US History and LDS Church History Trip…and links to each days blog

This is a National Cemetery were many soldiers are buried from the Battle of Antietam.

Brigham Young’s Mill and Home Site

We visited 218 US History and LDS Church History sites in 47 days.  (That included visiting 54 different cities). Each day is blogged with information about places we visited, maps, photos and highlights of the day.

If you would like more information if you are planning a trip, you can email me at priceless6191@gmail.com.  I kept very detailed records including: budgets, trip plans, and calenders for the trip showing our day by day progress.  I also have tons of brochures and maps for specific places, although I did try to scan the most important details I have onto each blog page.  Below is listed each city we visited, and what we did there.  Click on a city and start exploring.

I made this blog because I realized I would have appreciated a site with more specific information.  I hope this is beneficial to anyone who wants to take a history trip.  It was our families dream trip, and we still refer to it often.

Here is a PDF with a summary of our trip. (If you would like an editable version, I have the spreadsheet version also.)
Trip Itinerary

** Just a side note as you look around the site…no my kids names are not Bazooka, Starburst, Jawbreaker etc…our kids just picked nicknames so they could have some privacy.  Have fun looking!!!!

Alcova, WY
Devils Gate, Church, Trek, Independence Rock

Custer, WY
Custer County Museum, City 4th of July

Crazy Horse, SD

Keystone, SD
Mount Rushmore 4th July Celebrations

Rapid City, SD
Dinosaur Park, Storybook Park

Wall, SD
Wall Drug

Omaha, NE
Winter Quarters Visitors Center, Winters Quarters Temple (E,B), Mormon Pioneer Cemetery, Glenn Cunningham Lake, Pioneer Courage Park

Council Bluffs, Iowa
Kanesville Tabernacle

Nauvoo, IL
Play “High Hopes and Riverboats”, Movie “Remembering Nauvoo”, Play “Sunset by the Mississippi”, Women’s Garden, Riser Boot Shop, Blacksmith Shop, Seventies Hall, Lucy M Smith Home, Brickyard, Heber Kimball and Wilford Woodruff’s homes, Movie “Joseph Smith-Prophet of the Restoration”, Joseph Smith’s Homestead, Mansion House, Nauvoo House, Red Brick Store, Smith Family Cemetery, Trail of Hope, Youth of Zion, Play “Old Anna Amanda” 2xs, Nauvoo Pageant 2xs, Carriage Ride, Pioneer Park Pastimes, Nauvoo Temple (B,E), Frontier Fair 2xs, Play “Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo”, Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds, Lands and Records Office, King Follet Discourse, Emma and Josephs Letters Vignette

Carthage, IL
Carthage Jail

Macomb, IL
Dinner with Steve -Guadalupes Restaurant

Petersburg, IL
Lincolns New Salem (camped there)

Springfield, IL
Springfield Vis Ctr, Lincolns Home Vis Ctr, Lincolns Home, Lincolns-Herndon Law Office, Old Capital, Lincoln Library, Lincoln Presidential Museum

Chicago, IL
Chicago Navy Pier, Magnificent Mile, Millennium Park, Cloud Gate, Chicago Temple (B,E)

Gary, IN
Just for Gas and Photos

Kirtland OH
Kirtland Ward, Ashery, Isaac Morley Farm, Newel K. Whitney Store, Whitney Home, Sawmill, Schoolhouse, Kirtland Temple RLDS

Parma, OH
Brian and Camilla’s Home

Hiram, OH
John Johnson’s Home

Middlefield, OH
Amish Country, Cheese Factory, Hiram College (where President Garfield attended and taught)

Kenmore, NY
Mags home, Keeners, Lindbergh Elementary, Pam’s Home

Niagra Falls
Niagara Falls, Cave of Winds

Buffalo, NY(2 sites or events)
Downtown Buffalo, Duffs Chicken Wings

Mendon, NY
Home built by Brigham, Early Meeting Home, Phineas Young’s Home, John Young’s Home, Tom Tomlinson Inn, Heber Kimballs home site, Camped at John Young’s Home, Site of Brigham Young’s Mill and Home, Baptismal Site, Tomlinsons Cemetery

Palmyra, NY
Palmyra Visitors Center, Palmyra Temple (B,E), Palmyra Pageant, Sacred Grove, Smith’s Log Cabin and Frame House Alvin built, Hill Cumorah, Martin Harris’s Home, Book of Mormon Publication Site (Grandin Building)

Waterloo, NY
Peter Whitmer home

Oakland, PA
Aaronic Priesthood Monument, Joseph and Emma’s Home Site, Grave of Emmas parents and son Alvin Smith, Susquehanna River

