History Of The Grave Sites:
1857: The Arkansas Emigrants buried the bodies of ten men killed during the five-day siege somewhere within the circled wagons of the encampment located west of the current (1999) monument in the valley.
1859: Brevet Major James H. Carleton, commanding some eighty soldiers of the First Dragoons from Fort Tejon, California, gathered scattered bones representing the partial remains of thirty-six of the emigrants, interred them near the wagon camp, and erected a stone cairn at the site. The stone cairn was topped with a cedar cross and a small granite marker was set against the north side of the cairn and dated 20 May 1859. (Before Carleton�s arrival, Captains Reuben T. Campbell and Charles Brewer along with 207 men from Camp Floyd, Utah, collected and buried the remains of twenty-six emigrants in three different graves on the west side of the California Road about one and one-half miles north of the original encampment. Brewer reported that �the remains of [an additional] 18 were buried in one grave, 12 in another and 6 in another.� Most of the Arkansas Emigrants died at various locations northeast of the 1859 memorial.)
1932: The Utah Trails and Landmarks Association built a protective stone wall around the 1859 grave site in September 1932, and installed a bronze marker. This Association�s president was George Albert Smith of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and later President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
1999: Under the direction of President Gordon B. Hinckley and with the cooperation of the Mountain Meadows Association and others, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints replaced the 1932 wall and installed the present Grave Site Memorial.
On August 3rd, 1999, workers excavating for the wall around the new monument accidently uncovered the 1859 Carleton grave. On September 10th, 1999, the remains recovered from that grave were re-interred in a burial vault inside the new wall, during a private ceremony.
The monument was dedicated the following day, September 11, 1999.
The victims: The names of the Arkansas Emigrants who died on September 11th, 1857, along with the names of the children who survived and were returned to their relatives in 1859, are engraved on the 1990 Monument.
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. - Plato