DAY 14 – July 12, 2012 Carthage and New Salem

Notes on Nauvoo:

We saw everything except 2 vignettes, “Go Ye Unto All the World”, and “Women of Nauvoo”.  I do wish we could have seen those, but they didn’t start showing those vignettes until the day we left, and it seemed silly to stay another whole day just for two things.  So we headed on our way.

I also wanted to address another thing we did just by accident, which turned out absolutely perfect.  We came to Nauvoo 3 days before the pageant.  I think beating the pageant is what gave us the personal relationships that we were able to build.  Things were less crowded.  Missionaries giving tours were able to spend more time with us teaching and talking to us.  The day before the pageant our camp only had 2 other RV’s.  But by that night when we drove in from being gone all day, the camp was wall to wall RV’s.  And the town changed like that too.  I’m grateful for the time we had to enjoy Nauvoo on a more personal level.  But you don’t want to miss the pageant and all the special events that occur during it.  So coming early was wonderful, and I would highly recommend it!

Notes on Church History Tours:

Everyone we meet is heading to Missouri from here.  Nauvoo is close to Missouri and geographically it makes sense.  The problem is the way they have set up the pageants.  In order to see both the Nauvoo and the Hill Cumorah Pageant, it just isn’t feasible to go to Missouri.  From Nauvoo, we go to Springfield, then Kirtland, than Niagara Falls, then Palmyra.  We saw the first showing of the Nauvoo Pageant, and we have one week to make it to Palmyra to see the last showing of the Hill Cumorah.  So that is why we made the choice.

We will be able to come through Missouri on our way home and have time to do all the church sites in Missouri, and fit in Hannibal (Mark Twain’s home town), and enjoy St. Louis, and enjoy Amish country, and perhaps fit in Branson.  So we are skipping Missouri, even though it is so close in site, to keep our direction to Palmyra.

BACK TO TODAY:

Barge in the Mississippi River, with American Lotus Flowers all along the shore line.

We woke up this morning and headed to Carthage.  The first part of the drive from Nauvoo to Carthage is along the Mississippi River.  It is a very beautiful drive.  It’s crazy how far out the River is shallow.  All along the river the American Lotus grows.  It grows in the river, but can’t grow in water deeper than 18 inches.  And as you drive along the Mississippi you can see Lotus flowers everywhere, it seems almost a quarter of the way out to the middle of the river.

We thought getting to Carthage early, we would beat the crowds.  But there are so many in Nauvoo, there was no beating the crowds.  By the time we got to Carthage they had only been open an hour and they said they had already had 250 visitors.  So there was some waiting to get in, but well worth it.

While we were waiting for a tour, they asked if anyone could play the piano.  And to my surprise Bazooka raised his hand.  He has never had a day of piano lessons, so we were all a little startled.  Mr. S has been practicing the piano this summer, which has gotten all the little kids to want to practice too.  Bazooka has been trying to teach himself how to play some hymns.  So he tells the tour guide that he knows how to play “The Spirit of God”.  I don’t want to say that I held my breath when he walked up to the grand piano in front of all those people, because that might sound rude.  But I did turn a slight tinge of blue…but he sat down, and played the “Spirit of God” amazingly.  He was so awesome!  Maybe we will get a pianist out of these kids yet.  Go Bazooka!

Some of our friends we met in Nauvoo came a little after we got there, and we were able to tour Carthage with them.   I have been to Carthage before as a child, and I know the story of Joseph’s death.  So the thing that struck me this time was the story of how the jailer took care of Joseph.  I think that says a lot about who Joseph was.  People not of our church might have different beliefs about things, but no one would murder an innocent man.  This jailer knew he was not a hardened criminal, and took all the precautions he could to keep him safe, including in the end giving him his upstairs bedroom to keep Joseph away from the mobs.  But when the Lord numbers the days of our lives, it’s His time reckoning that determines when we leave this earth.  So of all the times the mob was not aloud to hurt him, this time they did.

My favorite part of this story, is knowing he got to leave with his brother.  In the pageant when they talk about Joseph and Hyrum dying, they show both of them walking off the stage into the dark together.  It’s really moving.  If only we all had family that stays with us through it all.

I have added two photos of some paintings that I loved from Carthage.  The first one is of Joseph leaving Nauvoo never to return.  It shows the temple half built in the background.  How sad for him not to see it finished in this life, although I’m sure he had a hand in the finishing of it from the heavens.

