| We come to this hallowed place, |
| To honor those who went before; |
| They were the pioneers of our race |
| and creators of our family lore. |
| Cattle, gold and earthly life, |
| gone with the blink of an eye; |
| Entire families brutally slain, |
| amid the sound of the orphan cry. |
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| From Spadra Landing and Beller Spring |
| The wagons headed West; |
| To seek new homes and better lives |
| and then they stopped to rest. |
| This quiet meadow in Utah |
| seemed the perfect place; |
| But evil walked this sacred ground |
| to shame the human race. |
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| Do your duty was the cry |
| of sixty fiends from hell; |
| They not only did their grisly task, |
| they did it oh so well. |
| Leaving seventeen sobbing orphans |
| too young to tell the tale; |
| What can we do as descendants |
| to make it all seem well? |
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| Bodies were stripped of clothes and gold |
| And left scattered across the plain; |
| Wolves and ravens did their part |
| to desecrate those from the train. |
| For 18 months they were treated |
| Like garbage tossed to the wind; |
| A Christian burial denied them |
| without presence of kith or kin. |
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| Major Carleton came to bury the dead |
| And construct a Christian cross |
| He investigated the cause of death |
| And reported on the loss. |
| Justice almost came here |
| With a man named Cradlebaugh; |
| But the politics in Salt Lake |
| Forced him to withdraw. |
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| There is the story of the orphans |
| Stuck in the killer's lair |
| Waiting for Dr. Forney and Captain Lynch |
| To end their long despair |
| Old Jim Lynch found them |
| And brought them across the plains |
| To join their loving relatives |
| All casualties of the wagon train. |
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| I heard the story long, long ago |
| as I sat at Grandma's knee; |
| She shared her frontier philosophy |
| of “what is to be will be.” |
| Grandma spoke of Colonel William Dame |
| And a Bishop named Isaac Haight |
| She recalled the name of John D. Lee |
| And how he met his fate. |
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| The human remains we honor today |
| Have been ravaged by nature and man; |
| Their grave torn down in 1861 |
| on the order of an upturned hand. |
| Magotsu Creek also took it's toll |
| When it washed the grave away; |
| A backhoe incident in recent years |
| was a further price to pay. |
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| Many things remain undone |
| the full story must be told; |
| Its time to step up to the plate |
| and with the truth be bold. |
| We all know who did the awful deed |
| and where the gold and cattle went; |
| Making it part of a history class |
| is time much better spent. |
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| What was done so many years ago |
| should now be left behind; |
| What lies ahead for these tortured souls |
| should be the challenge for our minds. |
| Each of us has a viewpoint |
| of where we need to go; |
| It is time to reach consensus, |
| our dead would want it so. |
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