Our first stop was in Hannibal, Missouri. Actually we stopped on a bluff overlooking the town and the Mississippi River where we took our first group photo.
We spent a lot of time in the St. Clement Church van for the three days of our reunion. Lunch was usually fast food on the road. Here we are eating in a roadside park along the Mississippi River.
Our destination this first day was Nauvoo, Illinois, the place where the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith was killed and from where the Mormons began their march westward, ultimately to Salt Lake City. We visited a museum in the city which was basically built by the Mormons.
Part of the tour through the old Mormon settlement was by horse-drawn carriage. Two elders of the Mormon church drove us through the countryside and explained the significant events of Mormon history that took place there.
In the visitor center in the old Mormon town, we watched a video depicting life in Nauvoo at the time of Joseph Smith. Here an elder gives an introduction to the video.
Nauvoo is still a small river town. Parts of the downtown area probably look much as they did 100 years ago.
After touring the restored sections of the old Mormon settlement, we went to a Christian visitors center nearby. There a woman, a former Mormon, has various displays discounting some of the claims and history of the Mormon tradition.
Joseph Smith received his revelation in New York, moved to Cincinnati, and then established the settlement at Nauvoo, Illinois. He was murdered here by an anti-Mormon mob. This is his grave near the Mississippi River.