Jersey City, NJ 
Liberty Harbor

New York, NY
PATH Rail System, Site World Trade Center, 911 Memorial and Museum, Battery Park, Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, New York Stock Exchange, China Town, Little Italy, Noho, Washington Square Park, New York University, Empire State Building, Garment District, Bryant Park, Time’s Square, Theatre District, NBC Studios, Carnegie Hall, Central Park, New York City LDS Temple, Madison Square Gardens

Philadelphia, PA
Independence Visitor Center, Independence Hall, Congress Hall, City Tavern (restaurant), Carpenters Hall, New Hall Military Museum, Benjamin Franklin’s Grave, President’s House Site, Liberty Bell Center”

Hershey, PA
Hershey Amusement Park

Gettysburg, PA
Gettysburg National Park

WashingtonDC
Washington DC Temple (B,E), IKEA, Ford’s Theatre, Petersen House and Center for Education and Leadership, Spy Museum, National Archives, Washington Memorial, World War II Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Holocaust Museum, Lincoln Walking Tour, Arlington Cemetery, United States Capital Building, a Session of Congress, a Session of the House of Representatives, Smithsonian Natural History Museum, Smithsonian American History Museum, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, White House, Holocaust Museum, Nationals Game

Alexandria, Virginia
Mount Vernon

Centreville, VA
Bull Run Regional Park (Camping), visit with Tamara and family, Atlantis Water Park

Manassas, VA
Battle of 1st and 2nd Bull Run (Manassas)

Harpers Ferry, WV
Harpers Ferry

Sharpsburg, MD
Antietem Battle Field

Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria, VA Pier and Chick-fil-A

Chantilly, VA
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Annex

Middletown, VA
Cedar Creek Battlefield (2nd Manassas Battle Reenactment)

Charlottesville, VA
Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, University of Virginia

Buena Vista, VA
Southern Virginia University

St Louis, MO
St Louis Temple (B,E), St Louis Arch and Musuem, Old Court House (Dred Scott Case), Outside Busch Stadium, Feet in the Mississippi, Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Park and Grant Farm, Home Town Buffet, St Louis Cardinals Game, St Louis RV Park

Cottleville, MO
Joel and Christy’s Home

Independence, MO
LDS Visitor’s Center, Harry Truman Presidential Library, Missouri Mormon Walking Tour (things we saw on the tour: Clinton’s Soda Fountain, Jackson County Courthouse, 1827 Log Courthouse, Bingham-Waggoner Estate, Church of Christ Temple Lot, Community of Christ Temple, Gilbert and Whitney Store, Printing Office Site (Evening and Morning Star), Governor Boggs Home Site, and Partridge Home Site and School) , Campus RV Park (next door to the LDS Visitors Center), Vaile Mansion

Kansas City, MO
Kansas City Temple (B)

Liberty, MO
Liberty Jail, Eight Witnesses Monument

Richmond, MO
David Whitmer’s Grave, David Whitmer’s Livery site (marked by with a plaque), Old Richmond Jail Location, Statue of General Alexander W. Doniphan, Pioneer Cemetery (Monument for the Three Witnesses, Grave for Oliver Cowdery, Peter Jr. and Jacob Whitmer’s Graves)

Farwest, MO
Far West Temple Site

Jamesport, MO
Amish Country, Amish Baseball Game, and Shopping

Jameson, MO
Adam-ondi-Ahman , Jameson Town Fair and Parade

Doniphan, NE
Mormon Island

McKinnon, WY
Little America

Boston, MA
11 years later we went back to add Boston to our list or US/church history travels. Here is a link to the beginning of that trip. Yale, Scarburough and Prospect Ave in Hartford, CT, Mark Twain’s Home, Boston Temple, Boston Aquarium, Faneuil Hall, Boston Massacre Site, Old State House, Boston Latin School Site, Park Street Church, Granary Burying Ground, New State House, Boston Commons, Harbor Cruise, USS Constitution, Bunker Hill Monument, Old North Church, Paul Revere’s Home, Old South Meeting House, Union Oyster House, Omni Parker House, Cheers, Prudential Tower Observation Deck, Trinity Church of Boston, Old South Church

Other Valuable Links:
Mormon Pioneer Trail Auto Tour Route Guide
mormontrails.org

DAY 22 – July 20, 2012 – Peter Whitmers Home, Aaronic Priesthood Monument, Susquehanna River and Jersey City : )

I believe I said it before, but seriously each day gets better and better. I can’t wait to tell you about today!

I had on the itinerary to go to Waterloo (Fayette), NY to Peter Whitmer’s log cabin. It didn’t sound really exciting after everything we had done, and Mr. S asked if we could wake up early do a drive by and head on. But I told him to check and make sure it wasn’t a place that gives tours. He asked, and they said they had a visitor’s center and it was a place to stop. I will tell you now, it is a SIGNIFICANT place to stop.

