Winter Quarters, Nebraska

A ten minute drive across the Missouri River brought us to Winter Quarters. I had last visited the place 21 years ago. Then there was a single statue in the cemetery. Now there is a full scale visitor center, the cemetery, and a small temple. There was a nice 15 minute film (which used clips from the Kanesville Mormon Battalion movie) and some standard pioneer exhibits. Most interesting to me was the number of people that were fitted into the rather small cabins.

The time spent in the cemetery is always poignant. The camps were devasted by disease (apparently primarily scurvy which means it would be primarily because of lack of citrus fruit or other vitamin C carrying food and thus simply malnutrition.) I think the plaque said that about 600 people died during the two years, out of roughly 3,000 that were encamped there. Many of these were very young children.



The stain glass on the new temple is quite interesting.

Adam-ondi-Ahman

Another 30 miles or so northeast on country roads thru Daviess County brought us to the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman. A short drive on a gravel road and then a very short hike brought us to the overlook. There were a few picnic tables and restrooms and a couple of descriptive plaques.


Joseph Smith declared that this was the land where Adam dwelt and that at the second coming of Christ there would be a large priesthood meeting with Him. There certainly will be plenty of space. The valley is a tremendously large tract of farmland. Quiet, peaceful, with a gentle breeze. Again, a pleasant, forgotten place on the American prairie in a nation that has long forgotten these frontier battles.

It is always disappointing to me that the descendants of those stripped of their civil rights, warred against, captured and tortured because of their desire to found a society based on their religious beliefs have not been very vocal in standing against those that would once again use fear-mongering, torture and long captivity without trial as methods to suppress those that they supposed to be our enemies but would never allow to defend themselves in a fair court of law. One rather prominent descendant even said as part of his political campaign that he would double Gitmo. Ironically, apparently the "intelligence techniques" used at Gitmo come straight from the Communist Chinese methods of the Korean War. I wonder how how Eagle Forum/John Birchers reconcile that. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/us/02detain.html?ref=todayspaper. How very strange. Particularly when one the political faction pushing for these actions are almost literal descendants of the very factions that drove our people from Missouri and Illinois. If Joseph’s revelation was right, that all these things would be for experience, then I think God will hold us accountable for not using that experience.

Kanesville Tabernacle

About an hour drive from Adam-ondi-Ahman brought us to Kanesville, now present-day Council Bluff, Iowa. Here there is a visitor center with a half hour movie, several statues representing pioneers and a re-creation of the original Tabernacle. The exhibit and film focuses on the Mormon Battalion. One of our ancestors, SMJ, was a private in the battalion. Our guides for this visitor center were an older couple from Washington State. They were quite knowledgeable, which I liked.

Background: After leaving Nauvoo in March of 1846, the Saints struggled across the unusually wet Iowa prairie (once gets the sense that the 500 year floods of this year are in fact only 150 year floods.) Although the originally hope had been for a vanguard to reach the Salt Lake valley by the fall of 1846, it became evident that the fatigued Saints were not going to be able to travel much further. At Kanesville, Brigham Young struck a deal with the US Army. In exchange for 500 men to serve in the Army of the West in the Mexican War, the Saints would be able to use most of their uniform allowance to support their families and the Saints were allowed to camp in Indian Territory (Winter Quarters)for two years. 500 men mustered out marched on their way.


After two years of temporary settlement in both Winter Quarters and Kanesville (1846 and 1847) the headquarters of gathering and leaving for Salt Lake was moved back to Kanesville. At the end of 1847, after returning from the Salt Lake valley, the revelation was received to go ahead and reorganize the First Presidency of the Church with Brigham, then President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to become president of the Church. The Kanesville Tabernacle was build for the historic solemn assembly to ratify this decision.

Interestingly, we learned from our tour guide that the Kanesville Tabernacle was built of green cottonwood. (Remember it was built in haste, 3 weeks, for the solemn assembly.) As the cottonwood dried out over the coming months, it began the twist, warping the walls. Additionally, the cottonwood is apparently infested with fungus, so it sprouted mushrooms all over the place.


(An example of mushroom evident in the reconstruction which had also been built out of green cottonwood for effect.)

Between the twist and the mushroom, the Tabernacle only lasted two years.

Flooding Iowa

[Insert video clip here]

As we drove across Iowa, the damage of the recent flooding was evident in the corn fields everywhere.

