The field of memory studies increasingly demonstrates how local history has the capacity to inform, shape and challenge national narratives. My paper considers how the town of Preston, Idaho influenced a national debate over the remembrance of the Bear River Massacre. I look specifically at a collection of personal reflections on the region’s history that were sent to a branch of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers as they constructed a monument that remembered the 1863 “Battle of Bear River” in 1932. The reflections reveal the values, history and traditions of people living in Preston, and how they viewed the monument as a powerful signifier of their regional, pioneer histories and the violent encounter as a Civil War battle. Since 1932, Shoshone peoples in Utah and Idaho have contested the monument, engaging in a national dialogue with the Parks Service that renamed the space “ the Bear River massacre historic site” in 1992. This paper demonstrates how small-scale histories can inform national interpretations of the past that are contested over time. Further, examining how the Battle Creek marker was subsequently contested contributes to the growing debate over monument culture and the histories they convey.