Nauvoo, Illinois Day 2

Day 2 in Nauvoo...

started at the temple for James,
 

and back at the Visitor's Center for the kids & I.  It's at the Visitor's Center that you can get the free tickets for the wagon & carriage rides.  

The wagon ride took us through Old Nauvoo and was pulled by...

real draft horses.  And the wagon was driven by a pair of Senior Missionary teamsters.  It was lots of fun.

We drove past several historic homes.  This one is William Gheen's brick home.  William Gheen came to Nauvoo in 1841 and worked on building the Nauvoo Temple nearly everyday.

 This one belonged to Newel K. Whitney.  He was the first Bishop of the Church.  He served as Bishop in Kirtland, Ohio, Far West, Missouri and Nauvoo, Illinois.

Sidney Rigdon's home.  Sidney was a scribe to Joseph Smith and later became a member of the First Presidency of the Church.  He was also the postmaster in Nauvoo.

Side note: Many of the homes around Old Nauvoo and the Church leaders' homes are open for public tours.  But we were seeing lots with signs that said they were private residences and not open to the public.  

We were thinking they belonged to the locals.  Then everywhere we went we saw Senior Missionaries, dressed in pioneer clothing.  They were with the wagons.  They were in the homes giving tours and they put on shows in the evenings.  There are hundreds of Senior Missionaries serving in Nauvoo.

Eventually, we figured out that the historic homes (and some new ones, built to look old), not open to the public, were actually the living quarters for the Senior Missionaries.  Wouldn't that be so cool!  Living in a historic Nauvoo house!  I met one sister missionary who was assigned to the blacksmith's home.  That's so neat.    

Okay, back to the wagon ride.  The narrator pointed out many places of interest as we meandered through Old Nauvoo.  

We drove past the temple up on the hill.  Everyone mostly lived at the bottom of this hill.  Anytime they went to the temple to work or have a meeting, they had to climb this hill, or go up by horse or wagon.  

Before the temple was completed, they held meetings in a grove at the base of the hill, when the weather permitted.  They had other meeting places too.  

We drove down Parley Street and past the blacksmith's.  Then the Trail of Hope began.  This is where all the wagon's lined up, waiting to cross the Mississippi River and begin there journey west.  

As the Saints waited for their turn, they could look back and see the temple on the hill.  It's barely visible in the distance, but it's there.  Things always look smaller and farther away in pictures than when you're really there. 

We drove down to where the ferry would have been, where the statue of Brigham Young and Joseph Smith is, 

then back around past more historic homes, such as the Calvin Pendleton Home and School, and finally back to the visitor's center.  It was about an hour long wagon ride and we all learned a lot. 

 Taylor petting Chad's nose. 

There's a Women's Garden behind the Visitor's Center.  It's supposed to have statues and pretty flowers and stuff.  So we headed that way.  Right as we reached the back door to enter the garden, we saw the sprinklers turn on.  We decided not to go out after all.  

It was soon time for James & I to swap places anyway.  We picked him up at the temple and dropped me off.  They wandered around Old Nauvoo and the kids told him everything they could remember about the wagon ride. 

They saw the Cheap Shoe & Boot Manufactory, George C. Riser Proprietor. 

They also spent quite a bit of time here, in Jonathan Browning's Gunsmith Shop.  Apparently there's quite a collection in there.  I never had a chance to go inside.  

They told me though, that there are some guns in there, worth so much, for their rarity or originality, that if they are removed from there cases, as in stolen, an alarm in Salt Lake City is sounded!  

They went to John Taylor's house.  His house is large and right next door to the Printing Press.  

John Taylor was told by Brigham Young to take this home because of it's proximity to the Printing Press, where Pres. Taylor worked, but he never felt that he should have such a nice or big home.   That's what they told us as we went through the house anyway.

Taylor and Logan in front of John Taylor's house.  Taylor gets excited whenever she hears something said about John Taylor.  She knows she was named after him and already feels a connection.  So it was very neat to be able to see his home in Nauvoo.

When I was done in the temple we all met up together and continued our tour of Old Nauvoo. 

