Was This Really a Sharp Idea?: Nauvoo, Illinois Day 1

Wow, it's been a busy few days. We were celebrating a birthday (mine) and had family visiting from out of town. It was lots of fun and the kids were able to play with cousins they hadn't seen for a few months.

Good times were had by all, but it postponed my finishing our story about Nauvoo. So here we go.

We got to Nauvoo around 3pm and drove around a little bit trying to take it all in. We were seeing all kinds of brick homes with signs stating who owned them. I was so excited to see the real, live, actual houses that all those historic church leaders lived in. The one above belonged to Heber C. Kimball. Wow!

We drove past the temple. It was up on the hill and we didn't know how to get there yet.

We found the Visitor's Center. It was busy, but there were a lot of missionaries there, so it was only for a about a minute that we stood there feeling overwhelmed.

Inside the Visitor's Center (besides the air conditioning) there were theaters, with movies about Nauvoo, there was an enormous 3-D, table map that told more information about the area. There were exhibits, like in museums that showed facets of life in Old Nauvoo.

It was full of information. They also have maps and lists of things to do. It's a great first stop when touring Nauvoo. We could probably have spent half the day there, but we were eager to see the temple, get a hotel and find some dinner.

By this time it was after 4pm and we were realizing that pretty much everything we wanted to see and do, was closed for the evening. So we found a hotel and then walked around downtown Nauvoo. This is not the hotel we stayed in. This is the General Merchandise gift shop.

This is the Woodruff Hotel. This is also, not the hotel we stayed in. The hotel we stayed in looked like an old school. It was a fine hotel, but not so historic.

I think this is a replica of what the earliest homes in Nauvoo looked like, before the nice, brick ones. It was not open when we were there.

Taylor by the handcart replica. The handcarts were used by those who couldn't afford a larger wagon and the oxen required to pull it.

Downtown Nauvoo isn't that big, but near the end of Mulholland Street is the most beautiful building in the entire town, the Nauvoo Temple.

It was a pretty quiet day. Being on a Tuesday, in the very beginning of June, it wasn't crowded at all.

Looking up.

There is a street right in front of the temple. I took this picture from across that street to get the entire temple in the shot. There are streets on every side of the temple. It actually sits on a small lot, (just 1 square block), but the temple overlooks a large, grassy hillside, fields and the Mississippi River.

Across the street and in front of the temple is this sculpture of Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, on horseback. It's entitled, "The Prophet's Last Ride."

The plaque underneath it reads,
"On the morning of June 24th, 1844, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum left their families, homes, and fellow Saints for the last time. Traveling on horseback, they paused on this bluff. Joseph looked admiringly at the unfinished temple and the city of Nauvoo and declared:

This is the loveliest place and the best people under the heavens; little do they know the trials that await them.

Joseph and Hyrum then continued on to Carthage, Illinois, where they faced legal charges and eventual death at the hands of a mob."
(Sculpted by Stan Watts and Kim Corpany, 2003)

After a few minutes at the temple we drove down the hill to Old Nauvoo. We followed the route that the Latter-Day Saints walked when they were driven out of Nauvoo about 2 years after Joseph & Hyrum's martyrdom.

With whatever belongings would fit in a covered wagon, the families lined up on Parley Street, waiting their turn to cross the river. This is a replica of a ferry that took those wagons, people and animals across the Mississippi River.

This statue of Brigham Young and Joseph Smith looking to the west, is at the end of the Parley Street, which led the Latter-Day Saints to the ferries.

Taylor got to walk up to the river's edge and actually put her hand in the Mississippi River! So exciting!

Main Street ends very close to the Mississippi River also. On one side of the street is the Nauvoo House.

On the other side of the street is the Homestead House. This is the house Joseph Smith moved into with his family in the spring of 1839, their first home in Nauvoo. Neither one of these properties belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, so I don't know if they are open for public tours.

Standing in the street between the houses, looking west, you see the Mississippi beyond the marshy field.

Turning around and looking back up the road, you see the Mansion House. Joseph Smith and his family lived here starting in 1843. After the martyrdom, Joseph & Hyrum's bodies were brought back here, where they laid in state, until the funeral.

Before the funeral, George Q. Cannon's father made plaster masks of both Joseph & Hyrum.

Behind the Homestead House is the Smith Family Cemetery. Joseph, Hyrum and later, Joseph's wife Emma, were buried here. Joseph's parents and many other family members are buried here as well.

After spending a little while in Old Nauvoo we decided to call it a day. We ate in the hotel and crashed for the night. It had been another long day, in string of long days and we were happy to put our feet up.