Stone Fort, New Madrid, Wycliff dig

In 3 Nephi 3 is recorded the story of the Gadianton Robbers and their threat to exterminate the Nephites and the Lamanites who believed in Christ. In order to save his people from the Gadiantons the Chief Judge Lachoneus put out a call to all his people to gather to a predetermined place, which lie in the center of their country. They were to bring their flocks and herds, every living thing; their grains, even all their food and gather together for their own protection.  This morning, we had a great visit to the possible sight of this great gathering place.

At the very south end of Illinois, just above the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers lies an area, bounded by both of these rivers on the east, west and south that is approximately 90 miles in width. Across this 90 mile expanse is no less than 40 stonewalled plateaus. A stone wall was built across this 90 mile expanse, across each of the many plateaus along the north side while bounded by shear cliffs along the west, east and south on the interior of the river bottoms. We visited just one small location of the many that have been discovered.

The above two photos show the shear cliffs above

These three photos show the remnant of the stone walls in this area. Certainly after 2000 years they would have fallen into disrepair; yet their presence signifies that this area would have been highly fortified to offer protection to wives and children. 

Looking down into the valley below from the top of the cliffs.

After our visit to the Stone Fort we drove through Makaga; I may have to correct the name of this tomorrow, but here is where the two solar eclipses will cross paths; the one from 2017 and the one in 2023. In fact they have a broad red line running through the little town where the moon's shadow ran 

in 2017 and where it will run in 2023. Interesting that it is so close to the Stone Fort and to the confluence of the Mississippi and the Ohio.

Our next stop was New Madrid, Missouri. Here beneath this little town was the epicenter of the 2011/2012 New Madrid earthquake. This is a very important earthquake to study. After an intense study of the earthquake by a scientist back in the early 1900s, he found 28 interesting results that occurred during and after the quake. When comparing the description of the Book of Mormon story of the great destruction that took place at the time of the death of Christ, the two accounts match up perfectly. In other words if you compare the Book of Mormon account to the descriptions of eye witnesses you can find that they all match up.

The photos below are of the big bend in the Mississippi where the town of New Madrid sits. The original town of New Madrid lies at the bottom of the Mississippi about 1/2 mile from shore. 

The 2011 level of the Mississippi 

We stopped off for a short time at an old dig where many artifacts were found; also in the area were several large mounds. 

Post holes

You will notice that some of these paintings are very Mayan

This is a photo of a skeleton with a scepter over his chest; it is likely he was some kind of royalty

This is the actual scepter on display