I was under the impression 47:2 was the beginning of the documents. Christopher wrote above that “affidavits and interviews” would be in 47:2 and I figured that was from the Jensen papers after reading the book. I wonder what other interviews and affidavits will be in this BYU Studies. Sorry I misunderstood.

Thanks for your update. This is troubling!

I was under the impression, not because of comments here but direct communication with BYU Studies, that BYU Studies 47:2 was at the printers/binders over two weeks ago.

As a general question, when something is at the printers/binders I thought a book was close to being available. I was really looking forward to seeing these documents since I am so close to the end of MatMM.

Again, thanks for the update Ben.

A couple questions about the Haight talk. I have tried to find the Brooks quote of the talk in “MMM” and have been unable to find it in the 1st edition. I don’t have the second edition, is this where the quote is found?

Besides the Palmer letter you quote, is there any more detail about the talk in “Massacre at Mountain Meadows”. You wrote above that Brooks got it “second hand” and did not see this in church archives. I am confused by this. Could you elaborate?

I am sorry that this does not relate directly to the BYU Studies volume. I had no other way of asking J. these questions. If it is best, you can contact me privately at rbssman “at” gmail “DOT” com. Thanks in advance.

I agree this is great news. I am older than most of you and to read of what is happening with the publishing of these documents is quite incredible. I went through the period where the access to church archives was all but shut down. It did not last long in hindsight, but at the time it was scary because no one knew how long the policy would last. I think the church deserves a great deal of the credit for this openness.

When these two documentary books are available we will then be able to judge there importance. If history repeats itself and they are anything like Dean Jesse’s “Joseph Smith Papers” or “Letters of Brigham Young to His Sons”, or the “McLellan Journals” by Un of Ill/BYU Studies we are all in for a magnificent treat.

What is even more remarkable is that Will Bagley and David Bigler’s “Innocent Blood” is supposed to be available in October. In theory we could be overwhelmed in documents about this “awful tale of blood”.

Thanks J. for the information about the Cedar ward records. I think it is quite sad that the documents are lost. Even with all this forthcoming material I have to wonder what people were/are trying to hide. I am not suggesting the church or the archives is hiding something. I am suggesting the participants and the people who destroyed or suppressed these lost documents were/are trying to hide something. I think they were/are successful. It begs the question of who knew what and did what. It also causes me to conclude that questions will continue to dominate the discussion. I am not naive and realize history is not a complete picture, but these missing documents make large gaps.