Snow Canyon SP

We only drove something like 35 miles to get here. The park is on the outskirts of St George. The purpose of our stop here was so that we could see the Mountain Meadows Site. A group of California bound Arkansas settlers were besieged for several days by some members of a Mormon militia that were suspicious of them for some reason. The settlers were out of water and ammunition. They were approached by the militia leader carrying a white flag and they thought they were negotiating a surrender. They were divided into 3 groups, men, women and children and marched off in 3 different directions where they were summarily killed. The only people not murdered were children younger than 7. About 130 people were killed and left to rot where they fell. 7 young children were placed with Mormon families. This all occurred in 1857. It wasn't until 1859 that the US Army buried the victims scattered, scavenged remains. That large rock pile is where their remains are buried. 17 years later a grand jury indicted 9 Mormon militiamen for crimes related to the massacre. They all disappeared except for John D. Lee. In 1877 he was brought to the Mountain Meadows site and executed by firing squad. There's much more to this story, all of it awful, except that the children were eventually returned to relatives in Arkansas. We move north tomorrow.