Missouri/Nauvoo Church History Tour

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Day 1 - Sunday

We had stake conference this weekend so I had very few meetings. It was also Father's Day. We had a nice stake dinner and apple pie ala mode. We then left Gehrig home and took the other boys to meet Leslie in Salt Lake so they could spend the week with them. We then went to the airport and got there 2 hours early.

Rachel was having a bad day. She got flagged for a pat-down and felt pretty violated by TSA. Our flight was delayed by over an hour. It was pretty stormy weather. It provided for some cool lightning shows in the sky. We landed in St. Louis around 2 AM. It was raining cats and dogs. We got a lyft ride to our hotel and checked in around 2:30 AM. I had trouble sleeping, but I got enough sleep to function I guess.

Day 2 - Monday

I woke up around 9 AM and finally decided to get up and get ready so I could go pick up the rental car. I walked the rental car place. It took about 20 minutes. It was a nice stroll, but in hindsight, I would have picked a closer hotel, or a closer car rental. I picked the two that were the farthest apart! We rented a Jeep Compass. It is a small SUV - sufficient for our trip I believe.

We drove towards the St. Louis zoo and decided to try to find a place to eat around there. We find a nice little pancake house. I think it was called Chris's Pancake House or something. After we were done eating we made our way to the Zoo. That was a really cool area. It was surrounded by a huge park. We parked near the art museum. Rachel said she would rather go in there, but it is closed on Mondays unfortunately.

The zoo was actually pretty cool. The only reason I had heard of it was because a returned missionary in our ward served in St. Louis and he said they went to the zoo frequently because it was free. I think it was bigger than Hogle Zoo in Utah and it was pretty impressive considering admission was free. I guess they make money on the train rides and snacks, etc.

As far as weather goes, it was perfect. It had stopped raining by the time we were done eating and it was just cool and overcast all day.

We left the Zoo around 3:30 or so and hit the road for Independence, MO. I love road trips. It was a nice 3 1/2 hour drive. It was different than the road trips I am used to. First of all, there are no mountains in sight the whole way. I didn't think much of it because there are rolling hills the whole way and everything is covered in green vegetation and trees. I love green and the scenery was beautiful the whole way.

By the time we arrived in Independence area, there was not a cloud in the sky. I think it will be much warmer tomorrow and perhaps for the rest of the week.

When we checked in to our hotel, the employee was super friendly. When he saw that we were from Utah he got especially excited. He said he had family in St. George and Orem. We told him we were here to see the church history sites. He said he was in the Independence stake. He kept calling me "Brother Davis". It was so great!

We found a nice local place called Corner Cafe for dinner. It seemed to be quite popular. I would say the food is similar to Cracker Barrel, but with more local flavors. The serving sizes were huge. I had a nice strawberry pie for dessert and regretted it because I ate so much that I was physically hurting! I haven't overeaten like that in a very long time!

After dinner we found a Walgreens to get some medications we needed and some snacks for tomorrow's road trips.

One think I wanted to mention is when we passed the sign that said, "Entering Jackson County", I got unusually excited. Rachel and Gracie were sleeping. I woke Rachel up to tell her we were now in Jackson county. I don't think she appreciated being woken up just to know that. But for me it was somehow moving.

Later, as we were driving, Rachel said, remind me what happened in this area. I told her Joseph ws kept in Liberty Jail - which we will see tomorrow. Some of my favorite sections in the Doctrine & Covenants came from that jail. I also explained that this is where Zion, the new Jerusalem will be built! I said, "and so we will be living here in a future day and will be helping to build Zion!"

OK, I don't have a sure knowledge of that last part. But I have a sure HOPE for it. I desire to help build Zion. The thought of it all thrills me.

We took the backroads back to our hotel from Walgreens so we could see different areas. We saw a lot of fireflies which was really cool since Rachel had never seen them before.

Day 3 - Tuesday

Independence Visitors' Center

We woke up pretty late and just had enough time to get some breakfast at the hotel. There were not a lot of options. We basically had the options of scrambled eggs and sausage - which was fine and great for my keto diet.

We got to the Independence Visitors Center just before it opened. There wa a pretty large group there. There was not a whole lot to do and see there. The sister missionaries did a short tour and gave information on the early saints there. I think the most moving part of it was sitting in a replica of a small cabin in that time period. We are so fortunate today. I can't imagine cramming our whole family into one of those cabins. The missionaries said that families were often sharing cabins and had as many as 10 families living in one cabin!

After our tour of the visitors center, we walked around outside and saw the temple lot. Again, there wasn't much to see and do there so after a short walk around the block we left and headed toward Liberty Jail.

