Mountain Meadow or Mountain Meadows, is an area in present-day

Washington County, Utah Washington County is a county in the southwestern corner of Utah, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 180,279, making it the fifth-most populous county in Utah. Its county seat and largest city is St. Geor ...

. It was a place of rest and grazing used by pack trains and drovers, on the Old Spanish Trail and later

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into se ...

s, Forty-niners, mail riders, migrants and teamsters on the

Mormon Road Mormon Road, also known to the 49ers as the Southern Route, of the California Trail in the Western United States, was a seasonal wagon road pioneered by a Mormon party from Salt Lake City, Utah led by Jefferson Hunt, that followed the route of ...

on their way overland between Utah and

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

History

In 1856, Mormon settlers established Hamblin east of the head of

Holt Canyon Holt Canyon, originally called Meadow Canyon or Meadow Valley, is a valley in Washington County, Utah. Its mouth lies at an elevation of eaters where it enters the Escalante Valley. Its head lies at an elevation of 5,600 feet at west of the si ...

, originally called Meadow Canyon. Mountain Meadow is the location of the September 11, 1857

Mountain Meadows Massacre The Mountain Meadows Massacre (September 7–11, 1857) was a series of attacks during the Utah War that resulted in the mass murder of at least 120 members of the Baker–Fancher emigrant wagon train. The massacre occurred in the southern U ...

, marked by the Mountain Meadows Massacre Memorial, at . The children that survived the massacre were first taken in by families in Hamblin. Mountain Meadow was originally much larger, with better water and grazing than today, running 10 miles from Holt Canyon. at on the north, to the upper reach of Magotsu Creek to the south. It is located at , and . Its elevation lay at 5,869 feet / 1,789 meters.

Overgrazing Overgrazing occurs when plants are exposed to intensive grazing for extended periods of time, or without sufficient recovery periods. It can be caused by either livestock in poorly managed agricultural applications, game reserves, or nature res ...

of the meadows subsequently led to their erosion, and consequent lowering of the water table, drying up many of its springs and degrading of the meadow grasslands. This in turn led to the abandonment of the settlement of Hamblin by 1905.

References

Old Spanish Trail (trade route) Mormon Road National Register of Historic Places in Washington County, Utah Significant places in Mormonism Mountain Meadows Massacre National Historic Landmarks in Utah Geography of Washington County, Utah Meadows in the United States Conflict sites on National Register of Historic Places in Utah {{LDS-stub