Cedar City was the last major settlement where emigrants could stop to buy grain and supplies before a long stretch of wilderness leading to California . When the Baker-Fancher train arrived there , however , they were turned a cold shoulder once again ; important goods were not available in the town store , and the local miller charged an exorbitant price for grinding grain . As tension between the Mormons and the emigrants mounted , a member of the Baker-Fancher train was said to have bragged how he had the very gun that " shot the guts out of Old Joe Smith " . Other members of the party reportedly bragged about taking part in the Haun 's Mill massacre some decades before in Missouri . Others were reported by Mormons to have threatened to join the incoming federal troops , or join troops from California , and march against the Mormons . According to one witness , the captain of the emigrant train , Alexander Fancher , rebuked these men on the spot for their inflammatory language against the Mormons
Haun 's Mill massacre
Haun's Mill massacre
Conspiracy and siege of the Mountain Meadows massacre