NAUVOO TEMPLE AND VISITOR CENTER

We took a day trip on June 13 to Nauvoo IL to visit the LDS Visitor Center, restored buildings, and Family Search Center. The time we spent at the latter did not leave as much time as I would have liked to explore the Visitors Center and restored buildings. 4 to 5 hours would have been better.

The roots of the LDS church go back to Joseph Smith in New York State in 1820. The church leaders, with many of the members, migrated to Missouri and then to undeveloped land in far eastern Illinois on the Mississippi River. They bought the city of Commerce and renamed it Nauvoo where they settled in 1838 - 1839. There they built a temple, substantial brick homes and commercial buildings. Local religious persecution caused them to begin to move westward in 1846, ending in July 1847 in Utah. An arson fire gutted the Nauvoo temple in 1848, and high winds in 1850 completed its destruction.

Members of the church began moving back to Nauvoo in the 1950s when a local congregation was organized.  Beginning in 1992 the LDS church began restoration of part of Nauvoo. It rebuilt the temple, completed in 2002, similar to the original and bought the land on which its early members had built their homes. The homes which were still standing were restored to their original  conditions and others were built on the original foundations to replicate much of the early village. Now those going to the Nauvoo Visitors Center can learn the  history of the church when its members lived at Nauvoo and go through many of the old homes guided by  missionary docents. The restoration has been called the Williamsburg of the Midwest.

 

 Pictures were taken by a Canon Power Shot 150 14 mp digital camera.

 

The temple is located on a bluff overlooking the lower area where the original LDS buildings are located.

 

The Visitors Center has static displays, theaters for movies about the church, plays and pageants. Visitors can enjoy wagon tours, carriage rides, oxen rides and a handcar trek. Many events are ticketed, and the tickets are free. I welcomed the very wide parking places in the parking lot. The missionary docents were very nice and would have been happy if the visitor was at all interested in converting. 

 

This log building was both a home and a school.

 

We toured this home. The rooms are quite small by our standards, and the stairway to the second floor is very steep with  uncomfortably small steps.

 

 This is part of the commercial area with a print shop, bakery, post office and tin shop.

 

 Jo is entering Brigham Young’s home. He became the leader of the church after Joseph Smith was killed in 1844. This building is the original, not a reproduction. It has a carriage house and root cellar. The interior pictures below were taken here.

 

 

This is a meeting room in Mr. Young’s home, and his picture is on  wall.

 

Two bedrooms in Mr. Young’s home.