Winter Quarters and Council Bluffs

For our 10 year anniversary, Jamie and I decided that we wanted to take a trip to Nauvoo. We flew into Kansas City, MO on the 16th of July. We didn't fly in until about 11:30 that night so we just got our rental car and went to our hotel. Thursday morning we got up and headed for Winter Quarters. We went to the visitors center and got to see what it was like to pull a handcart - so much harder than I imagined, and then went next door and walked around the visitor's center and temple. They estimate that about 600 people died in Winter Quarters, and about half of them were children under the age of 3. You can definitely feel the spirit in Winter Quarters, but it is a very solemn, sacred feeling.

Just a few miles from Winter Quarters is Council Bluffs/Kanesville where the church has rebuilt the Kanesville Tabernacle. The original tabernacle was built in less than 3 weeks and it is where Brigham Young was sustained as the prophet. Close to here is also where the Mormon Battalion left from so when you go into the visitor's center there, they can give you information on any of the members of the Battalion. My great-great-great grandfather, Levi Ward Hancock, was the only general authority (he was a member of the seventy) to march with the battalion. So we got some information on him there that was pretty interesting. I also learned that 2 of his nephews also went on the march, which I didn't realize.