On this day, September 11, in 1857

A wagon train with 120 California bound settlers was massacred by a group of Mormons in the Utah Territory. The Mountain Meadows Massacre reflected the growing tensions between the Federal Government and the Mormons in Utah, who were determined to protect their declared theocracy. Mormon leaders decided to forbid unauthorized travel through Utah and when they got word of a wagon train in Utah they began devising their attack. They approached the Paiute Indians asking them to help “fight the Americans” and then dressed up as Native Americans in order to remove any suspicion of Mormon involvement in the massacre.