Many of the buildings are originals that survived the years. After the Saints left, others moved in, so some of these homes have always been lived in and maintained. Archeological digs have discovered original foundations, and new buildings have been built over the top. Through records we can tell who lived where and this is how they recreated the town. These digs continue as the town is continuing to grow.
- Sarah Granger Kimball’s Home
Nauvoo was actually re-discovered by a descendent of Heber C. Kimball. He was looking for a summer home for his family and thought he would go back to find the family home in Nauvoo. He discovered it was still standing and prepared to fix it up. The idea came to him that other homes could be fixed up and maybe the Church would be interested in renewing its presence.
So, among the homes and shops, the Church now has a Visitor’s Center, an amphitheatre, a Living Center (where they have demonstrations), a monument park honoring Women, as well as a beautiful temple. They also have oxen-led wagon rides and a carriage ride that circles the entire area.
Sarah Granger Kimball’s home is one of the original surviving homes. When I walked in, I tried to imagine a group of women settling in for a sewing
- Relief Society Monument Park–The Virtuous Woman
session. The home is really quite small to our standards, but I suppose the women were smaller back then too. Aren’t we grateful that Sarah was there to coordinate this sewing group, and perhaps eagerly urge Joseph to organize the women formally.
The Senior Missionaries were so wonderful. I may be letting the cat out of the bag, but the Nauvoo missionaries are the hardest working missionaries in the world. They don’t proselyte, but they have to memorize all the scripts for all of the houses, because they rotate. And wherever they are, they tie their message to the gospel and testify of it. There are several productions that go on every night, and guess who are the actors. The Living Center and the Blacksmith Shop demonstrate skills that these missionaries have to learn on site. They are all so happy, capable, and welcoming though. They have left their fear behind and jumped in with both feet.
I have often wondered just how many non-Mormons come to visit and I was pleased to discover quite a few. As we wandered through the women’s statues, one little girl was madly taking pictures of her favorite statue, where a toddler is walking between its parents. She ran to her mother and said, “I just love this one, even though I don’t recognize the scripture; it isn’t in the Bible.”
One of my favorite spots was the grove of trees that sits just below the temple. The early Saints used other gathering places; on both sides of the temple and even on the front steps of the temple, but this is the last remaining spot. Waterlogged, because of the recent rains in the Midwest, and infested with mosquitoes, we bravely traipsed along the path reading the plaques. We were reminded of the times Joseph spoke to the Saints with Power. As well, this is one of the places the Relief Society met when the group grew too large for the room above the store.
Parley’s Street takes you all the way to the Mississippi River where the Saints lined up their wagons and waited to cross the frozen water. With all of our modern “luxuries” it really is hard to imagine these people, who had created permanent homes, leaving so much behind. And their sacrifices were just beginning. I am convinced they knew what was required of them. I believe they were willing to prove themselves before the Lord. But it must have been just like signing up for life in the Spirit World: We just never realized it would be so HARD to actually do!
These Saints are such an example to me. God’s choicest people lived in this place to set the standard we must all learn to live.
Jan, I have been to Nauvoo several times as well as most other Church History sites, (and other sites) in North America and I have had a variety of experiences, (both good and bad) both at our sites and others. We are pretty good at “quality control”, but we seldom “soar” or “drop out the bottom”. (Although it is still easier to drop out the bottom than soar.)That is good news/bad news. I think we are kind of like McDonalds, you pretty much know what you will get. Our absolutely worst history tour ever was in Independence from the CoC. But conversely we had one of our best tours ever at the CoC sites in Nauvoo. It has been 3 years since we have been to Nauvoo and 4 years since we TOOK all of our family (35 people) on a Church History tour. At that time I asked for and was allowed to give my “famous” history of RS in the RBS. It was a highlight of the 100s of times I have given some version of that talk. I invited, but did not pressure any in my group, but they all came. Most of them were boys, but several of them said it was one of the best talks ever and asked me many more questions about the RS.(Smile).On that trip we had a dreadful wagon ride. So boring, but worse than that, one of our grandsons was having an allergy attack from the horses, but the driver would not let him off. He was sick for the rest of the day. On our trip before that, we had the”dreaded artifact tour” at the SGK home (as well as being told that the RS was actually organized there–Yikes). The Browning home was also a disaster. One of our DIL is a descendant of Browning, but after that waaaay too long artifact tour, she said she would never go back there again (and she didn’t on our last trip.)
Of course the temple is the absolute highlight of Nauvoo. On the trip 4 years ago we had 14 adults on a temple session together, and 12 youth (only one girl) did baptisms for the dead. It was a wonderful day.
Church pageants–I don’t much care for them, including the one at Nauvoo, although I will admit it is the best one I have seen.
I think the best interpretive guides I have seen in the Church system are at the museum. That probably reflects the extensive and ongoing vetting and training you get. Missionaries everywhere are kind of “potluck” and while well intentioned are all over the place in quality. At Cove Fort, one missionary told us “confidentially” that “this is the very place where the Gadianton robbers had once lived” (Another Yikes.)At the school of the prophets room in Kirtland the Sister Missionary stood in front of the closed door (the only way out, except for the second story window) and apparently wasn’t going to let anyone out, until everyone had but something done on the referral cards. I do know there were some local non-members on that tour. I bet they never came back or let the missionaries in.
Our tour of the White House and Mount Vernon were also “dreaded artifact tours, while Monticello was spectacular, integrating the story with the stuff. The very best historic site tour I have ever been on was at the Nathaniel Hawthorn home in Salem, Mass. the guide was so engaging, weaving stories and the home together.
Everywhere and overall I think the quality of the experience depends on the guide. I think we as an organization are doing better than the (even recent) past, but we seldom “soar” (except at the Church Museum–smile.)
I didn’t really have time for this, this morning–so much more could be said, but I need to close for now. Love–M
Nice! It’s so hard to find good high quality info on the internet at the moment from knowledgeable sources, it is all wannabe’s and reused content with only a few exceptions. I hope you retain up the nice work and I will probably back to read extra of your posts in the future!
May I ask where you all stayed in Nauvoo? I am in charge of finding options for our family (currently about 35) for next year’s reunion in Nauvoo. Any helpful hints for a large group would be much appreciated.
Surprisingly, there aren’t a lot of accommodations in the area. Check out Zion’s Mercantile, which is almost the only place to eat in town. Your family could divide up into the several bed and breakfasts in the area, or you may want to camp out.
My recommendation: Read all you can about what happened in Nauvoo (stories, revelations, geography, and timetable) BEFORE YOU GO, and try to include trips to Independence on up to Adam-ondi-ahman (Kind of a big trip, but SO worth it). Assign these out to various family members and share findings throughout your reunion. If you have ancestors who lived in Nauvoo, you can look up their histories and stories, find out where they lived, and maybe discover information you didn’t already know.
Call the visitor’s center to see how to accommodate a group your size at their performances, because you won’t want to miss them.
Have a great time!