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Nauvoo Today

Since this book was first published, much has happened to infuse new life into the small city of Nauvoo. The vivifying force is similar to that which shaped and structured the original city. The Mormons are back.

This time they are not there in their thousands to establish a residence and a religion there. This time they have come as a small but dedicated group engaged in acquiring, preserving and restoring part of the old city of Nauvoo. They come to this city of eleven hundred inhabitants, as a non-profit organization under the sponsorship of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with the name of Nauvoo Restoration, Incorporated.

One of the prominent early leaders who helped to establish the city and the tradition that was old Nauvoo was Heber C. Kimball, a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles and later of the First Presidency of the Church. Like most of the other Mormon inhabitants of Nauvoo he abandoned his home, crossed the Mississippi River, and headed westwards in February 1846. His house passed into other hands and became lost to the Kimball family.

More than a century later another Kimball became fired with the desire to regain the ancestral home. Dr. LeRoy Kimball, M.D., great-grandson of Heber C., purchased the house and set to work on preservative measures which would protect the structure against time and the elements. Inside the house he placed antique furnishings typical of his eminent ancestor's lifetime. Dedicated in the summer of 1960, the lovely old house has been an outstanding tourist attraction in Nauvoo ever since-a fact which precluded Dr. Kimball from fulfilling his original intention of using it as a family residence.

Church Information Service picture Restored home of Heber C. Kimball

Church Information Service picture Excauation work on the Brigham Young home is shown in this picture. Original well, now restored, is the opening in left center. Cistern added by later owner is circular structure at right. Square at right bottom is original floor of vegetable storage cellar.

The evident interest in the home and its historical setting gave rise to discussions on the desirability of restoring other old Mormon homes in the city and providing tourist services such as guides and an information center which would tell the story of the Mormons in Nauvoo. It was not only Mormons who were interested in the area. As the jumping-off point for "one of the most dramatic events in the history of American west-ward expansion," as the National Park Service described the Saints' movement to the Great Salt Lake, Nauvoo would have an attraction for tourists and history-lovers which its eleven thousand or so inhabitants in 1845 could never have imagined. Thus Nauvoo Restoration, Incorporated was organized. Its declared purpose is:

To restore the historically important part of the old town of Nauvoo as it was when it flourished under Mormon leadership, during the period 1839-1846, as an authentic physical environment for interpreting the story of Nauvoo and the mass migration of its people to the valley of the Great Salt Lake, as one of the vibrant forces in the westward expansion of America; and to give an understanding of the character of those people as shown by the homes they built and the way they lived, and an understanding of the depth of their emotions and the strength of their faith that made them abandon their temple, their homes, and their city, and start on their long trek westward.