Mountain Meadows Massacre – The Journey

Mountain Meadows Massacre – The Journey. . Modern historical research has yielded information which was not readily available to those who designed the 1955 monument. Here is presented updated information and a modified more accurate map of the emigrants' route. Dedicated 2020., In April 1857, a California-bound wagon train was formed from people who lived in the area now included in Boone, Carroll, Marion, Benton, and Johnson counties, Arkansas. [The train or caravan has been called various names: Baker-Fancher Train; Fancher-Baker Train; Fancher Train or Baker Train. All these names refer to the same caravan/train.] The train was first known as the Baker Train and later as the Fancher Train. A number of people gathered on Crooked Creek south of Harrison on and/or near lands owned by John T. Baker. He got a group of his relatives, acquaintances, and others to go. He took 138 head of “fine stock cattle,” nine yoke of oxen, two mules, one mare, one large ox wagon, guns, saddles, bridles, camp equipment and provisions for himself and five workhands. Three of his adult children went with him, along with some grandchildren. His wife Mary and other children remained in Arkansas, planning to go west later if things went well in California., It appears that there were agreements for some other groups to join the caravan en route along the trail. Captain Alexander Fancher, from Benton County, Arkansas, had previously lived in Carroll County and had many family ties there. Tradition suggests that Alexander, like John T. Baker, recruited family members, neighbors and perhaps others to go west with the caravan in 1857. Fancher was said to have taken his wife and nine children, six yoke of oxen, eight mules, three horses, four wagons, and as many as 200 head of cattle. Fancher had military experience and had spent time in California. Some of the emigrants met at Grand Saline in the Indian Territory., At the difficult and sad journey's end at Mountain Meadows, the approximately 147 emigrants had about 35 wagons, several hundred head of cattle, and many mules, horses and oxen. U.S. Senator James H. Berry was a teenager in 1857 living in Carroll County when the wagon train formed. Of the emigrants Berry said: “…They consisted of the best citizens in that country. It was a large train. It excited large interest throughout the section of the country from which they went. …”, People who traveled part way with the emigrants gave information that places the route west through Washington County, Arkansas. Then they traveled generally along the “Cherokee Trail” through Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado, thence to Fort Bridger, Wyoming, and on to Salt Lake City. From Salt Lake City the emigrants took the southern route that took them to Mountain Meadows., [Captions] , . (Left) Most emigrant wagons in this caravan were pulled by oxen. Photo courtesy of Scott's Bluff National Monument, Nebraska. , . (Right) Approximate route of Arkansas emigrants April to September 1857. Background map (excerpt from “Republics of North America” by A.J. Johnson, New York, 1859) courtesy David Rumsey Map Collection.