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Will Bagley

March 04, 2023

William Grant Bagley (May 27, 1950 – September 28, 2021) was a historian specializing in the history of the Western United States and the American Old West. Bagley wrote about the fur trade, overland emigration, American Indians, military history, frontier violence, railroads, mining, and Utah and the Mormons.

Biography

William Grant Bagley was born to Lawrence Miles Bagley and Margene Bailey Bagley on May 27, 1950, in Salt Lake City, Utah. His ancestors came from England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden and Germany. He was a descendant of the fifth governor of Connecticut, John Webster. His paternal great grandfather was a Mormon pioneer from New Brunswick, Canada. From the age of nine he was raised in Oceanside, California, where his father was a long-serving mayor in the 1980s. His younger brother Pat Bagley became the notable Salt Lake Tribune editorial cartoonist[1] and they are the uncles of professional surfer Dusty Payne. Bagley attended Brigham Young University in 1967–68, and then he transferred to University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC), where he obtained his B.A. in History in 1971. At Santa Cruz Bagley studied writing with Page Stegner and history with John Dizikes. He graduated from UCSC between Richard White and Patricia Limerick, two of the leading lights of the "New Western History." While at UCSC he received the California State Scholar and President's Scholar awards.[citation needed] He considered an integral part of his education a trip he took in 1969, on a homemade raft built of framing lumber and barrels, down the Mississippi River from Rock Island, Illinois to New Orleans. After graduation he spent three years in North Carolina studying the local Bluegrass music and culture, and playing in bands.

After college, Bagley worked as a laborer, carpenter, cabinet maker, and country musician for more than a decade. In 1979 he founded Groundhog Records to release his long-playing record, "The Legend of Jesse James." In 1982 he abandoned music and hard labor to take a writing position at Evans & Sutherland, a pioneering computer graphics firm. He worked in various high-tech ventures until 1995, when he started his career as a professional historian. He wrote more than twenty books. In 2008 historian David Roberts dubbed him the "sharpest of all thorns in the side of the Mormon historical establishment."[2]

Although he was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), Bagley discontinued membership as an adult. He publicly stated that he "never believed the theology since [he] was old enough to think about it." However, he was friends with believers and considered himself a "heritage Mormon," valuing his pioneer lineage.[3]

In September 2014, the Utah State Historical Society granted Bagley its most prestigious honor as a Fellow, joining "the ranks of such luminaries as Dale Morgan, Wallace Stegner, Juanita Brooks, and Leonard Arrington.".[4] Western Writers of America gave Bagley its 2019 Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Contributions to Western Literature in 2019. He said it was "an expression of affection from my WWA friends that is appreciated and humbling, for it calls to mind the words 'I am not worthy!'"[5]

Bagley lived and worked in Salt Lake City, Utah, until his death in 2021.[6]

Publications

Bagley published extensively over the years and was still active at the time of his death. He was the author and editor of twenty books and of many articles and reviews in professional journals, such as the Western Historical Quarterly, Utah Historical Quarterly, Overland Journal, The Journal of Mormon History, and Montana The Magazine of Western History. His column, "History Matters", appeared every Sunday for four years (2000–2004) in The Salt Lake Tribune.[7]

Editorial work

He served as editor of News from the Plains, the newsletter of the Oregon-California Trails Association, for two years.[8] Continuing its hundred-year tradition of letting the people of the West recount their own history, in 1997 the Arthur H. Clark Company launched a new historical series, Kingdom in the West: The Mormons and the American Frontier. Bagley was editor of this projected 16-volume series.[9] The series presents essential source-documents that look at the West through Mormon eyes and the Mormons through Western eyes. Published volumes describe the Mexican–American War, the conquest of California and the gold rush, the Brigham Young pioneer party of 1847, European visitors to "Zion," Mormon polygamy, the Utah War, and the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Fifteen volumes have appeared, most recently Richard L. Saunders' Dale Morgan on the Mormons: Collected Works Part 2, 1949-1971 and William P. MacKinnon's At Sword's Point, Part 2: A Documentary History of the Utah War, 1858-1859.

Other significant volumes include Michael W. Homer's On the Way to Somewhere Else: European Sojourners in the Mormon West; B. Carmon Hardy's Doing the Works of Abraham: Mormon Polygamy, Its Origin, Practice, and Demise; Bagley and David L. Bigler's Innocent Blood: Essential Narratives of the Mountain Meadows Massacre; and Playing with Shadows: Voices of Dissent in the Mormon West, which Bagley edited with Polly Aird and Jeff Nichols.

