Carthage

It was raining quite hard on the way to Carthage and we got there with only 10 minutes before they were going to close. I was very interested and yes, excited to go there. I have heard my father speak so much about it and of course, just the history of it, I wanted to see it. Nedra asked me what I thought of it when we got back and I said beautiful. She wasn't to sure of my response, so let me explain.

The grounds and the visitor center were of course, beautifully done. But I had a very beautiful, spiritual experience there. It only deepened my testimony of Joesph and Hyrum Smith and all that were associated with the martyrdom. As I am writing this my eyes are full of tears and my heart is overflowing. I may not be able to express to you in words what I would like to, but know this please, I love the Lord, I have a testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I love Joseph Smith and all those early saints that suffered so much to help establish the church. I am overwhelmed knowing all that they so willing gave up for the gospel and I recognize my own short comings when and if ever I complain about the smallest assignment given to me. I have a warm house, food, health, and yet and am grossly inadequate in thanking the Lord enough for all he has done for me. Yes, Carthage was BEAUTIFUL! And I will thankfully never be the same because of it.

This is a picture of the sunset as the storm broke up on our way back to Nauvoo.

The grounds around the visitors center

The second story window is the one that the Prophet fell from

This was the dungeon. It was upstairs and only had very small, I would guess 3-4 inches wide by 12-14 inches tall, slits in the stone walls to the outside. The caretaker of the prison let the prophet and the others out and let the go downstairs when we realized that they were no threat to him or his family. The temp. in the room was about 120 degrees. When the mob became bigger and there was more danger, he took them back upstairs but did not put them back into the dungeon, but locked them into the other room.

This is the front door of the jail and the stairs that the mob came up to get to the second floor.

You can see the top of the stairs and the other open door at the top of the stairs led into the dungeon. You can see the bullet hole in the door that killed Hyrum.

View of the room.

The benches in the room are for people to come in and set on while they play a tape of what happened. The spirit in that room was absolutely over powering. While you listened to the tape and the first verse of A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief, my tears could not be held back. The window on the left of the picture is where Joseph fell out of.

The bullet hole on the inside of the door

This is the outside of the door. The first bullet that hit broke the lock, as you can see, and the second went through the door.

What amazed me was that over the years and before the church was able to get the jail back, it had been used as a home for several people and throughout all of those years, no one ever changed the door or tried to repair the lock.