Everett Bassett: Discovering human remains at Mountain Meadows (S2 E1 - Part 2)

**Brad Westwood** (0:09)
Welcome to the podcast Speak Your Piece. This is a podcast about Utah's history, produced by the Utah Department of Heritage and Arts. I'm Brad Westwood, Senior Public Historian. My job is to make the very best, the most interesting, the most accurate history accessible to the widest audience.
In our last session, we were speaking to historical archaeologist Everett Bassett, and we've come back to talk more about the subject of the Mountain Meadow Massacre.
Everett, you were talking, and I sadly had to cut you off, but let's pick it up related to the Army and just how their records and how they approached. You had found the road, something had been disputed. Quickly for our audience, tell us how you did that, and let's pick up the story from there.

**Everett Bassett** (1:00)
Well, one thing I did was I started off by identifying areas where a wagon in the 1850s would not have traveled. And so it limited the area where the road was likely was. And then I went and I used drones and I used aerial photography to identify what we call traces, evidence of very low swales in the soil. And these are best seen very early in the morning. And very in the dusk and dawn. It provides shadows.
And you might find a piece that might go for 350 yards and then you lose it for a while. But eventually you can pretty much tie it together. And what I found was very interesting was the creek that runs through the meadows, which is called Magotsu Creek. The upper portion of that creek, running north from the attack site to where we eventually found the mass burial, was actually the down-cut 1829 Spanish Trail.
So the road had all these cattle coming through, had worn it down, these big storms that I recorded coming over from California, had washed it through.

**Brad Westwood** (2:32)
The water following the cut-ups or the tear down of the landscape, and eventually they become little riverlets.

**Everett Bassett** (2:44)
Exactly. And it was actually in this ravine, which was the abandoned portion of the old Spanish Trail, is where these graves were actually placed.
And a newer road had been built, when I say new, I'm talking it was probably built in 1847 as a wagon road.
And it was used by the Army battalion. But it was, you know, it was, you know, 50 yards away. It was just up the valley a little bit. And so I was able to map that. And I was able to determine, based on some of the historic records, that this was the likely location where they had gone. Now, I then you...

**Brad Westwood** (3:29)
No, I was going to ask you about the Army.
Army always has regulations and process for everything. Tell us, is that part of the story you're going to tell about how the Army's instructions as to how to build Tumulai? Does that come into the picture?

**Everett Bassett** (3:45)
Yeah, well, they... The historic records, and then using the roads together, I was able to identify where I believed these mass graves were. And the first time I walked to where the men and boys' grave was, I thought, would be, I couldn't find it, because I was looking around for a can. And I realized I was actually standing on this large mound of rock in the ravine.
And I sat down, and I actually had a drink of water, and I realized there was something curious about this mound of rock. So I went down underneath, and I realized that it was destructive. It was a rectangular box, 12 foot by 8 foot by 4 foot.

**Brad Westwood** (4:35)
It wasn't organically developed.

**Everett Bassett** (4:37)
No, it was not organic.
And I've worked in that area long enough to realize that there were a lot of things that wasn't. It wasn't a house foundation, it wasn't a police support, it wasn't a check dam. And so, you know, I suddenly said, well, this is where it should be. This must be it. This must be the low mound of stone that Surgeon Brewer had identified. And then when I went and looked for the northern one, I found one that was almost identical. So I know they had been built by groups that had the same instruction.
They were where they should be. They were adjacent to the road.

**Brad Westwood** (5:25)
Two different groups that were doing this, and you're saying they both followed the same Army regulation as far as how they were built.

**Everett Bassett** (5:33)
Well, they were different groups of soldiers under the command of Captain Campbell. So I'm sure he said, well, I want you to build this here. And then he took another group of soldiers and I said, I want you to build this and I want you to collect all the bones and put it in them. And what these graves are, is they are classic double walled, New England stone wall.