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Show WINTER 2013 UHQ pp 4-90_UHQ Stories/pp.4-68 12/5/12 9:38 AM Page 21 uTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETy THE POWELL SuRVEy As might be expected, the topic of the Second Powell Expedition, massacre came up almost as soon as the first encampment. Cañonita party reached Lonely Dell from the Dirty Devil. The night of their arrival, Lee confided in Dellenbaugh “his own version of the Mountain Meadows Massacre claiming that he really had nothing to do with it and had tried to stop it.”85 Whether Dellenbaugh believed Lee’s story at the time or not, he found that “personally,” Lee “was an agreeable man” and “pleasant enough.” Dellenbaugh felt “sure that, ordinarily he would have had no murderous intentions.” Although Powell’s men had no plans to apprehend the fugitive, “yet he sometimes thought we might be trying to capture him,” Dellenbaugh recalled.86 Powell and Lee crossed paths on August 13, 1872, just a mile out of Lonely Dell.87 Powell was heading for the survey’s camp at the mouth of the Paria. “‘Brother’ Lee invited the new-comers over to supper,” Clem wrote.88 The group enjoyed “wattermellons” selected by Lee and Powell and “a super of vegitables . . . with much applause to the donors.”89 Powell was in a hurry to complete the run of the Grand Canyon. On August 15, he sent Adair back to Kanab with the wagons. Thompson 85 Dellenbaugh, Canyon Voyage, 211. In fact, Lee’s role in the massacre was substantial. See Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr., and Glen M. Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows: An American Tragedy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 142–45, 148, 153–55, 157–59, 161–62, 168–73, 187–209. 86 Dellenbaugh, Romance of the Colorado, 138n1; Dellenbaugh to Kelly, in Crampton, “F. S. Dellenbaugh of the Colorado,” 235–36. 87 Mormon Chronicle, 2:207; “Photographed All the Best Scenery,” 132. 88 “Journal of W. C. Powell,” 436. 89 Mormon Chronicle, 2:208. 21 |
