Taming Needle Eye Mountain

Just down the road from Needle Eye is a historical marker so Scott and I took a break to check it out.

You can google to get the whole story but short of it, 120 Arkansans from this area headed west by wagon train and were killed in Utah in a massacre- men, women and children! They only spared children young enough to not be witnesses to the event. Their bodies were discovered 18 months later and they were buried together in a mass grave. Alpena put up a replica of the grave along with their story.

This is a memorial, a replica of their grave in Utah.

There was a “who done it” twist to this tragedy. Mormons blamed the Native Indians and vice versa. The Mormons did eventually claim responsibility to end the controversy.

Eventually the youngest children were returned to the area with relatives… can’t help but wonder what would have been if these Alpena natives had made it west.