We past many historic homes and shops.  Some we went inside and others we didn't.  In every building that was open to the public, there are Senior Missionaries inside.  Their job is to guide you through the historic home and tell you all about it (and to keep you from touch or taking anything, of course).  

There was so much to see and learn, but we just didn't have time to do it all.  So we only went inside a few buildings.  This is the Scovil Bakery.  We did not tour this one.

This is Brigham Young's home.  We did tour this one.  The room on the left was used as a meeting/council room for members of the 12 Apostles.  It had a large table with chairs around it.  I've already forgotten the rest of the house.

All these old homes have many things in common, such as their kitchen/dining rooms were one room, they were small, with a fireplace and hardly any cupboards.  The homes were all hardwood floors throughout.  And they all had very steep and narrow stairs.  Oh, and none of them had bathrooms.  Maybe I'll rethink living in one of them, now that I remember that.

We went into the Tinsmith's Shop and Home.  The home part is on the left and the tinsmith part is on the right.  The shop is full of tin items, of course and patterns hang on the wall.  

Using the patterns, the tinsmith would cut pieces out of tin, then using his machines and tools, would put together any number of things, from buckets to lanterns to pie tins.  

We went into this replica of Joseph Smith's Red Brick Store.  The lower level is still a store, well, a gift shop.  This property is owned by The Community of Christ church, so there was no tour.  

The store was owned by Joseph Smith Jr. and was opened for business in January, 1842.  In the back of the store though, was an office for Bishop Newel K. Whitney, where people could come pay bills and tithing.  

Upstairs held a large meeting room.  Council meetings were held here too.  This is also where the Relief Society was first organized by Joseph Smith Jr., with Emma Smith as president.  

Upstairs, there's also a teeny bedroom.  This room makes Logan's small bedroom at home, look big.

There's an office for Joseph Smith upstairs as well.  

When the kids were bored of all these tours and walking, we went to the Family Living Center.  It's a learning center that was supposed to be geared more toward kids.

The first station we went to was about bread making.  The sister missionary was very nice and told us all about bread making and let us try a sample of homemade bread that was cooked in that small oven above the woodpile.  It was delicious.

Then we learned about candle making.  The process is very interesting.  They tie the string around a rock and then dip it in the wax multiple times.  When the candle is ready, the wax covered rock is then cut off.  The extra wax is melted off and it can all be reused.  

Next up was learning about making pottery and how they use the potter's wheel.  Then the clay is cooked and hardened in a kiln.

The kids got to sit at the potter's wheel.

Lastly we tried our hand at rope making.  The kids loved this one, and they came home with a little coil of rope.  

There were also carriages and a sleigh on display in the Family Living Center. 

This one belonged to Heber C. Kimball.  

 The Pioneer Pastimes really was geared toward children.  It was nothing but games and toys that pioneer children would have played with.  Logan & James are racing their climbing bears by pulling on the strings.  Logan was super fast with his.

Taylor riding a wooden horse.  

We went into the Brick Works building.  We learned about brick making by a Senior Missionary who had actually been a brick mason.  He gave us a mini red brick that said Nauvoo on it.  

Lastly, we toured the Blacksmith & Wainwright Shop.  Blacksmith on the left, wainwright on the right.  In the wainwright's shop, we were taught how wagon wheels were made and repaired.

In the Blacksmith shop we learned about shoeing oxen and horses.  A special cage, for lack of a better word, is required in order to shoe oxen because they can't lift their legs.  Well, they lay down whenever the farrier tries to lift their hooves up.  So this cage thing holds them up. 

The kids each got a ring made from a horseshoe nail.  We also were given a mini horseshoe that was made right there at the Nauvoo Blacksmith Shop.  

By the time we were done there, it was getting into the late afternoon.  We were tired and hot because it was muggy of course.  So we decided to call it the end of our Nauvoo trip.  

As we walked back to the car we spotted one more house we hadn't seen yet, Lucy Mack Smith's home!  Wow!  This is the home the Prophet Joseph Smith's mother lived in.  

I wanted to go in, but was too tuckered out by that time to ask any of us to listen to one more tour.  So we fueled up the car and hit the road again.  

It was a once in a life-time opportunity for us Oregonians to see and experience Nauvoo.  I'm so glad we did!