The other painting is by a painter with the last name of Gork.  He was asked by President Packer to do a painting of Joseph teaching along the Mississippi, since there are so many stories of him doing just that.  Brother Gork painted himself and the person who converted him into the painting.  Brother Gork is the one holding the hat, and his friend is the one listening to Joseph intently with his hand on his chin.  I do love this painting.

After Carthage we visited with our friends for a while and exchanged information so we could keep in touch.  Mr. S mentioned again on the way out of Carthage how sweet the relationships were that we have made on the trip.  I hope we will keep in touch.

I mentioned on a previous day that Mr. S ran into one of his cousins in Nauvoo.  It was very unexpected, as we did not know he lived in this area.  So after Carthage we went to Macomb, IL to have lunch.  It was great to visit and catch up with family.  After lunch we were on our way to Petersburg, Illinois.  Petersburg has a little rebuilt city called New Salem.  And it’s similar to Nauvoo, in the sense that it’s a rebuilt town similar to something Abraham Lincoln would have seen in his days.  Fireball mentioned the other day, “We sure do like visiting a lot of old things.”  I guess that’s what this trip is about, a lot of old things.

New Salem is a Village that has been reconstructed.  There is a 15 minute video that explains Abraham Lincoln and his time in New Salem.  Then you walk the grounds.  They have 24 places to visit including residences, a cooper shop, blacksmith shop, schoolhouse, 4 stores, a tavern, an archeological walk, a saw and gristmill, and a carding mill and wool house.

The Carding Mill and Wool House is one of only three working animal powered carding mills in the world.  How cool is that!  It was quite a thing to see.  After learning how to card in Nauvoo, seeing this machine that could do it so well, was fun.

They also have a theater here, and live productions are featured June through August.  I didn’t realize that, and we arrived the day before a big production and we are leaving tomorrow.  They also have campgrounds, so you can spend the night when you are visiting.  Just be sure to make it early enough to get in.  I didn’t even think about it closing, and we barely made it…it closes at 5pm.

It was interesting to come here after Nauvoo.  I will say, I think New Salem is the perfect compliment when going to Springfield.  It gives a person an introduction to the younger Abraham Lincoln, preparing the way to see the political Lincoln in Springfield.

But I would say Nauvoo is the perfect complement to New Salem.  Nauvoo and New Salem are cities that existed pretty close to the same time period.  And the differences between Nauvoo and New Salem really complement each other.

In Nauvoo we were constantly taught about how pioneers lived.  My kids learned so much.  When we got to New Salem, it is a personal walking tour, with signs explaining what the buildings are and tells a little about the occupants.  There are no explanations of what is inside the buildings.  There are no tour guides.  (Nauvoo has hundreds of volunteers and tour guides, but New Salem is limited with only 2 staff and a handful of volunteers).  But our children had learned so much about pioneer lifestyle from Nauvoo, they could look in a building at New Salem and pick out everything…the candle molds, the bed warmers, the wooden vice grips…they knew the coopers shop when they saw it, and the blacksmiths shop.  My kids were so excited to see that the school house was a blab school, because they had learned all about that in Nauvoo.  Having learned in Nauvoo really enhanced and was reinforced in New Salem.

The reason it’s worth going to New Salem…first because it did give the kids a chance to re-talk about on their own, all the things they had learned.  But also, it was a different view of that time period.  In Nauvoo they have rebuilt many of the important buildings, which had foundations that they could see, and those tended to be built with brick.  So most of Nauvoo today is made up of brick buildings.  But they tell us that for every brick home in Nauvoo there were three log homes, but there are hardly any log homes to see.  New Salem is all log homes, so you can look at New Salem, and imagine what Nauvoo started like, and fill in the blanks of what the buildings would have looked like that were in between all the old brick buildings we visited.  Nauvoo was also one of the largest cities in Illinois, and New Salem…a smaller one, so our kids could get an idea of what the different cities would have looked like.

I had never heard of New Salem until I was looking up what we could see about Abraham Lincoln in Springfield.  I am so grateful I found it.  It was the perfect bookend to our visit…two “old cities” as Fireball would say.

Taken by my friend at Carthage Jail. The window where Joseph died.

Summary of Day 14

Drove:  124 miles

Places we visited: Carthage Jail, Guadalupe’s Restaurant in Macomb, and New Salem, IL

Favorite thing that happened today:
Fireball: the playground at New Salem campground
Jawbreaker: Carthage and burritos with dad’s cousin
Starburst, Bazooka, Spitz: Carthage
Warhead :  having burritos with dad’s cousin
Mr. and Mrs. S:  Carthage, Bazooka playing the piano and being with friends