Far West Temple Site.

About 30 miles from Liberty is the Far West temple site. Following our google map instructions we ended up taking gravel roads for about five miles, although this turned out simply to be the shortest way not the quickest way. Still we had plenty of opportunity to see the rolling prairie land. It is still mostly uninhabited with small farms and large tracts of grassland. Standing out there on the prairie was the temple site. A iron fence and flower beds surrounds the grounds and the four cornerstones, now encased in cement and covered by a plexiglass. JP said it looked lonely. And I could not help but wonder how this peaceful rolling prairie could have been the scene of so much disputation and violence. And to think that if there was a call to gather back, that it would be a pleasant place to camp.

JA fell down and hurt her hand while walking back to the car.

St. Louis Arch

We stopped at the Arch and Thomas Jefferson National Museum of Western Expansion.



Here are a few shots of us at the Arch.


Flood Water has covered over the lower road, but pedestrians still have the right of way.


JP having conversation with TJ inside the museum.

Historic Liberty Jail-Clay County, Missouri

This is where Joseph Smith and others were held for over 4 months while awaiting their trial for treason in relationship to the “Mormon War” between the Mormon residence of Caldwell and Daviess county and non-Mormon settlers of the surrounding counties.

Background History-
After expulsion from Jackson County, MO, the Saints had moved up slightly north to Ray County, where tension again began to build. Ray County had been split into three counties-Ray, Caldwell, and Daviess, with the understanding that the Mormons settlements would be in Caldwell and the non-Mormons in Ray, but settlement in Daviess were unsettled. Increases in the Mormon population of County increased the fear of non-Mormon settlers that they would lose political power. At an election at Gallatin, the Daviess count seat, the non-Mormon settlers tried to stop the Mormons from voting. A fight broke out but no one was killed. However, rumors of people being killed were passed along by both sides and both sides took up arms. After a series of attacks by vigilantes groups aimed at driving the Mormons out Daviess county, the Mormons of Caldwell county and Daviess county undertook a series of raids on non-Mormons settlements in Daviess county to drive out their attackers and recoup their losses in animals. This caused the militias of surrounding counties to be called out. At the battle of Crooked River (in Ray County), the group of armed Mormons skirmished with what they thought were a band of vigilantes but turned out to be the Richmond county militia. Three Mormons were killed and one Missourian. This battle was considered treason because the Mormons had attack a state militia. Although Joseph Smith did not lead the military group involved in the battle, by virtue of being the Mormon leader he was considered to have authorized the attack. Governor Boggs issued his infamous extermination order and the Mormon settlement at Haun’s Mill was massacred. The militias surrounded Far West and laid siege. Outnumbered and knowing that all citizens would be massacred if the militias were allowed to attack, Joseph surrendered himself. He and Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight, Parley Pratt, Amasa Lyman, Hyrum Smith and George Robinson were taken first to Independence (Jackson Co. seat), then to Richmond (Richmond Co. seat which actually had jurisdiction) and then because of overcrowding to Liberty (Clay Co.) seat. They remained in jail for more than four months awaiting trail before they were transferred. The jail was miserably cold, the food rotten and sickening, and the suffering intense. During their transfer, they were allowed to escape and made their way to Nauvoo where the Saints had sought refugee.


Log-
We reached the visitor center by about 7 pm. Liberty is now pretty much a typical modern bedroom community with the usual assortment of freeway fungus type stores and restaurants. The historic Liberty Jail site is in the older section of the town and has a typical looking Mormon visitor center. Nothing but the floor of the jail is still extant. The jail apparently began to fall apart by the 1850s and the foundation was eventually usd as the starting point for a wealthy person home. This was eventually bought by the LDS Church to serve as a home for local missionaries and then eventually this home torn down and a replica of the original jail built on the original floor/foundation. A viewing rotunda surrounds the replica, which is cut away on the back side so that the interior can be viewed.



Our tour guide was a young sister missionary. She was fairly new and unfortunately probably didn’t have a complete grasp of the history. But she was sweet and attentive to the kids. As part of the presentation, the lights were dimmed and there was some narration which scared ME, so AM had to take her out. Our guide read to us passages from Section 121 and 122, perhaps some of the most eloquent passages in the Doctrine and Covenants.