There’s a true story behind American Primeval—and it’s just as grisly

A tense frontier. A brutal mass killing. Netflix’s newest hit miniseries, American Primeval, portrays life and grisly death in 1850s Utah—a gritty look at the Mountain Meadows Massacre, a sordid act of mass violence that led to 120 deaths on the western frontier in 1857.

The show’s portrayal of the massacre is hair-raising—but the reality was even worse. The culmination of a decade of tension and mutual suspicion between Mormon pioneers and the United States government, the Mountain Meadows Massacre took place during the Utah War—a conflict some refer to as the nation’s first civil war.

Here’s what led to the horrific violence, and why the clash is still remembered today.

Tensions between Mormon pioneers and the U.S. government

Pioneers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints—a religious movement commonly known as Mormonism—first came to Utah in 1847 in search of freedom to practice their religion. Hostility had long beset the sect, and the Mormons had fled New York, Missouri, and Illinois. Joseph Smith, the religion’s founder, had been murdered by an anti-Mormon mob in Illinois in 1844. Now Brigham Young, the new Mormon leader, led his followers further into the frontier.

Their destination was Utah Territory, land the U.S. acquired from Mexico and Texas after the Mexican-American War. But though LDS members attempted to found their own state there—the proposed “State of Deseret”—the federal government rejected their attempt at self-government. Instead, it established the Utah Territory with Young as its first governor.

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The move should have brought stability, but relations soured during the 1850s. The territory was beset with challenges stemming from its relative lack of infrastructure, mistrust between white settlers and Native American residents, and religious clashes. The bombastic Young was suspicious of what he saw as federal interference in Mormon affairs. And when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints revealed that it accepted polygamy—an explosive social and religious issue—controversy about Mormon rule in Utah grew nationwide.

The Utah War begins

In 1857 newly elected President James Buchanan began planning Young’s ouster. As national newspapers continued to report on the Mormons’ unconventional beliefs and theocratic territorial government, Buchanan and his cabinet declared Utah “in rebellion” and made plans for a large Army expedition to oust Young.

News of the coming offensive put Young and his followers on the defensive. Certain his sect was being persecuted, Young declared martial law in August 1857, and the territorial militia began preparing to clash with federal troops.

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Young had leverage in his tussle with the federal government: Utah was a vital stop on the overland route West. As emigrants headed westward, their parties coalesced and formed large groups known as wagon trains—and their paths usually took them through Utah Territory.

Fiery national rhetoric against Mormonism had stoked fears among LDS members that they would yet again be ousted from their homes. In response, they became antagonistic to outside wagon trains and restricted trading to within their religious community. The Utah Territory was now on high alert, its Mormon residents ready for all-out war.

The Baker-Fancher Party arrives in Utah

The stage was set for a dramatic clash between federal troops and Young’s territorial militia—when a large wagon train from Arkansas rolled through Utah Territory in August 1857.  

Now known as the Baker-Fancher party, the group was headed for California along the very trail the Latter-Day Saints expected federal troops to use to invade. Upon their arrival in Utah Territory, members of the mostly-Methodist wagon train party clashed with LDS locals, taunting their religious beliefs and arguing with them over their unwillingness to barter for necessary supplies.

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When the Baker-Fancher party began encountering embattled Mormon settlers near Cedar City, clashes soon ensued. The result was a “pressure cooker” pitting wagon train leader Alexander Fancher against local militia leaders like John D. Lee and Cedar City mayor Isaac Haight, historians Sarah Barringer Gordon and Jan Ships wrote in a 2017 paper.

Frustrated with what they saw as insults to their marriages, their homes, and their way of life, a group of Cedar City men led by Lee and Haight decided to teach the emigrants a lesson. They enlisted a group of local Paiute people to participate, with the goal of making the incident look like an Indian raid instead of an outrage by Mormon locals.

The Mountain Meadows Massacre

In September 1857, the militiamen and their Paiute helpers launched an attack on the Baker-Fancher party. The emigrants circled their wagons during a four-day siege. Then, on September 11, militiamen offered the remaining wagon train members safe passage through Utah if they put down their arms. When some complied, the militiamen began shooting.

Few were spared.

“Some of the young women begged the assassins…not to kill them,” recalled Nancy S. Cates, one of the survivors, in 1875. “But they had no mercy on them, clubbing [them with] their guns and beating out their brains.” One hundred and twenty people were slaughtered in total; the only survivors were young children, most of whom were later adopted by locals.

After the massacre, its perpetrators covered up the evidence. Only one conspirator, Lee, was ever prosecuted. He first blamed the Paiutes, then claimed the militia had ordered him to kill the settlers. He even implied that the massacre was the work of Brigham Young himself. In March 1877, two decades after the crime, he was executed by firing squad on the site where the massacre took place.

As it turned out, the Utah War didn’t last long. Young stood down as governor in 1858, allowing an army garrison in Utah Territory, and Mormons who had fled their homes in fear of a federal siege returned. Utah became a U.S. state in 1896.

The Utah War is now remembered as a “costly, disruptive, and unnecessary confrontation,” writes historian Richard D. Poll—but historians still argue about the Mountain Meadows Massacre’s role in the conflict.

What really happened near Cedar City that day in 1857—and was the brutality condoned or even planned by Mormon leaders? Was Mountain Meadows a brutal anomaly or proof of the danger of theocracy and religious intolerance? Given the lack of evidence, those questions may never be answered—but the memory of the massacre has yet to fade.