Blood of the Prophets

Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows

Will Bagley

Spur Award, from Western Writers of America
Caughey Book Prize, from Western History Association
Caroline Bancroft History Prize, from Denver Public Library
Co-Founders Best Book Award, from Westerners International

Narrated by Charles Henderson Norman

Available from Audible

Book published by University of Oklahoma Press

The massacre at Mountain Meadows on September 11, 1857, was the single most violent attack on a wagon train in the thirty-year history of the Oregon and California trails. Yet it has been all but forgotten. Will Bagley’s Blood of the Prophets is an award-winning, riveting account of the attack on the Baker-Fancher wagon train by Mormons in the local militia and a few Paiute Indians. Based on extensive investigation of the events surrounding the murder of over 120 men, women, and children, and  drawing from a wealth of primary sources, Bagley explains how the murders occurred, reveals the involvement of territorial governor Brigham Young, and explores the subsequent suppression and distortion of events related to the massacre by the Mormon Church and others.

REVIEWS:

“An exhaustive, meticulously documented, highly readable history.”

—The New York Review of Books

“While the word ‘definitive’ is often overused, this account of the killings merits that distinction. Bagley’s book ranks as a Mormon historical classic.”

—Brigham D. Madsen, Western Historical Quarterly

“A reflective and well-researched history of Mormonism’s darkest hour.”

—Publishers Weekly

“A new standard work on the massacre.”

—Library Journal

“A major contribution to western American history.”

—Robert M. Utley