HERE I am trying to finish up my blog for our trip last May.
From Quincy we made our way up to Carthage to visit the Jail where Joseph Smith was killed.
At last Nauvoo the beautiful home of the early saints. We visited their city, their homes and the lovely Temple.
Nauvoo is a great place to visit, lots to see, lots of entertainment, and good people to visit with.
This is Dad and some of his Ririe cousins that are serving missions in Nauvoo.
Dad’s cousin Elizabeth Olsen invited us for supper at her cottage with a view of the Mississippi.
Farwell to Nauvoo and we start our trek West. Garden Grove was a way station built to help the pioneers. Land was cleared and crops planted to help feed those pioneers that would follow.
Mt Pisgah another way station, a beautiful little valley. I
We spent the next night in Council Bluffs and Winter Quarters. The Mormons called this area Kanesville, it became a major staging area for many pioneers heading west. We visited an old log Tabernacle built by the pioneers, the church has a very nice visitors center here.
Close by is Winter quarters. Many of our pioneers ancestors stopped here to prepare for the trek west. The church has built a beautiful temple here next to the pioneer cemetery.
Omaha, time to cross the Missouri and head out to the plains of Nebraska. It appears that travel was a little easier for the pioneers on this part of the trail.
The trail now joins the Platte River. Here are a few of the Landmarks we passed, Chimney rock and Scotts bluff.
From here we took a side trip up to South Dakota to visit Mount Rushmore park and the Black Hills
We took the long road so it took awhile to get there. Our first stop was at the “Wind Caves”. The ranger is showing us how the caves got their name. The caves are quite different, but very interesting, they go for miles, we only walked a 1/3 of a mile. It seemed longer.
After the caves we took a wild ride through Mount Rushmore national park up to the national memorial. The road was crazy, sorry my pictures don’t show how wild it was. But It was obvious why they are called it the Black Hills. The pines here are really black, or almost black
Because of the wild ride, which we drove rather slowly we arrived at the monument late in the afternoon. We had plenty of time to walk about and visit the museum telling how the monument was made. Glad we came.
The direct road took us back a little more quickly to the Platte River. We stopped to see the cliff where many names were left from the trail days. Close by we saw the dramatic ruts cut by the pioneer wagons. They are cut four to five feet deep through solid rock.
This is the fort in Casper Wyoming. Between 1840 and 1870 about 500,000 people moved across the Western Plains in search of free farmland,freedom of religion, wealth and new business. In 1847, Brigham Young had a ferry established here for the Mormon pioneers and other emigrants along the trails. The ferry operated through 1852.
This is the Ferry.
II took this picture in memory of my Great Grandfather Anders Pederson who worked on the telegraph line to make his way across the plains. He had just immigrated from Denmark, and needed to find a way to finance his way to Utah. He was the only one of his family to join the church, he could have stayed in Denmark and inherited his fathers farm. That would have meant giving up his religion. He took the road less traveled and followed his heart and came to America.
Martin’s Cove. This is the site of a visitors center in the renovated Sun Ranch house, for the Handcart company. The cove where the pioneers took shelter is tucked back against the hill. They waited here to be rescued by the saints in Utah.
The split Rock or gun sight was a familiar marker along the trail.
The church is building a new visitors center at the Willie Handcart site. Our hearts ached for those unfortunate pioneers as we heard about their trials. We visited with the missionaries, who were busily getting ready for the many tourists that were expected through the summer. I don’t know if we could have survived pulling a handcart very far.
From here the saints moved on through the South Pass and across the Green River. A ferry was established by the Mormons here.
At this point we joined highway 80 and moved on to Echo Canyon. This canyon is 25 miles long, very beautiful but I imagine difficult to maneuver wagons through.
At this point we were tired, we kept on “80” and speed on to see our dear family and to be free from the car and motels. We hope to finish this drive some time when we visit Utah again.
It was a great trip and we are glad we finally did it.
We made it in time to see Autumn’s dance recital. She is a versatile little dancer. A nice ending for May.
1 comment:
Fun trip. Glad you guys were able to do it.
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