Activity

As a member of the Utah Speakers Bureau, Will Bagley made dozens of presentations throughout the state.[citation needed] He gave academic papers at the annual conventions of the Western History Association, the Mormon History Association, Sunstone Magazine, the Oregon-California Trails Association, the Communal Studies Association, and the Center for Studies on New Religions.[10][better source needed] He participated in Claremont McKenna College's "The American West" lecture series.[citation needed] Bagley was a research associate at Yale University's Beinecke Library in 2000[3] and was the library's Archibald Hanna Jr. Fellow in American history in 2009. During the 2008 academic year, he and author Stephen Trimble served as Wallace Stegner Centennial Fellows at the University of Utah's Tanner Humanities Center. He worked as a historical consultant for National Geographic magazine,[11] the National Park Service,[11] the Wyoming State Historical Preservation Office,[citation needed] the Nevada Humanities Council,[citation needed] and for more than a dozen documentary films including A&E Television's Mountain Meadows Massacre and The Mormon Rebellion, and PBS's, The Mormons. He also worked on historical interpretive design for the Bureau of Land Management.[12]

Leadership

Will Bagley was a former member of the Board of Directors of the Utah Rivers Council,[13] Westerners International,[14] the Oregon-California Trails Association.[15] the Friends of the Marriott Library at the University of Utah[citation needed] and the Utah Westerners. He established The Prairie Dog Press in 1991 to publish A Road from El Dorado. The press eventually expanded into a consulting business that has handled book design and typesetting, publishing, historical research, and contract writing.[citation needed] The press has worked with the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Marriott Library, the History Channel, and PBS.[citation needed]

Blood of the Prophets

Bagley's book Blood of the Prophets deals with the Mountain Meadows massacre and won numerous awards, including a Spur from Western Writers of America and best-book awards from the Denver Public Library and the Western History Association. The New York Review of Books described the study as "an exhaustive, meticulously documented, highly readable history that captures the events and atmosphere that gave rise to the massacre, as well as its long, tortuous aftermath. Bagley has taken great care in negotiating the minefield presented by what remains of the historical record."[16]

According to Robert M. Utley, "[e]ver since 1857, the Mormon Church has vehemently exempted itself and Brigham Young from any complicity in this crime against humanity. Church-approved histories embrace this interpretation when they mention it at all. The official church historians and custodians of the massive church archives have carefully avoided the issue. Parts of the archives have been 'lost,' restricted, sanitized, and even manufactured. Mormon historians who probe beyond the prescribed limits face isolation at best, excommunication at worst. ... Such is the prospect for Will Bagley. ... Will Bagley has made a major contribution to western American history. Already, the church counterattack has begun. ... He is likely to take some painful personal hits, but his scholarship will withstand the professedly scholarly hits."[17]

Work in progress

Before his death, Bagley was engaged in his most ambitious project, a projected four-volume study of overland trails and western expansion "Overland West: The Story of the Oregon and California Trails." Two volumes are now available.

The first installment, So Rugged and Mountainous: Blazing the Trails to Oregon and California, 1812–1848, appeared in 2010. It won several awards, and The Atlantic selected it as its Editor's Choice in September 2011.[18]

With Golden Visions Bright Before Them: Trails to the Mining West, the second volume, appeared in 2012.[19]"As usual, Bagley delivers hard truths in shimmering prose, lifting the veil of romance that surrounds so much of the American West," The Salt Lake Tribune commented shortly after its release. "It's no secret that those who packed up their life's belongings for a new shot at life on the frontier suffered and struggled, but Bagley reveals it all through meticulous research that gives it depth and meaning."[20]

Based on his professional experience in the computer business, Bagley wrote a history of LexisNexis with the company's first general counsel. If the book were successful, he planned to write a trilogy about the computer revolution, "The Machine of Time: Chronicles of the Computer Age," which he jokingly called his "DigitIliad."[citation needed]