Liberty Jail

When we stopped at Liberty Jail, I realized that it was about this time 25 years ago - when I was 18 and just graduated, that I had been to this visitors center. I had a computer-aided manufacturing competition in Kansas City. During some of our down time, our instructor took us to this visitor's center. I don't remember the drive or being outside of it, but I definitely remember the jail.

I really like this visitors center how they have rebuilt the jail so that it is a replica of what it once was, but built in a way that you can see into it and how it was built to be inescapable.

Some of my favorite references of scripture in the Doctrine & Covenants came in the walls of that prison.

Far West Temple Site

After Liberty Jail, we stopped at Chik-fil-A for lunch, then headed out to what seemed like the middle of nowhere for the next three stops. Our first stop was the temple site in Far West. Here, 4 cornerstones of the temple have been laid and are still there. I have seen pictures of these before but for some reason, I assumed those were in Independence and for the temple in Zion, the new Jerusalem. But these were laid out in the middle farmland with no houses in sight!

It was a very peaceful place though. Birds were singing and children were playing quietly in the area. It was a nice stop.

We also stopped at a LDS bookstore and giftshop as we left the area. They had a nice bronze statue of Joseph Smith in front of their store.

I often wondered today how many people in this area even know about our history here. How many locals know of these historic sites in the area? I'm assuming not many. After lunch we also stopped at a CVS for some sunblock and a few treats for the road trip. The cashier mentioned that we don't look like we are from around here. I told him we were from Utah and we were touring some church history sites. I told him that we had just been to Liberty Jail. He said his uncle used to own a bar across the street from it. He then recommended a few other sites to see like a Jazz museum and good BBQ place nearby. We smiled and thanked him. As we drove away, I realized he probably thought I was talking about an actual jail there today in Liberty. I guess I should be more clear with people who ask.

Haun's Mill

I'm not sure if this is Haun's Mill or Hawn's Mill. I've seen it spelled both ways on the church website and in different areas. This was really out of the way. We had to take some dirt roads through farmlands to get there. If I were not so confident in Google, I would wonder if we were in the right place. We saw another family there that we met at the Independence visitor's center and a few other places that were hitting all the same spots. He pulled in right after us and said he wondered if he was going the right way!

There was not much to see here. There was just a big open grass field. This place is significant to us though because Rachel's 4th great grandfather, Isaac Laney, was shot 17 times I believe in this location and lived. Unfortunately, there were many saints that were killed in the incident now known as the Haun's Mill Massacre.

We were lucky that the landscape crew was there mowing the large field when we arrived. The landscape crew are basically full-time missionaries. One of them stopped to talk to us and she told us from very interesting details.

The property used to be own by the reorganized LDS church, but they never did anything with it. They put it up for auction in 2012. A number of people looked at it - probably for farm land, but nobody felt comfortable there. It still had a very tangible evil feeling about the place. The church ended up purchasing it and started cleaning it up and making it what it is today.

The person over the maintenance there never liked working out there. He always felt uneasy and couldn't wait to leave. One day he went out there to work and didn't feel any of that uneasiness but didn't think much of it. Someone asked him later that day, "How was Haun's Mill today?" He said, "It was fine today actually." They then told him that a couple members of the quorum of the twelve had been out there that morning and blessed the land. Since that time it has been much better. The sister missionary said she did have an uneasy feeling last October while she was there and realized that was the time year that the massacre occurred.

It would have been nice to go back into the woods and explore a bit more where the mill was actually located. But the missionary warned us of ticks, so we opted not to. It was a good thing. Once we got in the car we quickly checked for ticks and Gracie found one on her ankle that had not done any damage yet.

The sister missionary also told me about a nice app called "Journey to Zion". It has information about all these areas with some audio recordings teaching about the areas and the history. It was good to listen to on our long drive to the different areas. More people should know about it when doing a self-guided tour!

One last detail she told me that I found interesting was about Adam-Ondi-Ahman. The church owns a lot of land in that area. It started out with about 27 acres then they just kept purchasing as other land became available. Now they own hundreds of acres there. They lease much of it out to farmers who grow crops or graze cattle. They used to do 5-year leases. Recently they changed their policy to only do 2-year leases.

I was really glad we had the Jeep for this portion of the tour. The road was pretty muddy in some spots. We were told that the area gets very flooded and often people drive all the way out there and never get to see the place because it is completely flooded an there is no way to access it.

Adam-Ondi-Ahman

This place was probably the most interesting to me. It really was a huge area. We started by driving to Spring Hill, then on to Tower Hill. This was my favorite place. There was something really unique and special about this area. It was like being in the temple. I didn't want to leave. I just kept thinking about the history there, that Adam had been there, and this is where he built his alter where he offered sacrifice. I thought about the future there and if I would be there for the great event where those who help priesthood keys give an accounting to Adam and he returns those keys to the Savior. It really was a special place!