ORIGINAL STONE CAIRN AT THE MOUNTAIN
MEADOWS MASSACRE SITE
Erected 20 May 1859
From the
Special Report On The Mountain Meadow
Massacre, by Brevet
Major J. H. Carleton,
May
25, 1859"
"On the
20th instant, I took a wagon and a party of men and made a thorough search
for others amongst the sage bushes for at least a mile back from the road
that leads to Hamblin's house. Hamblin, himself, shewed Sergeant Fritz, of
my party, a spot on the right hand side of the road where he had partially
covered up a great many of the bones. These were collected, and a large
number of others on the left hand side of the road, up the slope of the
hill, and in the ravines and among the bushes. I gathered many of the
disjointed bones of thirty-four persons. The number could easily be told
by the number of pairs of shoulderblades, and by lower jaws, skulls, and
parts of skulls, etc., etc.
These, with the remains of
two others, gotten in a ravine to the east spring, where they had been
interred at but little depth, 34 in all, I buried in a grave on the northern
side of the ditch. Around and above this grave, I caused to be built of
loose granite stones, hauled from the neighboring hills, a rude monument,
conical in form and fifty feet in circumference at the base and twelve feet
in height.
This is surmounted by a cross, hewn from
red cedar wood, from the ground to the top of the cross is twenty-four feet.
On the transverse part of the cross, facing towards the north, is an
inscription carved deeply in the wood:
"Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."
And on a rude slab of granite, set in
the earth and leaning against the northern base of the monument, there are
cut the following words:
HERE 120 MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN
WERE MASSACRED IN COLD BLOOD,
EARLY IN SEPTEMBER, 1857
THEY WERE FROM ARKANSAS."
Circa 1899
Also see:
1932 Marker
1990 Monument
1999 Monument