Honors

  • 1991 Evans Manuscript Prize.[21]
  • Wagon Award 1993. Highest award for service to the Utah Crossroads Chapter of the Oregon-California Trails Association (OCTA).[citation needed]
  • 1997 Steven F. Christensen Best Documentary Award from the Mormon History Association.[22]
  • 1997 T. Edgar Lyon Award for Best Article of the Year from the Mormon History Association.[22]
  • 1998 First Place, Non-Fiction Book, and Publication Prize, Utah Arts Council Original Writing Competition.
  • 1999 National Certificate of Appreciation for special efforts in historic preservation, Oregon-California Trails Association.
  • 2000 Steven F. Christensen Best Documentary Award from the Mormon History Association.[22]
  • 2001 Utah Military History Award from Utah State Historical Society.
  • 2002 For the book Blood of the Prophets. Utah Arts Council's Original Writing Competition Publication Prize, the Western Writers of America's Spur Award, the Denver Public Library's Caroline Bancroft History Prize, Westerners International's Best Book Award, the John Whitmer Historical Association's Smith-Petit Best Book Award, and the Western History Association's John W. Caughey Prize for the year's most distinguished book on the history of the American West.
  • 2007 Utah Arts Council Original Writing Competition, Second Place, Biography, Always a Cowboy: Judge Wilson McCarthy and the Rescue of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad
  • 2008 Utah Arts Council Original Writing Competition, Second Place, Novel, River
  • 2008 Wallace Stegner Centennial Fellowship from the Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah.[23][24]
  • 2009 Archibald Hanna Jr. Fellowship in American History, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.[25]
  • 2010 Merrill Mattes Award for Excellence in Writing, The Oregon-California Trails Association, with Rick Grunder, for "'I Could Hardly Hold the Pen': Phebe Ann Wooley Davis's Hard Road to Utah and Back, 1864–1865." Overland Journal 27:3 (Fall 2009).
  • Choice Magazine's Outstanding Academic Titles of 2010, So Rugged and Mountainous: Blazing the Trails to Oregon and California, 1840–1848.
  • 2011 Western Heritage Award (The Wrangler), for So Rugged and Mountainous: Blazing the Trails to Oregon and California, 1840–1848.
  • The John Whitmer Historical Association's Smith-Pettit Best Book Award in Latter Day Saint History, 2011, for David L. Bigler and Will Bagley, The Mormon Rebellion: America's First Civil War, 1857–1858 [26]
  • 2012 Spur, Best Western Nonfiction Historical, Western Writers of America for The Mormon Rebellion: America's First Civil War, 1857–1858 [27]
  • Utah State Historical Society, Amy Allen Price Military History Award, 2012, for David L. Bigler and Will Bagley,The Mormon Rebellion: America's First Civil War, 1857–1858 [28]
  • Utah State Historical Society, Smith-Pettit Best Documentary History, for Jeffrey Nichols, Polly Aird, and Will Bagley, Playing with Shadows: Voices of Dissent in the Mormon West [28]
  • 2013 Spur, Best Western Nonfiction Historical, Western Writers of America for With Golden Visions Bright Before Them: Trails to the Mining West, 1849–1852[29]
  • 2013, Members of the Western Writers of America pick Blood of the Prophets as the sixth best Nonfiction book of the last 60 years.[30]
  • 2015, South Pass: Gateway to a Continent Westerners International, Co-Founders “Best Book” Award, 2014;[31] Utah State Historical Society, Francis Armstrong Madsen Best Utah History Book, 2015;[32] Best Western Historical Nonfiction, Spur Finalist [33]
  • 2017, Best Western Short Nonfiction, Spur Finalist for "Touching History: A Grandson’s Memories of Felix Marion Jones and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Utah Historical Quarterly[33]
  • 2018 Greg Franzwa Award. Lifetime Contributions to Overland Trail History, Oregon-California Trails Association.
  • 2019 Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Contributions to Western Literature from Western Writers of America[34]

List of books by Will Bagley

  • Editor, A Road from El Dorado: The 1848 Trail Journal of Ephraim Green. Salt Lake City: The Prairie Dog Press, 1991. ISBN 0-9627804-2-1.
  • Editor, Frontiersman: Abner Blackburn's Narrative. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992. ISBN 0-87480-401-9.
  • Roderic Korns and Dale L. Morgan, eds., West from Fort Bridger: The Pioneering of Immigrant Trails across Utah, 1846–1850, revised and updated by Will Bagley and Harold Schindler. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-87421-350-9.
  • Pat Bagley and Will Bagley, This is the Place: A Crossroads of Utah's Past. Carson City, Nevada: Buckaroo Books, 1996. A children's book exploring Utah history. ISBN 1-885628-25-0.
  • Editor, The Pioneer Camp of the Saints: The 1846 and 1847 Mormon Trail Journals of Thomas Bullock (Spokane, Washington: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1997). ISBN 978-0-87062-276-2
  • Bagley, Will, Scoundrel's Tale: The Samuel Brannan Papers (Arthur H. Clark Company, February 1999) ISBN 978-0-87062-287-8
  • Editor, with David L. Bigler, Army of Israel: Mormon Battalion Narratives Spokane, Washington: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 2000. ISBN 978-0-87062-297-7
  • Bagley, Will, ed. "A Bright, Rising Star": A Brief Life and a Letter of James Ferguson, Sergeant Major, Mormon Battalion; Adjutant General, Nauvoo Legion. Spokane, Washington: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 2000.
  • Bagley, Will. Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002. Paperback ISBN 978-0-8061-3639-4
  • Bagley, Will. Always a Cowboy: Judge Wilson McCarthy and the Rescue of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2008. ISBN 0-87421-716-4.
  • Editor, with David L. Bigler, Innocent Blood: Essential Narratives of the Mountain Meadows Massacre Norman, Oklahoma: Arthur Clark Co, 2008. Hardcover ISBN 978-0-87062-362-2
  • Bagley, Will. So Rugged and Mountainous: Blazing the Trails to Oregon and California. 1812–1848. Volume I of the Overland West: The Story of the Oregon and California Trials" series. Norman: The University of Oklahoma, 2010. ISBN 978-0-8061-4103-9
  • Bagley, Will, with David L. Bigler. The Mormon Rebellion: America's First Civil War, 1857–1858. Norman: The University of Oklahoma, 2011. Hardcover ISBN 978-0-8061-4135-0. Paperback ISBN 978-0-8061-4315-6
  • Editor, with Polly Aird and Jeffrey Nichols, Playing with Shadows: Voices of Dissent in the Mormon West Norman, Oklahoma: Arthur Clark Co, 2011. ISBN 978-0-87062-380-6
  • Bagley, Will. With Golden Visions Bright Before Them: Trails to the Mining West, 1849–1852. Volume II of the Overland West: The Story of the Oregon and California Trials" series. Norman: The University of Oklahoma, 2012. ISBN 978-0-8061-4284-5
  • Bagley, Will. '"South Pass: Gateway to a Continent." Norman, Okla: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0-8061-4442-9
  • Bagley, Will. '"Across the Plains, Mountains, and Deserts: A Bibliography of the Oregon-California Trail, 1812–1912." Salt Lake City: The Prairie Dog Press for the National Park Service, 2014. Digital copy at http://www.nps.gov/cali/historyculture/upload/NPS-HRS-Biblio-Master-February2014_WillBagley.pdf
  • "The Whites Want Every Thing: Native Voices from the Mormon West," Norman, Oklahoma: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 2019. Volume XVI of Kingdom in the West: The Mormons and the American Frontier. This ends the series.
  • "River Fever: Adventures on the Mississippi, 1969-1972." Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2019. It took fifty years for Bagley to complete and publish this book, but it's now in print.

