday night to join the MMMF in its quest for a historic landmark designation. "We want to encourage the church to pursue this direction so the site will be protected forever. That's something we must be assured of."

Both Norris and Terry Fancher, president of the Mountain Meadows Association, told the Deseret Morning News following the ceremony that they took Elder Eyring's comments as an apology. "He was totally sincere," Norris said. "I believe it was an apology."

Fancher noted that Elder Eyring "was very emotional about it. I took it as an apology."