The
1990 Monument, located on Dan
Sill
Hill, overlooks the site of
the Massacre in the Mountain
Meadows Valley, in southern Utah.
It was the first memorial to be
built on the Massacre site.
This memorial
lists the
names of the Arkansas
Emigrants who died there on
September 11th, 1857,
along with the
names of the children who
survived and were returned to
their relatives in 1859.
The new granite monument was dedicated on September 15, 1990.
One of the speakers at the
Monument dedication, at Southern Utah State College in Cedar City,
Utah, was Judge Roger V. Logan, Jr.,
of Harrison, Arkansas, a descendant of more than 20 of the Massacre
victims: "There is now an appropriate monument standing in the place of
the emigrants' demise; a monument containing the names of eighty-two
persons who died and seventeen who survived and also contains reference to
many others who may have been a part of the caravan." As he read the
victims' names, he asked all related to them to stand in their honor.
1990 Dedication Ceremonies Program
Brigham Young University President Rex E. Lee, a descendant of John D.
Lee, spoke at the memorial service, saying "Any attempt to recreate
the human dynamics that were at work in southern Utah in the fall of 1857
can only leave us bewildered as to how rational human beings at any time,
in any place, under any circumstances, could have permitted such a tragedy
to occur."
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Mountain Meadows Valley
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The Monument is located off of Utah Highway 18 between
St. George and Enterprise. This area
was once a part of the
Old Spanish Trail and the California
Road.