Peter Whitmer Visitor Center

The Visitor’s Center is actually a Chapel for the church. It was built to look like a chapel the church would have built if they had money in the 1800’s. It is Greek Revival Architecture, and it is beautiful (I personally like that style better than what we have today). There are shutters on the windows in the chapel. The ceiling is higher and flat. The benches are old fashioned, and chandeliers are hanging on the ceiling.

A missionary told us the story of how David Whitmer brought Joseph back to his home… The persecution in Palmyra had gotten so bad nothing could happen. So Joseph and Emma had gone to Harmony to be with Emma’s parents. But they really needed to find somewhere else where they could concentrate on getting the Book of Mormon translated. Oliver Cowdery was friends with David Whitmer and wrote to him about the problem.

David asked his father Peter if he could go get the prophet. But it was during farming

season, and his dad said he didn’t know how he could go, because there was so much to do on the farm. He told David if he could get ahead on work, maybe he could go. So David worked really hard on the farm that day and got 2 days worth of work done in one day. The only thing left he had to do was sew plaster of paris into the soil (I guess that helped the crops grow). David woke up the next morning to do it and found the work already done. He asked his sister what happened. She told him she had assumed he was the one that had hired the 3 men to work that morning, the work was done.

David was able to leave and go get Joseph and Oliver. The significant things that happened here…The church was officially organized here, they finished the Book of Mormon translation here, 20 sections of the Doctrine Covenants were received here, and part of the work on the Bible happened here, and the sacrament was passed here for the first time in this dispensation.

In the Visitors center there are four charts that are amazing. I wish I had them in print. One shows all the dispensations when the gospel has been on the earth, who brought it back (Christ) and which prophets received it.

Then there are three charts that go together. One shows all the different parts of the church that existed in Christ’s time, then one in Joseph’s Smith’s time, then one for modern days. They show how the church is the same. We have prophets, apostles, the laying on of hands, the priesthood, eternal marriages, and more (I will post one of them).
The Visitors Center also has an art gallery that shows the sequence of what happened here in Fayette they time the church was organized. All the art is different, and it is beautiful.

In 1980, President Kimball came to the Whitmer home to dedicate the chapel and the home. It was the 150th anniversary of the official organization of the church. They broadcasted a session of general conference from here on Easter Sunday during conference.  They put a time capsule together during this time. They placed the scriptures, and photos of all the temples on the earth at that time in the time capsule. You will never guess how many temple photos that would be…we couldn’t believe it! There were only 17 temples in 1980… Last general conference they announced we have 136 working temples! They are going to open the time capsule in 2030, the 200th anniversary of the church.

Peter Whitmer Home

Then we sat outside the rebuilt log cabin of Peter Whitmer. They told of how they had 9 people living in this cabin (many of Peter’s children grown but still living there). And then they invited Oliver and Joseph and later Emma to live with them. The cabin is not big, and after having been to so many places where we have learned all the work it took to keep a home, we appreciated the generosity of Sister Whitmer. That was a lot of work for her to take on. They told us that she is sometimes called the 4th witness.

One day she was walking out to milk the cows and she was approached by a man. He told her he knew she was tired from all the work she was doing, and he knew she needed something to renew her faith and keep her going. So he showed her the Golden Plates. Later on she described the man to Oliver and Joseph, and they confirmed that it was Angel Moroni.

I’ve been waiting to get to this part, because this was one of the coolest parts of

Video taping for next years 2013 YM/YW theme

being here…another testament of the significance of this area…We had to wait outside the house for a while. Ahead of us in the cabin was President Beck, the president of the Young Men’s Organization. They are working on the YM/YW theme for next year, and they were doing some filming here. So we waited outside the cabin while they filmed inside.

I am so grateful that we took this trip this year. It will be an amazing foundation for our children. Our testimony of the restored church, Joseph Smith, and pioneers has grown exponentially. I expected that. But I am surprised at how our testimony of family has grown, and of standing in sacred places. Our kids have mentioned several times on this trip the different feelings they have had in the different places we go. And I don’t’ think these are exclusive to just church sites. The feeling has been felt with certain people and places all over. And I know there are many more historical US and church sites ahead were we will feel the spirit very strong. To be able to identify it as clearly as we have been able to do on this trip, has been such a blessing. There is something wonderful, important and strengthening about standing in holy places.

One of the things that President Beck told some of the missionaries that has stuck with me, and I think is significant about all we have done…he said ‘isn’t it amazing the church was organized in a family setting.’ Everything we do, everything the church does is to build and strengthen families. This trip has done it, these places have done it. It IS significant that the church was reorganized in a home, in a family setting.

