Mastodon State Park Hannibal, Nauvoo

Our first stop today was at a place I never knew existed, the Matodon State Park. It is a museum dedicated to these larges animals that existed during the time of the Jaredites as we know from Ether 9:19. Not only does it have information on the Matodon, but also the Mammoth and the great sloth. Ether 9:19 speaks of Elephants, horses, asses, cureloms and cumoms. We don't know what cureloms and cumoms are, but we do know that Matodons and Mammoths existed in the heartland during at least the time of the Jaredites. Could they be the same? Maybe someday we will know!

Mastodons were mainly known to be a creature of the forest while the Mammoth was a creature of the prairie. 

Our next stop was Hannibal, Missouri. It was fun to see the actual places mentioned in Mark Twain's books. 

The Mississippi river at Hannibal

Little Mound Cemetery is a Nephite mound that was used to bury the dead; it is also used in our day. There is also a Big Mound Cemetery, but we did not visit there. 

We next went to Nauvoo, we visited the grave sites of Joseph, Hyrum and Emma, Joseph Smith Senior and Lucy Mack Smith. We also learned something new and very interesting. Joseph Smith's red brick store is built on a Nephite mound. Several years ago the store needed to have an update on the power supply. When digging a trench across the property several human bones were dug up. The trench digging was stopped until the human bones could be taken care of and the entire trench area was examined; many artifacts were discovered and removed. 

This is a view of the mound on which the Red Brick Store sits which is on the right side of the photo

I believe this was the home of Joseph Smith Senior

The mansion house

Another one of the Smith's home