References

  1. ^ "Will Grant Bagley". The Life, Times & Family of Orson Pratt Brown. Park City, Utah: Orson Pratt Brown Family Organization. Retrieved 2009-01-12.
  2. ^ David Roberts, Devil's Gate: Brigham Young and the Mormon Handcart Tragedy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008), 206.
  3. ^ a b Bagley, Will (October 5, 2002). "Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows". 8th Annual Ex-Mormon Conference. Salt Lake City, Utah: The Exmormon Foundation. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
  4. ^ "Custom 404".
  5. ^ "Will Bagley to Receive Western Writers of America's Owen Wister Award".
  6. ^ Means, Sean P. (29 September 2021). "Will Bagley, Utah historian who chronicled Mountain Meadows Massacre, dies at 71". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  7. ^ "History Matters - Will Bagley". Utah History to Go. State of Utah. Retrieved 2009-05-12.
  8. ^ "Road from El Dorado, the 1848 Trail Journal of Ephraim Green". OCTA Store. Oregon-California Trails Association. Retrieved 2009-05-12.[dead link]
  9. ^ "Western History and Utah History". Utah State University Press. Utah State University. Retrieved 2009-05-12.
  10. ^ moreorless - www.moreorless.net. "CESNUR 2005 International Conference - The Press in Utah: A Critical View, by Will Bagley". Cesnur.org. Retrieved 2012-08-03.
  11. ^ a b "Summary Description". The Will Bagley Papers. University of Utah Marriott Library Special Collections. 2005. Archived from the original on 2012-12-15. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
  12. ^ . Blm.gov. 2009-06-26. Archived from the original on 2012-09-27. Retrieved 2012-08-03.
  13. ^ Church, Lisa (2000-07-03). "Utah's river kid takes on the water buffaloes — High Country News". Hcn.org. Retrieved 2012-08-03.
  14. ^ . Westerners International. Archived from the original on October 5, 2008. Retrieved 2009-05-12.
  15. ^ (PDF). Oregon-California Trails Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-08-03. Retrieved 2009-05-12.
  16. ^ Fraser, Caroline (November 21, 2002). "The Mormon Murder Case". The New York Review of Books. 49 (18). Retrieved 2009-05-21.
  17. ^ Utley, Robert M. (April 2003). "Review of Blood of the Prophets". The Journal of Military History. 67 (2): 568–569. doi:10.1353/jmh.2003.0181. S2CID 161825590.
  18. ^ "The Atlantic Web Page Article: Bitter Crossing". The Atlantic. 25 July 2011.
  19. ^ . Oupress.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-24. Retrieved 2012-08-03.
  20. ^ Fulton, Ben (3 October 2012). "Will Bagley's continuing Overland odyssey". The Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City, Utah. p. C3. 5486136380.
  21. ^ http://www.law.utah.edu/_webfiles/stegner/newsletters/fall08.pdf[dead link]
  22. ^ a b c (PDF). Mormon History Association. 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-13. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
  23. ^ "Recognizing U". University of Utah. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
  24. ^ "Current Fellows". Tanner Humanities Center. University of Utah. October 1, 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
  25. ^ "2009–2010 Visiting Fellow". Educational Programs: Fellowships. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
  26. ^ "Award-winning books". University of Oklahoma Press. Retrieved 2012-04-17.
  27. ^ "2012 Spur Awards Honor Best Westerns". PR Newswire. March 22, 2012. Retrieved 2012-04-17.
  28. ^ a b . Archived from the original on 2012-10-21. Retrieved 2012-10-04.
  29. ^ "WWA Announces 2013 Spur Award Winners" (Press release). Western Writers of America. March 19, 2013.
  30. ^ "Best works during WWA's first 60 years". Western Writers of America Roundup Magazine. 20 (5): 18. June 2013.
  31. ^ "Westerners International > Award Winners".
  32. ^ https://heritage.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/July-16-2015-Board-of-State-History-Meeting-Minutes-FINAL-Draft.pdf?x15791[bare URL PDF]
  33. ^ a b "Winners". 12 May 2012.
  34. ^ "Will Bagley to Receive WWA Owen Wister Award". Western Writers of America. 19 February 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