On our way to Harmony (Oakland), Pennsylvania, we passed through Ithaca, NY, where Cornell University is. Around this area, it started to look super lush, green and hilly. We hadn’t seen many hills like this for a while. I also want to mention, since arriving in New York, the buildings are just amazing. The homes have age and character. There are so many old things here, it makes the West feel so young and new. For me, I love old. It’s beautiful here. I love history, and this area has history!

Aaronic Priesthood Monument

Oakland (formerly Harmony) is where Emma, Joseph’s wife was from. Joseph and Emma came to Harmony to live with her parents when the persecution in Palmyra increased. The church has announced that they are going to build a Visitors Center here, but as of yet, it has not happened. They do have the Aaronic Priesthood Monument here. I had thought that was all we were going to see, but as with everything else, it was more than that. When we got to the Monument, there is a plaque to the right of the Monument saying that this was the site of the home of Joseph and Emma (they lived in a home on her parents land).

To the left of the Monument is a cemetery. In that cemetery both of Emma’s parents are buried there, and Joseph and Emma’s first baby Alvin. This is a small portion of the large sacrifices that they both made for the gospel. After they left Harmony they moved to Waterloo (Fayette), then Kirtland, then Nauvoo. Emma never saw her two parents again after this time they spent here.

There is also the foundation of Emma’s parent’s home across the street and down a ways, but we did

Trail to the Susquehanna River

not go there. We wanted to get a photo near the Susquehanna River. The church has bought the land along the river, but it is not connected to the monument site (there is a piece of private land between them). There was a map there telling how to get to the River. We drove down the road past the cemetery, and the first road on the right was a paved road. The map said it was next to a wrecking company, but the building there had no signs, so that was no help. But it was the first right. We turned down that road and parked at the end. Then we walked along a gravel path (a car could probably drive down it, but you’d be stuck if there was a car coming back the opposite way, there is no room for two cars). It was labeled a .4 mile walk. It seemed about that. We were basically back tracking on the path to end up behind the site where Joseph and Emma’s home was. We could see people at the Monument through the private property between us. At the end of the gravel road you could see a path to the river. It would be assumed that Oliver and Joseph walked right outside their home and down a path to the river.

On the shore of the Susquehanna River

Harmony is a lush green beautiful area. And the path to the river was just dreamy. It was a misty, slightly rainy day, which always makes things look slightly more romantic and vivid. It was beautiful.

Joseph and Oliver were translating the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi, when as they were translating about baptism, they realized they had questions they needed answered about baptism. So they went to the grove along the river to pray. There John the Baptist (the same who baptized Jesus Christ) came to them. He told them that in order to baptize they needed the Aaronic Priesthood. So John the Baptist gave them the Aaronic Priesthood and told them to go to the river and baptize each other by immersion. So there at the Susquehanna River they baptized each other.

Mr. S found in 3 Nephi a place that talked about the importance of baptism. So he read it to the kids as we sat along the Susquehanna River. We talked about the significance of the event. Then I took pictures with Bazooka and Mr. S. Bazooka will be receiving the Aaronic Priesthood as a Deacon next year when he turns twelve. Then I took a photo with Mr. S and Starburst, who is going to be baptized in a couple of months. And then a photo with Fireball and Mr. S, as Fireball will be baptized a year after Starburst. Then the older boys took their photo together. It was a great time. Like all our stops, it was more and better than we expected.

We drove to Jersey City, New Jersey tonight.  First of all between the rain clouds and the dirty city, we all decided it looked like we were driving into Gotham City.  Then this RV Park is crazy!  It’s right off the river between NY and New Jersey, we can walk outside our RV and see New York City and the Statue of Liberty.   We are going to take the subway into New York City in the morning and walk around.  Can I tell you, our motorhome sure looks out of place in Jersey : ) !!  But we aren’t the only ones, this lot is full of motorhomes all here to do the same thing.  We are parked in the middle of a boat marina.  It’s the silliest funnest thing ever.

Summary of Day 22
Drove: 315 miles (98130-98445)

Places we visited or saw:

Susquehanna River

Peter Whitmer Home, Aaronic Priesthood Monument, Joseph and Emma’s Home Site in Harmony, the grave sites of the Hale’s (Emma’s parents), and Alvin Smith (Joseph and Emma’s first son), Susquehanna River,

Favorite thing we did today:
Jawbreaker: Susquehanna River
Spitz: Peter Whitmer’s Home
Warhead: Peter Whitmer’s Home
Bazooka, Fireball and Starburst: Susquehanna River
Mr. S and Mrs. S: Peter Whitmer’s Home and the Susquehanna River