SOME RESTORED SITES AND TRAIL OF HOPE

We visited the restored homes and businesses in groups, a few at a time because after going through several, they all began to look the same and we lost track of where we had been.   So, here are the ones we visited, in the order we visited them, more or less.

Sarah Kimball home.  No relation to Heber C. Kimball

Side view of Kimball home

Temple from the Kimball home

70’s hall.  This is a reconstruction, the original was destroyed

When the Saints were leaving Nauvoo, they went to the dock at the end of Parleys Street.  Wagons were lined up for a mile or more waiting their turn to get on a barge to cross the Mississippi River.  At that time it was named the “Trail of Tears” but now it is referred to as the “Trail of Hope”

Down Parleys Street toward Mississippi River

Signs along the trail with quotes from the journals of those who made the journey to Salt Lake.  These quotes can be found on the church website.

Barge display at the end of Parleys Street.  It would have taken a lot of courage to get on this with all your earthly possessions and head across the river.

Mississippi from the end of Parleys Street.  When we took this picture the river was at flood stage or 20 feet above normal.  At the time of the pioneers, the river wasn’t as wide because when they built the dam at Keokuk a hundred years ago it raised the river level in this area by about 20 feet.  So between the two, that made the river not nearly as wide when the pioneers crossed it.  The Des Moines rapids were also located just out in the river from Nauvoo but with the building of the dam, the rapids were no longer a problem.  We were told that in the 1840’s all the ships on the Mississippi had to unload their cargo either above or below the rapids and port it in wagons along Nauvoo’s Main Street and reload it to continue their journey either up or down the river.

Joseph and Brigham Young at the end of Parleys Street looking to the west

Brigham is holding a map of the route to the Rocky Mountains

Plaque on base of statue

Behind the statue is this memorial.  Inside are the names of over 6,000 people who left Nauvoo from this place, heading west to Salt Lake but who died before completing their journey.

Look at this, I dipped my piggies in the Mississippi River at the end of Parleys Street

We drove on around to where Parleys Street joins Water Street.  Out in the river where the lily pads grow and logs have drifted down the river, we saw two snapping turtles sunning themselves.