Two unsolved murders. One Black Mormon born into slavery. A doctor who challenged Brigham Young’s power. And a mutilated body left on Arsenal Hill with a warning pinned to its chest. In the winter of 1866, Salt Lake City became the scene of a story involving blood atonement, racial terror, vigilante violence, and a possible …
Tag: Benchmark Books
Episode 168: Guns Above Zion: Fort Douglas
Why did the U.S. Army build a fort above Salt Lake City with its guns pointed toward the Mormon capital? Lindsay Hansen Park and Bryan Buchanan trace the explosive history of Fort Douglas, from the Utah War and Brigham Young’s theocracy to Patrick Connor’s campaign to contain Mormon power, encourage mining, and remake the territory. …
Episode 167: Before They Were Famous: Orson Hyde
He dedicated Jerusalem for the return of the Jews, renamed Nevada’s oldest town, nearly became president of the LDS Church, and may have helped create one of Mormonism’s most enduring succession myths. This week, Lindsay Hansen Park and Bryan Buchanan trace the astonishing and contradictory life of Apostle Orson Hyde, from orphaned boy who walked …
Episode 165: The Peak of Mormon Polygamy
In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan dive into the 1860s, the decade when Mormon polygamy reached its statistical and cultural peak. Drawing on census data, diaries, oral histories, and the sharp observations of British explorer Richard Francis Burton, they examine how plural marriage became woven into Utah’s theology, politics, economics, and daily life. From Brigham …
Episode 164: Mormon Mail and the Pony Express
Before texts, tracking numbers, and two-day shipping, a letter could take months to cross the continent, assuming it arrived at all. In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan saddle up for the tangled story of Mormons, mail, freighting, and power in the American West, from Brigham Young’s ambitious Y.X. Company and the political chaos of the …
Episode 162: Madam Pattirini Built Utah
What do Brigham Young’s flamboyant son, a legendary local gin, the University of Utah, the Huntsman Center, and a web of Mormon architecture all have in common? In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan follow one gloriously weird thread through Utah history, from Madam Pattirini, the stage persona of Brigham Morris Young, to the family empire …
Episode 159: Books of the Massacre
A long overdue Books of Mormons Report, and we’re making it an episode. Lindsay and Bryan trace how the Mountain Meadows Massacre got written about, argued over, buried, resurrected, and fought over again, from Judge John Cradlebaugh and Major James Carleton’s early investigations, to decades of institutional silence and PR cleanup, to Juanita Brooks’ landmark …
Episode 152: FIELD TRIP: Coffin Canes
What do you get when you combine martyrdom, relic worship, secret reburials, and a healing cane made from a coffin? Mormon history at its weirdest and most fascinating. In this special on-site episode of the Sunstone Mormon History Podcast, Lindsay and Bryan take you on a field trip into the curious afterlife of Joseph Smith’s …
Episode 150: The Steptoe Expedition
In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan unravel the Steptoe Expedition, a moment of uneasy calm before the storm of the Utah War and Mountain Meadows Massacre. What began as a military survey spiraled into scandal, seduction, and cultural collision, as Lieutenant Sylvester Mowry set his sights on Mary Ann Ayers Young (Brigham’s daughter-in-law!) and ignited …
Episode 147: The Tragic Tale of Eleanor McLean
Before Mountain Meadows, there was blood in Arkansas. This is the wild, tragic, and shockingly true story of the Mormon apostle murdered over a love triangle, the woman caught in the crossfire, and the ripple effect that helped ignite one of the darkest moments in American frontier history. SHOWNOTES: Eleanor McLean and the Murder of …