External links

  • Works by or about Will Bagley in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
  • "History Matters", Bagley's Salt Lake Tribune column
  • The Will Bagley Papers at the University of Utah's Marriott Library
  • Mormon Expression interview of Will Bagley part 1
  • Mormon Expression interview of Will Bagley part 2
  • Dale L. Morgan Lecture

March 04, 2023
will, bagley, william, grant, bagley, 1950, september, 2021, historian, specializing, history, western, united, states, american, west, bagley, wrote, about, trade, overland, emigration, american, indians, military, history, frontier, violence, railroads, mini. William Grant Bagley May 27 1950 September 28 2021 was a historian specializing in the history of the Western United States and the American Old West Bagley wrote about the fur trade overland emigration American Indians military history frontier violence railroads mining and Utah and the Mormons Contents 1 Biography 2 Publications 3 Editorial work 4 Activity 5 Leadership 6 Blood of the Prophets 7 Work in progress 8 Honors 9 List of books by Will Bagley 10 References 11 External linksBiography EditWilliam Grant Bagley was born to Lawrence Miles Bagley and Margene Bailey Bagley on May 27 1950 in Salt Lake City Utah His ancestors came from England Wales Ireland Scotland Sweden and Germany He was a descendant of the fifth governor of Connecticut John Webster His paternal great grandfather was a Mormon pioneer from New Brunswick Canada From the age of nine he was raised in Oceanside California where his father was a long serving mayor in the 1980s His younger brother Pat Bagley became the notable Salt Lake Tribune editorial cartoonist 1 and they are the uncles of professional surfer Dusty Payne Bagley attended Brigham Young University in 1967 68 and then he transferred to University of California at Santa Cruz UCSC where he obtained his B A in History in 1971 At Santa Cruz Bagley studied writing with Page Stegner and history with John Dizikes He graduated from UCSC between Richard White and Patricia Limerick two of the leading lights of the New Western History While at UCSC he received the California State Scholar and President s Scholar awards citation needed He considered an integral part of his education a trip he took in 1969 on a homemade raft built of framing lumber and barrels down the Mississippi River from Rock Island Illinois to New Orleans After graduation he spent three years in North Carolina studying the local Bluegrass music and culture and playing in bands After college Bagley worked as a laborer carpenter cabinet maker and country musician for more than a decade In 1979 he founded Groundhog Records to release his long playing record The Legend of Jesse James In 1982 he abandoned music and hard labor to take a writing position at Evans amp Sutherland a pioneering computer graphics firm He worked in various high tech ventures until 1995 when he started his career as a professional historian He wrote more than twenty books In 2008 historian David Roberts dubbed him the sharpest of all thorns in the side of the Mormon historical establishment 2 Although he was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints LDS Church Bagley discontinued membership as an adult He publicly stated that he never believed the theology since he was old enough to think about it However he was friends with believers and considered himself a heritage Mormon valuing his pioneer lineage 3 In September 2014 the Utah State Historical Society granted Bagley its most prestigious honor as a Fellow joining the ranks of such luminaries as Dale Morgan Wallace Stegner Juanita Brooks and Leonard Arrington 4 Western Writers of America gave Bagley its 2019 Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Contributions to Western Literature in 2019 He said it was an expression of affection from my WWA friends that is appreciated and humbling for it calls to mind the words I am not worthy 5 Bagley lived and worked in Salt Lake City Utah until his death in 2021 6 Publications EditBagley published extensively over the years and was still active at the time of his death He was the author and editor of twenty books and of many articles and reviews in professional journals such as the Western Historical Quarterly Utah Historical Quarterly Overland Journal The Journal of Mormon History and Montana The Magazine of Western History His column History Matters appeared every Sunday for four years 2000 2004 in The Salt Lake Tribune 7 Editorial work EditHe served as editor of News from the Plains the newsletter of the Oregon California Trails Association for two years 8 Continuing its hundred year tradition of letting the people of the West recount their own history in 1997 the Arthur H Clark Company launched a new historical series Kingdom in the West The Mormons and the American Frontier Bagley was editor of this projected 16 volume series 9 The series presents essential source documents that look at the West through Mormon eyes and the Mormons through Western eyes Published volumes describe the Mexican American War the conquest of California and the gold rush the Brigham Young pioneer party of 1847 European visitors to Zion Mormon polygamy the Utah War and the Mountain Meadows Massacre Fifteen volumes have appeared most recently Richard L Saunders Dale Morgan on the Mormons Collected Works Part 2 1949 1971 and William P MacKinnon s At Sword s Point Part 2 A Documentary History of the Utah War 1858 1859 Other