Spring in Iowa

This weekend we took a trip across the Missouri River into Iowa and drove along the beautiful bluffs that line the river and through the neatly furrowed farms. We saw wild turkeys in the fields and I noted two horses that looked like their legs were too short, until I realized the clover they were munching was to their knees! The area is sprinkled with old farm houses, but many lovely new homes sitting in the middle of freshly planted fields.

At Kanesville, we had a farmer and his family visiting from Kamas, Utah (up the road from Park City) who said he was the fourth generation on his farm and he wondered why people had not gone back to Iowa after seeing the lushness of this farmland and knowing it did not have to be irrigated. Of course, the answer to that was not the same for everyone. The vast majority of the Saints in this area did go west, but after seeing this farmland and knowing there were almost 100 little settlements along the Missouri filled with Saints who did know the richness of this land, one now can understand the strength of their faith. They had a testimony of the prophet Joseph and the Book of Mormon, and they had voted to sustain Brigham as the new prophet, and they had the faith that the Lord was leading the Church to our beautiful mountains. So most picked up everything, put it in their wagons, and left their homes once again.

There were a few who stayed behind and some who even went west and returned, the brother of one my grandparents being one who came back and stayed in Iowa. The farming might have been grand, but you could not have remained a Mormon. Those who did not go west were considered by Brigham Young as apostates because they were unwilling to follow the prophet, and if you stayed here, you could only be a Mormon in secret, as Mormons soon because persona non grata. So from my perspective it would have been worse to have to be a Mormon in secret. We have been told by members in the area that it was not uncommon for children to be told not to go into the woods because “the Mormons will get you”.

It is not surprising that many of those who stayed would have been drawn to the splinter groups of the church, particularly, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Community of Christ) because they at that time still accepted Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, just not Brigham Young, although with the reorganization of the RLDS into the Community of Christ, Joseph and the Book of Mormon is of lesser importance. We are having a Hymnfest on Pioneer Day in the Kanesville Tabernacle with members from our church, the RLDS, the Remnant Church, and the Restored Church, so we know there are still remnants here of the splinter groups of those who stayed behind.

This sign is a fascinating juxtaposition of old and new, the great history of the area and its current community life. We had been traveling on the “Old Mormon Bridge Road” to get to this crossroads with the “Old Lincoln Highway” (two lane I might add) and the town of Crescent City. High School sports are very big here.

Crescent has its own interesting history. The story goes that when things got hot for the old Chicago mobsters of the Prohibition Era, they would head for Crescent City and the Pink Poodle---a rather inauspicious looking place. But what a fun tale.

Crescent City has the cutest house around.

Just outside of Crescent on this Old Lincoln Highway is the sign to their ski area. Park City this is not.

Here are some pictures of the Crescent Ski Resort on the bluffs, and looking at the map, what you see is what you get. My Utah friends will chuckle and my NY friends will think that’s not too different from where they ski. All a matter of perspective.

Along this Old Lincoln Highway is not only lush farmland but a Nature Preserve. The view of the bluffs was wonderful and the size of the trees is evident by this hollow log. We know from the pioneer histories that there were wooded areas all along the Iowa trail that provided hardwood for homes, wagons, and fuel. From this remnant one can guess they had some grand trees.

As we headed into the sunset back across the Old Mormon Bridge to Winter Quarters, I was even more grateful that my pioneer ancestors had to faith to leave these fertile farmlands and head west to the valleys of the mountains where they would have to run water from the mountains to irrigate and produce a fraction of what their Iowa farms had produced. Then comes the jarring question you ask yourself. Would I have gone west? I hope so. I certainly have incredible models of faith and testimony who must feel great sadness that any of their progeny would give up what they willingly sacrificed everything for. Thank you.