Mountain Meadows And Poisoned Springs "Anthrax Theory"

[kolipoki09]

For the greater part of a decade, a number of scholars of Mormon history have speculated that the incidents of poisoned watering holes surrounding the Cedar City area in 1857 were likely caused by naturally-occurring anthrax spores. The symptoms of sick cattle following the Fancher train's arrival in the area caused early settlers to suspect that the wagon train had been deliberately poisoned the springs. However, later research tossed out that hypothesis in favor of the anthrax theory, primarily because the symptoms exhibited in the sick cattle reflected the symptoms of anthrax poisoning instead.

Ugo Perego and several others have recently published a study on this topic that may be of interest to several posters here.

Among other things, Perego et al find that while the historical descriptions of the medical symptoms do point toward the anthrax hypothesis, they cannot confirm it do to the fact that they were unable to find any anthrax spores at the sites believed to have been poisoned.

The following article was published yesterday in the International Journal of Legal Medicine.

The Mountain Meadows Massacre and “poisoned springs”: scientific testing of the more recent, anthrax theory

[Scott Lloyd]

For the greater part of a decade, a number of scholars of Mormon history have speculated that the incidents of poisoned watering holes surrounding the Cedar City area in 1857 were likely caused by naturally-occurring anthrax spores. The symptoms of sick cattle following the Fancher train's arrival in the area caused early settlers to suspect that the wagon train had been deliberately poisoned the springs. However, later research tossed out that hypothesis in favor of the anthrax theory, primarily because the symptoms exhibited in the sick cattle reflected the symptoms of anthrax poisoning instead.

Ugo Perego and several others have recently published a study on this topic that may be of interest to several posters here.

Among other things, Perego et al find that while the historical descriptions of the medical symptoms do point toward the anthrax hypothesis, they cannot confirm it do to the fact that they were unable to find any anthrax spores at the sites believed to have been poisoned.

The following article was published yesterday in the International Journal of Legal Medicine.

The Mountain Meadows Massacre and “poisoned springs”: scientific testing of the more recent, anthrax theory

I don't have time at the moment to wade through a scholarly article, so I will just ask the question: Did Perego et al look just for anthrax, or did they check for other cattle diseases as well? It is apparent from the abstract that they limited their focus to anthrax.

As I recall, Richard Turley and his fellow authors in Massacre at Mountain Meadows suggested that the cause could have been anthrax or a disease with similar symptoms.

[kolipoki09]

I don't have time at the moment to wade through a scholarly article, so I will just ask the question: Did Perego et al look just for anthrax, or did they check for other cattle diseases as well? It is apparent from the abstract that they limited their focus to anthrax.

Perego went off of the Massacre at Mountain Meadows hypothesis that anthrax was the cause of the sick cattle and the death of 14-year-old Proctor Hancock Robison. From the information provided in the study, it appears that they were looking specifically for anthrax spores and weren't testing for other possible causes of death.

As I recall, Richard Turley and his fellow authors in Massacre at Mountain Meadows suggested that the cause could have been anthrax or a disease with similar symptoms.

You're correct. Turley is actually given credit in the article's acknowledgements for providing historical background for the massacre as well as other resources. It was actually Turley's idea to test out the hypothesis in the first place.

As mentioned before, though the lack of anthrax spores doesn't confirm Turley's hypothesis, historical narratives describing the symptoms certainly lend credence to it. Isolating 150-year-old anthrax spores is difficult for several reasons, and Perego notes that it may be entirely possible that there are still spores in Robison's gravesite in regions that weren't sampled for testing. Perego collected 65 samples on the regions believed to have the highest likelihood of anthrax spores, which included the soil surrounding the skull, upper torso, and pelvis, but came away empty-handed. It's also possible that they did find anthrax spores, but their concentration was small enough that they couldn't be detected using Perego's techniques.

I hope that answers your questions Scott.

[mbh26]

When I spoke with descendants of John Lee, they said that John Lee believed the Indians poisoned the water. Is there any truth in that?

[CA Steve]

Not to poison the well but how does one poison a spring? Wouldn't moving water make that difficult and temporary?

[ERayR]

Not to poison the well but how does one poison a spring? Wouldn't moving water make that difficult and temporary?

The spring itself would probably be difficult but the water pond around it would be much easier to poison.

[kolipoki09]

When I spoke with descendants of John Lee, they said that John Lee believed the Indians poisoned the water. Is there any truth in that?

It's unlikely. I don't know that Lee himself recorded it anywhere, but then again, I'm not very familiar with Lee's accounts beyond what has been alluded to by Bagley, Turley, and Brooks.

[Bob Crockett]

The very first press reports of the massacre, which were reported by a Los Angeles correspondent to the Alta Californian, reported the general consensus that the Fancher train put poison in a carcass of an ox and threw it in the local spring.

http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/CA/misccal1.htm

Will Bagley claims these stories were made up long after the fact but this October 1857 press account puts the lie to that claim.

Here is a portion of that account:

Yet this is the story told by all who have spoken of the massacre. It is stated, the emigrants had an ox which died, and they placed poison in the body and also poisoned the water standing in pools, for the purpose of killing the Indians; that several of the tribe had died from this cause, and that the whole force mustered, pursued the train, and coming up with them at the above named place, which favored their purpose, attacked and murdered the whole party, except a few infant children.

This could of course be the biggest lie on the planet and part of the grand conspiracy, but it was reported by non-Mormon emigrants to California.