A huge loss.


https://www.sltrib.com/news/2021/09/29/will-bagley-utah/

For those paywalled out, he is the brother of editorial cartoonist Pat Bailey, and wrote a definitive work on the history of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. He passed away, I’m guessing unexpectedly, of a stroke at age 71.

That is probably the best book on MMM. Brooks's was more revolutionary, but Will had more resources and took the time to nail down a lot of the open questions. Moreover, his judgment was excellent.

He must have been a fine man.

I'm reading his book now. It's brilliant. RIP.

Google “Truth about Trek with Will Bagley.”

There’s a bit of a long introduction, but once Will Bagley gets to the stand, it’s fascinating.

(Tom, it’s in you inbox.)

Thanks :-)

And Don Bagley was a frequent poster here. I've seen him occasionally, once not that long ago.

Condolences, Don.

I enjoy Don's contributions too. If I remember correctly, he described himself as distantly related to Will and Pat.

Truly sad. Great historian. I met him a couple times maybe 15-20 years ago when I was doing some work on the Oregon Trail. He was a great guy.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !

I've spoken with Will on several occasions. He can't be dead !

Oh, no …..

So sorry about Will. In his book about MMM I learned about how one of my family (1st cousin, 3x removed) was involved. And another ancestor worked on the cover up.

I had a chance to hear him speak about Devil's Gate a long time ago. I wish I'd had a chance to get to know him personally. There are a lot of questions I have and would loved to talk about them with him. This is one of the disadvantages of moving away from Utah and staying away as much as I can.

Beyond "Blood of the Prophets", Will's book, "Innocent Blood: Essential Narratives of the Mountain Meadows Massacre" is a more complete accounting and includes all the pertinent documents, allowing the reader to come to their own conclusions about who was responsible. It's pretty clear.

"Innocent Blood" is part of a 12 book series, "Kingdom in the West." Another volume from that series is "The Whites Want Every Thing: Indian-Mormon Relations, 1847–1877"

It is well worth a google search for any podcasts in which Will speaks about Western history, Brigham Young, Devil's Gate, and other events from early Mormonism.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/30/2021 09:59AM by auntsukey.

I’m so sorry to hear this. Blood of the Prophets was a page turner for me. Condolences to his family.

My condolences to Will's loved ones.

As others have noted, "Blood of the Prophets" is an excellent work, and I enjoyed it.

His and Juanita Brooks research into the Mountain Meadows Massacre was amazeballs! They laid open the seething pustulous sore that was Brigham Young and the early Saints in Utah. I have a copy of his book "Blood of the Prophets" sitting next to my chair in the living room. I read it, at least, twice a year. What a huge loss for everyone influenced by him.

Condolences Pat if you are on here...


HH =-(

Sorry for the horrible news, Don. :(

In the brief conversation I had with Will I told him how excited I was to hear Pat speak. He remarked, "Well, he's better-lookin' but I'm smarter!" Or maybe it was the other way around.

This is why I'm a thread killer. I usually read the threads days or weeks after they have petered out. That being said, . . .

I'm sorry about the passing of Will Bagley. Not having met or read his works, I have read Don Bagley's comments on RfM and some of his stories. I've also read many of Pat Bagley's cartoons in the Salt Lake Tribune before they instituted the paywall.

Therefore, I googled "Will Bagley" and "twelve book series", and found on Abebooks,"Kingdom in the West: The Mormons and the American Frontier (16 volumes), by Will Bagley, David L. Bigler, et al."

You won't believe the price. I'll bet it's worth every penny. Go look it up.