significant volumes include Michael W Homer s On the Way to Somewhere Else European Sojourners in the Mormon West B Carmon Hardy s Doing the Works of Abraham Mormon Polygamy Its Origin Practice and Demise Bagley and David L Bigler s Innocent Blood Essential Narratives of the Mountain Meadows Massacre and Playing with Shadows Voices of Dissent in the Mormon West which Bagley edited with Polly Aird and Jeff Nichols Activity EditAs a member of the Utah Speakers Bureau Will Bagley made dozens of presentations throughout the state citation needed He gave academic papers at the annual conventions of the Western History Association the Mormon History Association Sunstone Magazine the Oregon California Trails Association the Communal Studies Association and the Center for Studies on New Religions 10 better source needed He participated in Claremont McKenna College s The American West lecture series citation needed Bagley was a research associate at Yale University s Beinecke Library in 2000 3 and was the library s Archibald Hanna Jr Fellow in American history in 2009 During the 2008 academic year he and author Stephen Trimble served as Wallace Stegner Centennial Fellows at the University of Utah s Tanner Humanities Center He worked as a historical consultant for National Geographic magazine 11 the National Park Service 11 the Wyoming State Historical Preservation Office citation needed the Nevada Humanities Council citation needed and for more than a dozen documentary films including A amp E Television s Mountain Meadows Massacre and The Mormon Rebellion and PBS s The Mormons He also worked on historical interpretive design for the Bureau of Land Management 12 Leadership EditWill Bagley was a former member of the Board of Directors of the Utah Rivers Council 13 Westerners International 14 the Oregon California Trails Association 15 the Friends of the Marriott Library at the University of Utah citation needed and the Utah Westerners He established The Prairie Dog Press in 1991 to publish A Road from El Dorado The press eventually expanded into a consulting business that has handled book design and typesetting publishing historical research and contract writing citation needed The press has worked with the National Park Service the Bureau of Land Management the Marriott Library the History Channel and PBS citation needed Blood of the Prophets EditBagley s book Blood of the Prophets deals with the Mountain Meadows massacre and won numerous awards including a Spur from Western Writers of America and best book awards from the Denver Public Library and the Western History Association The New York Review of Books described the study as an exhaustive meticulously documented highly readable history that captures the events and atmosphere that gave rise to the massacre as well as its long tortuous aftermath Bagley has taken great care in negotiating the minefield presented by what remains of the historical record 16 According to Robert M Utley e ver since 1857 the Mormon Church has vehemently exempted itself and Brigham Young from any complicity in this crime against humanity Church approved histories embrace this interpretation when they mention it at all The official church historians and custodians of the massive church archives have carefully avoided the issue Parts of the archives have been lost restricted sanitized and even manufactured Mormon historians who probe beyond the prescribed limits face isolation at best excommunication at worst Such is the prospect for Will Bagley Will Bagley has made a major contribution to western American history Already the church counterattack has begun He is likely to take some painful personal hits but his scholarship will withstand the professedly scholarly hits 17 Work in progress EditBefore his death Bagley was engaged in his most ambitious project a projected four volume study of overland trails and western expansion Overland West The Story of the Oregon and California Trails Two volumes are now available The first installment So Rugged and Mountainous Blazing the Trails to Oregon and California 1812 1848 appeared in 2010 It won several awards and The Atlantic selected it as its Editor s Choice in September 2011 18 With Golden Visions Bright Before Them Trails to the Mining West the second volume appeared in 2012 19 As usual Bagley delivers hard truths in shimmering prose lifting the veil of romance that surrounds so much of the American West The Salt Lake Tribune commented shortly after its release It s no secret that those who packed up their life s belongings for a new shot at life on the frontier suffered and struggled but Bagley reveals it all through meticulous research that gives it depth and meaning 20 Based on his professional experience in the computer business Bagley wrote a history of LexisNexis with the company s first general counsel If the book were successful he planned to write a trilogy about the computer revolution The Machine of Time Chronicles of the Computer Age which he jokingly called his DigitIliad citation needed Honors Edit1991 Evans Manuscript Prize 21 Wagon Award 1993 Highest award for service to the Utah Crossroads Chapter of the Oregon California Trails Association OCTA citation needed 1997 Steven F Christensen Best Documentary Award from the Mormon History Association 22 1997 T Edgar Lyon Award for Best Article of the Year from the Mormon History Association 22 1998 First Place Non Fiction Book and Publication Prize Utah Arts Council Original Writing Competition 