Monday, September 12th - Poking Around Nauvoo

 Weather - another beautiful day. Last nights low was in the mid 50's and todays high was a breezy, mostly sunny 74.

Some more campground photos. From the far edge of the campground you can see the river. The view would be awesome if some of these trees were removed.

The "pine forest" is close to our site. It reminds us of MI's UP.

Downtown Nauvoo. The blue building on the left and the brick builing in the photo below, are hotels. We stayed overnight here, during a weekend get-a-way, sometime in the late 80's. We thing we stayed in the blue hotel.

When travelling after Labor Day you miss out on some novel entertainment, like the Wild Axe Company.

We could have gotten some axe throwing lessons but alas, it was closed.

The new Mormon Temple completed in 2002. It is built on the site of the original Temple that was destroyed in the 1840's.

We spent several hours poking around Nauvoo. We had lunch at the only restaurant that was open. There really isn't much to the town, other than all the tourist who come to see the "old city" down by the river. The two non-Mormon museums were supposed to open at 1 PM. No one showed up to open either of them. The city opens the door to some of our nations dark past.

In 1831 Joseph Smith proclaimed that God had designated western Missouri as the place where “Zion” would be gathered in anticipation of Christ’s second coming. This led to a steady stream of converts who wanted to get established in the future “Zion”.

Many of the people already in Missouri discriminated against the Mormons. Violence led to the 1838 Missouri/Mormon War. Missouri’s Governor issued Executive Order 44 ordering Mormons to leave Missouri or be killed. Joseph Smith and around 10,000 Mormons escaped Missouri and some of them established the new settlement that became Nauvoo, Illinois. They dug a three quarter mile long, 8’ deep, 12’ wide, canal to drain 800 acres of mosquito infested swamp into the Mississippi. By 1844 the population of Nauvoo had skyrocketed to over 10,000.

It appears to me that people jealous of the Mormon’s success once again started persecuting them. Smith ordered the destruction of an anti-Smith printing press. The Illinois Governor promised Smith protection if he would turn himself in and stand trial for the destruction of the press. Smith and his brother who also had been arrested, were murdered 3 days later, while in jail. The result was a series of running battles between Mormon’s and non-Mormons. Under pressure from the Illinois Governor Brigham Young, the new leader, agreed to abandon Nauvoo and leave Illinois in the spring of 1846.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.