In Part Two of “The Summer of Conspiracy,” we follow Apostle George A. Smith on his fateful southern tour, an incendiary road trip of sermons, war councils, and covert diplomacy that would ignite the powder keg of Mountain Meadows. As Smith carries Brigham Young’s orders through the frontier, we trace how military drills, apocalyptic sermons, and weaponized theology reshaped sleepy settlements into outposts of militant zeal. This episode exposes the eerie choreography between church and militia, the manipulation of Native leaders, and the tragic collision of fear, prophecy, and power. As Southern Utah braces for war, we ask: when do prophetic warnings become self-fulfilling violence? And who bears the weight of what comes next?
SHOWNOTES:
- Massacre at Mountain Meadows by Richard Turley and Glen Leonard
- The Mountain Meadows Massacre by Juanita Brooks
- Blood of the Prophets.; Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows by Will Bagley
- American Massacre.; The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857 by Sally Denton
- Historical Topography: A New Look at Old Sites on Mountain Meadows
- Vengeance is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath by Richard Turley and Barbara Jones Brown
- Mountain Meadows Massacre: The Andrew Jenson and David H. Morris Collection by Richard Turley and Ronald Walker
- The Mountain Meadows Massacre.; A Special Report by J.H. Carleton, Bvt. Major U.S.A. Captain 1st Dragoons 1859 by J. H. Carelton
- BYU Studies, 2008. Paperback. special issue–“Mountain Meadows Massacre Documents”–includes excerpts from Andrew Jenson and David Morris collections.
- Brigham Young: American Moses by Leonard Arrington
- Emma Lee by Juanita Brooks
- Useful to the Church and Kingdom: The Journals of James H. Martineau, Pioneer and Patriarch, 1850-1918, vol. 2
- Mormonism Unveiled or The Life and Confessions of the late Mormon Bishop John D. Lee
- John D. Lee: Zealot – Pioneer Builder – Scapegoat by Juanita Brooks
- The Aiken Party Executions and the Utah War, 1857-1858 by David L. Bigler
- Problems with Mountain Meadows Massacre Sources by Richard E. Turley Jr.
- The Earliest Written Account of the Mountain Meadows Massacre?by Connell O’Donovan
- To Feed a Tree in Zion: Osteological Analysis of the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre by Shannon A. Novak and Derinna Kopp