1999 National Certificate of Appreciation for special efforts in historic preservation Oregon California Trails Association 2000 Steven F Christensen Best Documentary Award from the Mormon History Association 22 2001 Utah Military History Award from Utah State Historical Society 2002 For the book Blood of the Prophets Utah Arts Council s Original Writing Competition Publication Prize the Western Writers of America s Spur Award the Denver Public Library s Caroline Bancroft History Prize Westerners International s Best Book Award the John Whitmer Historical Association s Smith Petit Best Book Award and the Western History Association s John W Caughey Prize for the year s most distinguished book on the history of the American West 2007 Utah Arts Council Original Writing Competition Second Place Biography Always a Cowboy Judge Wilson McCarthy and the Rescue of the Denver amp Rio Grande Western Railroad 2008 Utah Arts Council Original Writing Competition Second Place Novel River 2008 Wallace Stegner Centennial Fellowship from the Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah 23 24 2009 Archibald Hanna Jr Fellowship in American History Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University 25 2010 Merrill Mattes Award for Excellence in Writing The Oregon California Trails Association with Rick Grunder for I Could Hardly Hold the Pen Phebe Ann Wooley Davis s Hard Road to Utah and Back 1864 1865 Overland Journal 27 3 Fall 2009 Choice Magazine s Outstanding Academic Titles of 2010 So Rugged and Mountainous Blazing the Trails to Oregon and California 1840 1848 2011 Western Heritage Award The Wrangler for So Rugged and Mountainous Blazing the Trails to Oregon and California 1840 1848 The John Whitmer Historical Association s Smith Pettit Best Book Award in Latter Day Saint History 2011 for David L Bigler and Will Bagley The Mormon Rebellion America s First Civil War 1857 1858 26 2012 Spur Best Western Nonfiction Historical Western Writers of America for The Mormon Rebellion America s First Civil War 1857 1858 27 Utah State Historical Society Amy Allen Price Military History Award 2012 for David L Bigler and Will Bagley The Mormon Rebellion America s First Civil War 1857 1858 28 Utah State Historical Society Smith Pettit Best Documentary History for Jeffrey Nichols Polly Aird and Will Bagley Playing with Shadows Voices of Dissent in the Mormon West 28 2013 Spur Best Western Nonfiction Historical Western Writers of America for With Golden Visions Bright Before Them Trails to the Mining West 1849 1852 29 2013 Members of the Western Writers of America pick Blood of the Prophets as the sixth best Nonfiction book of the last 60 years 30 2015 South Pass Gateway to a Continent Westerners International Co Founders Best Book Award 2014 31 Utah State Historical Society Francis Armstrong Madsen Best Utah History Book 2015 32 Best Western Historical Nonfiction Spur Finalist 33 2017 Best Western Short Nonfiction Spur Finalist for Touching History A Grandson s Memories of Felix Marion Jones and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows Utah Historical Quarterly 33 2018 Greg Franzwa Award Lifetime Contributions to Overland Trail History Oregon California Trails Association 2019 Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Contributions to Western Literature from Western Writers of America 34 List of books by Will Bagley EditEditor A Road from El Dorado The 1848 Trail Journal of Ephraim Green Salt Lake City The Prairie Dog Press 1991 ISBN 0 9627804 2 1 Editor Frontiersman Abner Blackburn s Narrative Salt Lake City University of Utah Press 1992 ISBN 0 87480 401 9 Roderic Korns and Dale L Morgan eds West from Fort Bridger The Pioneering of Immigrant Trails across Utah 1846 1850 revised and updated by Will Bagley and Harold Schindler Logan Utah State University Press 1994 ISBN 0 87421 350 9 Pat Bagley and Will Bagley This is the Place A Crossroads of Utah s Past Carson City Nevada Buckaroo Books 1996 A children s book exploring Utah history ISBN 1 885628 25 0 Editor The Pioneer Camp of the Saints The 1846 and 1847 Mormon Trail Journals of Thomas Bullock Spokane Washington The Arthur H Clark Company 1997 ISBN 978 0 87062 276 2 Bagley Will Scoundrel s Tale The Samuel Brannan Papers Arthur H Clark Company February 1999 ISBN 978 0 87062 287 8 Editor with David L Bigler Army of Israel Mormon Battalion Narratives Spokane Washington The Arthur H Clark Company 2000 ISBN 978 0 87062 297 7 Bagley Will ed A Bright Rising Star A Brief Life and a Letter of James Ferguson Sergeant Major Mormon Battalion Adjutant General Nauvoo Legion Spokane Washington The Arthur H Clark Company 2000 Bagley Will Blood of the Prophets Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows Norman University of Oklahoma Press 2002 Paperback ISBN 978 0 8061 3639 4 Bagley Will Always a Cowboy Judge Wilson McCarthy and the Rescue of the Denver amp Rio Grande Western Railroad Logan Utah State University Press 2008 ISBN 0 87421 716 4 Editor with David L Bigler Innocent Blood Essential Narratives of the Mountain Meadows Massacre Norman Oklahoma Arthur Clark Co 2008 Hardcover ISBN 978 0 87062 362 2 Bagley Will So Rugged and Mountainous Blazing the Trails to Oregon and California 1812 1848 Volume I of the Overland West The Story of the Oregon and California Trials series Norman The University of Oklahoma 2010 ISBN 978 0 8061 4103 9 Bagley Will with David L Bigler The Mormon Rebellion America s First Civil War 1857 1858 Norman The University of Oklahoma 