Landmark application progressing for massacre site

A historian says the LDS Church is working diligently on an application to secure National

Historic Landmark status for Mountain Meadows, the southern Utah site

of a pioneer wagon-train massacre.National Park Service staff

has given positive feedback on the proposal, said Richard Turley,

assistant church historian for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day

Saints.\"We're very optimistic about getting National Historic

Landmark status. We haven't had anybody so far tell us, 'No way,'\"

Turley said. \"Most people have said this sounds like a promising thing.\"On

Sept. 11, 1857, 120 men, women and children from the Baker-Fancher

wagon train were attacked and murdered at Mountain Meadows by Cedar

City-area Mormon and militia leaders. The Arkansas-based travelers were

bound for California when their stopover in the meadows turned deadly.For

decades the church downplayed its role in the killings, laying

the blame on nearby American Indians and angering descendants of the 17

young children who survived the attack.The 2,500-acre Mountain

Meadows site is already on the National Register of Historic Places.The grassy valley includes several mass grave sites and two monuments.

A rock cairn marks the spot where the siege erupted, and a memorial

wall inscribed with the names of the dead overlooks the valley.Most of

the land is owned by the church, although some is federal forest land

and a few parcels are privately owned.Nearly a decade ago, some

descendants began pushing for landmark status, believing that the site

should not be controlled by the church. Landmark status would guarantee