LDS Church History Sites in Missouri & Nebraska

Sorry it took so long for me to continue telling you about my trip. We finished Nauvoo on our third day around noon and headed down to Carthage which, as I mentioned in my last post, was an amazing experience. After Carthage we headed towards Missouri to see all the church history sites that we could there!

LDS Church History Sites in Missouri & Nebraska

The first place we stopped at was Adam-ondi-Ahmen. This is a beautiful site that…”lies at a bend in the Grand River in northern Missouri, about 70 miles north of Kansas City where a temple block was dedicated. No cornerstones were laid or temple constructed, however, as just days later, the Saints were ordered to leave the settlement. The Church has since acquired the site and much of the surrounding area, which is leased to local farmers.”(more info here) When we walked out to look over the beautiful site I wanted to stay there all night. It was very peaceful and we left with a great feeling inside! My husband was amazed at how the acres and acres of land is cared for and that you can tell the church wants to keep this land in great condition. Another place near there I would recommend going to if you have time is Hawn’s Mill,  (which you can read more about HERE.  In an RV it is a little bit harder so we didn’t go there. 

Next we drove too Far West which is mainly just a big lot with the four corner stones where they were going to build a temple.  It is very beautiful there, and I can only image that one day there will be a temple there.   We saw the temple corner stones and watched the sunset, while the kids played tag in the field next to the temple lot! It is such beautiful country there, I kept telling my husband we could move there any time!  It was a pretty long day of driving and the kids were restless so I made dinner in the parking lot there and then we turned on a movie for the kids and drove to Liberty, Missouri, which is actually a very big city. Not a small little city I thought it would be.The next morning we went to Liberty Jail which is a place where Joseph Smith, Jr., Hyrum Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight, Alexander McRae, and Caleb Baldwin were incarcerated in Liberty Jail on charges of treason. The Prophet was jailed here from December 1838 until April 1839. While there, he wrote epistles to his loved ones and to members of the Church; portions of which are contained in Doctrine & Covenants Sections 121-123. Liberty Jail was a really cool experience, while the jail is actually remade, exactly like the old one, and in a little dome building it is a very spiritual place, and they did reuse the bricks that were used in the previous building. The senior sister missionary that gave us the tour was wonderful and very patient with all of my children that were getting tired of tours by this time in our trip!

After Liberty we headed to Independence to see the Independence visitor center. Independence was a place where the Saints lived before they went to Nauvoo. The visitor center was great and my kids had a wonderful time there! They had a wagon and cabin the kids could play in after the tour and we were just fine sitting there letting the get their energy out.

Then we headed up to Council Bluffs, IA to see the Kanesville Tabernacle which was where they built a large tabernacle in 3 weeks time to sustain the prophet Brigham Young. They gave us a quick tour and after our visit there we hurried to Winter Quarters in Omaha (about 20 minutes away).

The Winter Quarters visitor center is right next to a small cemetery and the Winter Quarters Temple. It is filled with beautiful church history about the trek the pioneers made after they left Nauvoo. We made it just in time and were able to have a nice tour of that visitor center and walk around the temple. The kids got to dress up in pioneer clothes, we did as well, and practice pulling a hand cart. They thought that was pretty fun. The Winter Quarters temple is has very limited hours and we were not able to do baptisms or go to the temple. Check the hours here before you go there!

These were just the main sites the we saw in these cities.  We could have gone to a lot of little tiny places where things happened in church history, but it would have taken us a long time, and the kids could only go to oh so many visitors center! 🙂 If you are interested in all the things that happen in these two states make sure that you check out this great website HERE with all the different church history sites. These places would be fine to visit any time, but winters are cold and summers are hot.  May was perfect!  So I would prefer spring or fall!