2011 Hardcover ISBN 978 0 8061 4135 0 Paperback ISBN 978 0 8061 4315 6 Editor with Polly Aird and Jeffrey Nichols Playing with Shadows Voices of Dissent in the Mormon West Norman Oklahoma Arthur Clark Co 2011 ISBN 978 0 87062 380 6 Bagley Will With Golden Visions Bright Before Them Trails to the Mining West 1849 1852 Volume II of the Overland West The Story of the Oregon and California Trials series Norman The University of Oklahoma 2012 ISBN 978 0 8061 4284 5 Bagley Will South Pass Gateway to a Continent Norman Okla University of Oklahoma Press 2014 ISBN 978 0 8061 4442 9 Bagley Will Across the Plains Mountains and Deserts A Bibliography of the Oregon California Trail 1812 1912 Salt Lake City The Prairie Dog Press for the National Park Service 2014 Digital copy at http www nps gov cali historyculture upload NPS HRS Biblio Master February2014 WillBagley pdf The Whites Want Every Thing Native Voices from the Mormon West Norman Oklahoma The Arthur H Clark Co 2019 Volume XVI of Kingdom in the West The Mormons and the American Frontier This ends the series River Fever Adventures on the Mississippi 1969 1972 Salt Lake City Signature Books 2019 It took fifty years for Bagley to complete and publish this book but it s now in print References Edit Will Grant Bagley The Life Times amp Family of Orson Pratt Brown Park City Utah Orson Pratt Brown Family Organization Retrieved 2009 01 12 David Roberts Devil s Gate Brigham Young and the Mormon Handcart Tragedy New York Simon amp Schuster 2008 206 a b Bagley Will October 5 2002 Blood of the Prophets Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows 8th Annual Ex Mormon Conference Salt Lake City Utah The Exmormon Foundation Retrieved 2008 10 22 Custom 404 Will Bagley to Receive Western Writers of America s Owen Wister Award Means Sean P 29 September 2021 Will Bagley Utah historian who chronicled Mountain Meadows Massacre dies at 71 The Salt Lake Tribune Retrieved 30 September 2021 History Matters Will Bagley Utah History to Go State of Utah Retrieved 2009 05 12 Road from El Dorado the 1848 Trail Journal of Ephraim Green OCTA Store Oregon California Trails Association Retrieved 2009 05 12 dead link Western History and Utah History Utah State University Press Utah State University Retrieved 2009 05 12 moreorless www moreorless net CESNUR 2005 International Conference The Press in Utah A Critical View by Will Bagley Cesnur org Retrieved 2012 08 03 a b Summary Description The Will Bagley Papers University of Utah Marriott Library Special Collections 2005 Archived from the original on 2012 12 15 Retrieved 2008 10 22 TRAIL CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARCHES ON 08 14 2007 Blm gov 2009 06 26 Archived from the original on 2012 09 27 Retrieved 2012 08 03 Church Lisa 2000 07 03 Utah s river kid takes on the water buffaloes High Country News Hcn org Retrieved 2012 08 03 Full Board of Westerners International Westerners International Archived from the original on October 5 2008 Retrieved 2009 05 12 OCTA Officers and Director by Year PDF Oregon California Trails Association Archived from the original PDF on 2010 08 03 Retrieved 2009 05 12 Fraser Caroline November 21 2002 The Mormon Murder Case The New York Review of Books 49 18 Retrieved 2009 05 21 Utley Robert M April 2003 Review of Blood of the Prophets The Journal of Military History 67 2 568 569 doi 10 1353 jmh 2003 0181 S2CID 161825590 The Atlantic Web Page Article Bitter Crossing The Atlantic 25 July 2011 Series Oupress com Archived from the original on 2012 02 24 Retrieved 2012 08 03 Fulton Ben 3 October 2012 Will Bagley s continuing Overland odyssey The Salt Lake Tribune Salt Lake City Utah p C3 5486136380 http www law utah edu webfiles stegner newsletters fall08 pdf dead link a b c MHA Awards PDF Mormon History Association 2007 Archived from the original PDF on 2012 02 13 Retrieved 2008 10 22 Recognizing U University of Utah Retrieved 2008 10 22 Current Fellows Tanner Humanities Center University of Utah October 1 2008 Retrieved 2008 10 22 2009 2010 Visiting Fellow Educational Programs Fellowships Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Yale University Retrieved 2010 04 05 Award winning books University of Oklahoma Press Retrieved 2012 04 17 2012 Spur Awards Honor Best Westerns PR Newswire March 22 2012 Retrieved 2012 04 17 a b Utah Historical Society Utah State History Awards Archived from the original on 2012 10 21 Retrieved 2012 10 04 WWA Announces 2013 Spur Award Winners Press release Western Writers of America March 19 2013 Best works during WWA s first 60 years Western Writers of America Roundup Magazine 20 5 18 June 2013 Westerners International gt Award Winners https heritage utah gov wp content uploads July 16 2015 Board of State History Meeting Minutes FINAL Draft pdf x15791 bare URL PDF a b Winners 12 May 2012 Will Bagley to Receive WWA Owen Wister Award Western Writers of America 19 February 2019 Retrieved 6 February 2020 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link External links EditWorks by or about Will Bagley in libraries WorldCat catalog History Matters Bagley s Salt Lake Tribune column The Will Bagley Papers at the University of Utah s Marriott Library Mormon Expression interview of Will Bagley part 1 Mormon Expression interview of Will Bagley part 2 Dale L Morgan Lecture Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Will Bagley amp oldid 1124725389, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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