| OCR Text |
Show RIVER On the corner of the temple lot stood a large stone building with a sign, Nauvoo Restoration, Inc. We watched a movie that made it clear that outfit was A closely aligned with the Utah Mormon church and then took a guided tour in a van along with a couple from Utah. Our guide was a retired insurance salesman who had been a Nauvoo missionary for fifteen years. He drove down to the river and told us how clean the old town had been, how hard the Mormons had worked, and what sons-of-bitches their neighbors had been. Their neighbors had gotten fed up with the Saints (as they still like to be called) and did run them out of the state, but I knew it wasn't because the aggravated Mini found the Mormons too neat and industrious for their taste. In truth, non-Mormons considered the young church's religious practices offensive (especially the one that involved Joseph Smith and his powerful associates marrying multiple women) and their theocratic political doctrines threatening. After the Saints left, the locals probably torched the temple to persuade the Mormons not to come back. It didn't work. Our guide showed us the many historic properties the Utah church owned in 1969. He said they intended to make Nauvoo look just as it did in 1846 and planned to spend $40 million to do so. They have since spent the money, but Nauvoo in 1846 looked a lot more like Natchez-under-the-Trace than it looked like the Disneyland version Nauvoo Restoration, Inc. and its powerful partners built. The historic property in Old Nauvoo is divided along the lines of one of the oldest schisms in Mormonism, with the representatives of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS) holding most of the Joseph Smith family sites, while The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), the Utah-based branch, owned most everything that money could buy. The two -72- |
