Conspiracy and Siege of The Mountain Meadows Massacre - The Emigrants

The Emigrants

The Arkansas emigrants, who were later attacked at Mountain Meadows, were traveling to California shortly before the Utah War began. After leaving Arkansas and traveling in several smaller groups these emigrants gathered together near Salt Lake City, Utah and became the Baker-Fancher party. As these emigrants were crossing into the Utah Territory, the Mormons throughout the Territory had been mustered to fight the advancing United States Army, which they believed was intent on destroying them as a people. It was during this period of tension that the Baker-Fancher party passed through the Utah Territory, and soon rumors among the Mormons linked the Baker-Fancher train with enemies who had participated in previous persecutions of Mormons along with more recent malicious acts.

After the party was organized they left Salt Lake City on or about August 5, 1857. As they passed through Utah, the emigrants were in need of supplies, but because of the possibility of war many Mormons refused to trade with them; this was one of several problems the emigrants would encounter. When passing through Provo, 40 miles south of Salt Lake City, the emigrants decided to stop and let their animals rest. An area just west of the town had been marked off, by the local settlers, as use for animal feed during the upcoming winter. The emigrants allowed their livestock to wander into this area, and after seeing this the local settlers asked the party to move on to another area a few miles to the west; even offering to help them move. One of the party's leaders refused saying "This is Uncle Sam's grass...We are staying right here.", so the settlers gave them the option of fighting or leaving; the party left. After camping the night, the Baker-Fancher party continued to pass through Utah over the next few weeks, arriving near Cedar City on Thursday, September 3, 1857.

Cedar City was the last major settlement where emigrants could stop to buy grain and supplies before a long stretch of wilderness leading to California. When the Baker-Fancher train arrived there, however, they were turned a cold shoulder once again; important goods were not available in the town store, and the local miller charged an exorbitant price for grinding grain. As tension between the Mormons and the emigrants mounted, a member of the Baker-Fancher train was said to have bragged how he had the very gun that "shot the guts out of Old Joe Smith". Other members of the party reportedly bragged about taking part in the Haun's Mill massacre some decades before in Missouri. Others were reported by Mormons to have threatened to join the incoming federal troops, or join troops from California, and march against the Mormons. According to one witness, the captain of the emigrant train, Alexander Fancher, rebuked these men on the spot for their inflammatory language against the Mormons.

After staying less than one hour in Cedar City, the emigrants passed over Leach's cutoff, passed the small town of Pinto and headed into Mountain Meadows. Here they stopped to rest and regroup their approximately 800 head of cattle.