The site Enterprise
A National Historic Landmark, free to visit, and a grave
Mountain Meadows, and the markers that took 150 years to say it.
About ten miles south of Enterprise on SR-18 is the site of the September 1857 massacre. Four memorial locations, no visitor centre, and a marker history that is a subject in itself. Here is what is there and how to be there.
Start here
A burial site off a highway, ten miles south of town.
Mountain Meadows sits off State Route 18 about ten to eleven miles south of Enterprise and roughly four and a half miles north of Central. On 11 September 1857, about 120 emigrants travelling from Arkansas toward California, the Baker and Fancher wagon train, were killed here. Seventeen children, all of them young, were spared. It is one of the worst things that has ever happened in this state, and the ground is a grave.
This page exists because anyone reading about Enterprise will encounter the site, and because a place like this deserves better than either a tourist listing or an awkward silence. It is free to visit, it has no visitor centre, and it does not need a plan beyond respect.
The federal government designated the meadows a National Historic Landmark in 2011. The ground is owned partly by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has bought hundreds of acres over the years to preserve the valley, and partly by the Forest Service.
The site, at a glance
1857
11 September
~120
emigrants killed
17
children spared
2011
designated a National Historic Landmark
The markers, and what they left out for 150 years
It took until 2011 for a marker here to say who did it.
The history of the memorials at Mountain Meadows is a subject in its own right, and it is the part of this site most worth understanding before you stand in it. A United States Army party built a cairn with a wooden cross over the graves in 1859. A plaque placed in 1932 attributed the killings to a single settler and to Paiute tribal members. In 1990, descendants of victims and of perpetrators came together for the first time and added a memorial wall carrying the names of the dead. In 1999 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints added a memorial at the rebuilt gravesite cairn.
None of those markers said plainly who carried out the killings. That changed from 2011, when the Church, working with descendant organisations from both sides, began installing more than twenty new markers across the site. Their language is direct. One reads that the lives of the emigrant men and boys were taken prematurely and wrongly by Mormon militiamen.
It took a hundred and fifty years to get a sentence like that onto a sign in this valley. Knowing that is part of reading the place honestly, and it is why the site today has interpretive panels rather than a single monument.
| Year | What was added | What it said about responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| 1859 | A cairn and wooden cross, built by a U.S. Army party | Nothing |
| 1932 | A plaque | Blamed one settler and Paiute tribal members |
| 1990 | A memorial wall with the names of the dead | Nothing |
| 1999 | A memorial at the rebuilt gravesite cairn | Nothing |
| 2011 onward | More than twenty markers and interpretive panels | Names Mormon militiamen directly |
The site is now organised around four main parking areas with interpretive panels, walking paths, separate monuments for the men and boys and for the women and children, and panels about individual members of the wagon train and the seventeen surviving children.
The part that has been told wrong the longest
Blame was shifted onto Southern Paiutes, and it stuck for generations.
For most of the twentieth century the standard local account of what happened here placed a large share of the responsibility on Southern Paiutes. The 1932 plaque said so in stone. The historical record now indicates that settlers deliberately involved some Paiutes and then shifted the blame onto them afterwards, and that the attribution stuck long enough to shape how Native people in this corner of the state were spoken about for generations.
This page is not going to adjudicate the parts historians still argue over, and there are several. What it will do is state that the version most people in this valley grew up with was wrong in a specific and consequential way, and that the correction is recent enough that plenty of published material still carries the old framing.
If you read anything about this site, read the newest markers on the ground and the current scholarship rather than an older roadside summary. The difference between them is not a matter of tone.
A great deal of older published material about this site is wrong about who was responsible. Roadside summaries, older guidebooks and the 1932 plaque itself attribute the killings in ways the historical record does not support. The markers installed from 2011, developed with descendant organisations, are the plainest statement available on the ground.
How to actually visit
Four places, not one, and none of them takes long.
The overlook is the usual first stop: a turning off SR-18 signed on the west side, about four and a half miles north of Central, climbing to a parking area on Dan Sill Hill. A short trail leads from there to a memorial wall with the names of the dead cut into granite, and a view over the valley floor where the wagon train was camped.
The gravesite memorial is down on the valley floor, reached by a separate forest road, and it is the rebuilt cairn with the 1999 memorial at it. Beyond those two there are further monuments at the places associated with the men and older boys and with the women, children and wounded, along with interpretive panels about individual members of the party and about the seventeen children who survived.
The whole visit can be twenty minutes or an afternoon. The roads are forest roads and can be poor in winter and after storms. There are no facilities of any kind, and there is nowhere nearby to get anything, so treat it as a stop on the way between Enterprise and St. George rather than a destination with services attached.
It is ten miles from a farm town where people are getting on with their week. That ordinariness is part of what makes standing here difficult, and it is the right reason to stop.
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Read the pageQuick answers
The site, answered.
Off State Route 18 in far northwestern Washington County, about ten to eleven miles south of Enterprise and roughly four and a half miles north of Central. The overlook turning is signed on the west side of the highway and climbs to a parking area on Dan Sill Hill.
On 11 September 1857, about 120 emigrants travelling from Arkansas toward California, known as the Baker and Fancher wagon train, were killed here. Seventeen children, all of them young, were spared. John D. Lee was later convicted for his part in it and was executed by firing squad at the site on 28 March 1877.
Yes, and it is free. There are four main parking areas with interpretive panels and walking paths, including the overlook and memorial wall on Dan Sill Hill and the gravesite memorial on the valley floor. There is no visitor centre, no water and no facilities, and it is a burial site rather than an attraction.
Several, across four main locations. The overlook carries a memorial wall with the names of the dead cut into granite. The valley floor holds the rebuilt cairn and the 1999 memorial. There are separate monuments associated with the men and older boys and with the women, children and wounded, plus interpretive panels about individual members of the party and the seventeen surviving children.
It is owned partly by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has purchased hundreds of acres over the years to preserve the valley, and partly by the United States Forest Service. The federal government designated the site a National Historic Landmark in 2011.
That question is a large part of the site's own history. A U.S. Army party built a cairn in 1859 that said nothing. A plaque placed in 1932 attributed the killings to a single settler and to Paiute tribal members. The 1990 memorial wall listed the victims without naming anyone responsible, and so did the 1999 memorial. Markers installed from 2011, developed with descendant organisations, name Mormon militiamen directly.
The historical record indicates that settlers deliberately involved some Southern Paiutes and then shifted the blame onto them afterwards, and that the attribution stuck long enough to shape how Native people in this part of the state were spoken about for generations. A great deal of older published material still carries the wrong framing.
Anything from twenty minutes to an afternoon. The overlook alone is a short walk from its parking area. Visiting the gravesite memorial as well means a separate drive on a forest road, and reading the interpretive panels properly takes longer than most people expect.
Usually, but they are forest roads rather than highway. They can be poor in winter and after storms, and there is no maintenance schedule you can plan around. Check conditions in the cold months, and be aware that there are no services of any kind at the site.
History out here is closer to the surface than most places let it be.
Enterprise is ten miles from this valley and gets on with its week, and that ordinariness is part of what southern Utah actually is. If you want the honest version of what living out here involves, that is the conversation I am useful for.