#2 Nauvoo, Il.

When traveling to Burlington, Iowa, for business, I often wanted to visit a nearby historic Illinois river town. Nestled between the Great River Road and the Big Muddy is the town of Nauvoo Il. that was once the home of a bustling community of Mormons under the leadership of their founder and prophet, Joseph Smith.  Between the years of 1838 and 1845, the area was granted a charter to operate somewhat independently of the State and Federal government. With a militia of 5000 (compared to the US Army’s 15,000 at the time), and a population of 12,000 (equaling that of Chicago at that time), the community began to politically and economically dominate the area. It soon raised the ire of many locals, and an incident where an opposing newspaper office was burned by Nauvoo residents tipped the scales; while being held in protective custody nearby, 39 year old Joseph Smith and a brother, Hyrum, were murdered. Two years later the Mormon community in Nauvoo was driven from their land. Under the leadership of Brigham Young, most of the Mormons migrated to Utah.

We are camped in nearby Nauvoo State Park and for the last two nights we were the only campers in the scenic pine forested campground.

Today, Nauvoo can boast a collection of original and restored homes and businesses with many antique artifacts that tell of the life and times of the early Mormon Residents. We started off the day taking one of two carriage rides through the property (originally 1000 acres). Can you find Anne?

At one point we stopped at a favorite overlook that Joseph Smith liked to frequent. Its more picturesque than the picture tells.

The home and especially the attached shop of gunsmith Robert Browning was quite interesting.

It was a treat to have a guide all to ourselves who gave us a 20 minute tour through the home and shop, where we learned about hammer forging flat steel into barrels in the 1840’s and how the barrels were hand spiraled on their inside diameters after 200 strokes of the spiraling tool.

Robert Browning and his son John were also inventors who sold most of their designs to companies like Winchester and Remington, who manufactured them. 

A similar tour in the Print Shop featured all the equipment to print flyers and the newspaper.

The guides continually provided us with very interesting tidbits of information, like the Print Shop guides who told how the name for Upper and Lower case letters came about. Can you guess from this picture?

From the upper and lower cases in which the Upper and Lower case print letters were filed, of course!

The Brickyard had an interesting presentation about how bricks are made and an exhibit of how the bricks were fired for several days in a large stack (or “clamp”) of green bricks made with multiple built-in fireplaces. There were seven brickyards in Nauvoo.

At the Post Office/Dry Goods Store, we saw how people conserved paper and saved on postage (6 cents per page mailed - a separate envelope cost another six cents) by writing in two directions on the same page and folding their letter to make it into an envelope.

Twelve years ago the current LDS church completed building their new temple on the grounds where the original one was constructed and it now stands on a hilltop as a gleaming monument to the faith and perseverance of the followers.

The tour guides injected information about the Mormon faith throughout the day and encouraged questions, but mostly their input was woven into their narratives and not overly emphatic.

The State Park has a historical museum housed in the restored home of a German vintner complete with his winemaking apparatus and wine cellar. The curator there was particularly helpful in explaining the history of the Mormons and how and why they were driven from Illinois.

With all the individual attention from the guides and well over 30 historic and sites and buildings completely furnished with period pieces and equipment, and with its excellent tour guides, Nauvoo, Il. is certainly a great stop for anyone wanting to learn about early American pioneers and how they lived and worked.

And, they have some good ice cream in town too!

And maybe best of all, there was no charge for ANY of the day’s activities!!