Hot metal bars curl into horseshoes beneath the village smithy's hammer at the Webb Wagon and Blacksmith shop here, showering sparks in every direction.But the horseshoes are for tourists, not horses.
The blacksmith's shop has been restored from the 1840s period and is one of several popular tourist attractions that comprise the "largest and finest historic preservation in mid-America" - the restoration of Nauvoo. Here the blacksmith is joined by a wheelwright, a ropemaker, a brickmaker and others, all 19th century tradesmen. They seem to have come back from their niche in time to open a picture window into history.
The man primarily responsible for the restoration effort is Dr. J. LeRoy Kimball, who in the 1950s purchased a still-standing home built by his great-grandfather, Apostle Heber C. Kimball. He began fixing up that home, and his work soon expanded to other houses. In 1960, President David O. McKay commissioned him to expand the work and create Nauvoo Restoration Inc.
Since that time, Nauvoo Restoration Inc. (RI) has restored some 20 homes and businesses from the Mormon city's prime period in the early 1840s.
NRI's efforts will soon expand into neighboring Carthage. At Carthage, plans have been announced to expand the entire city block surrounding the old jail into a significant visitors attraction. (ee related story, page 3.)
Altogether in Nauvoo, nearly 1,000 acres and 65 sites have been purchased by the Church. Thirty-seven missionary couples and six young missionaries are assigned to the preservation effort that also includes the temple site and a visitors center.
The local people in Nauvoo and Carthage are supporting the restoration effort, said James C. Taylor, manager of Nauvoo Restoration Inc.
"We have received great support for the continuation and maintenance of the project and especially for continued advertising to tourists throughout the United States," he said.
Speaking of the Carthage project, Taylor said, "The local people, including the mayor, the industrial development bureau and the press, are enthusiastically supporting the work being done."
Edwin Q. Cannon, Nauvoo visitors center director, reported, "Our busy season is just starting." He said it would continue through the pageant, "City of Joseph" in August, which was attended by some 34,000 people last year.
Cannon estimated that 160,000-200,000 visitors came to the city last year. Favorite stops were at the visitor center and gardens, the Nauvoo temple site, and the Cultural Hall, where skits are presented.
The popularity of the skits led to a reader's theater production called the "Adventure of Nauvoo," produced by Nonie Sorensen and her husband, Maynard. Their plays, starting this week, will further depict life in early Nauvoo.
Among the more popular sites in Nauvoo that have been restored by Nauvoo Restoration Inc. are:
The Brigham Young Home, a two-story brick building where the Church's second president resided.
The Heber C. Kimball home, a stately Federalist mansion built by its owner, who was a blacksmith and potter by trade. He later became an apostle and headed the Church's mission in Great Britain.
The Lucy Mack Smith home, which was built by Joseph B. Noble and purchased by the Church for Lucy Mack Smith, the Prophet's mother.
The Wilford Woodruff home, built by its owner, an imposing two-story brick building.
The William Weeks home, owned and built by Weeks, the architect of the Nauvoo Temple.
The Scovil Bakery, operated by Lucius Scovil, who made and sold baked goods, crackers and candy. This bakery is a favorite of visitors who enjoy tasting gingerbread cookies from a 19th century recipe.
The Jonathan Browning House and Workshop, established by a Kentuckian convert who invented repeating rifles. His son John Moses Browning became famous as the inventor of the automatic machine gun.
Other homes and sites include: the Sarah Granger Kimball home, the Joseph W. Coolidge Home, the Ivins-Smith home, the Seventies Hall, the Times & Seasons Building, the Printing Office, the Clark Store and Lyon Drug Store.
Perhaps, say missionaries, visitors to the restoration site will catch a glimpse of what Army officer Thomas Kane saw when he visited the city in 1846. He described the city as it stood, "half encircled by a bend of the river, a beautiful city . . . glittering in the fresh morning sun."
Kane saw "bright new dwellings set in cool, green gardens, ranging up around a stately dome-shaped hill, which was crowned by a noble marble edifice, whose high tapering spire was radiant with white and gold. The city appeared to cover several miles and beyond it, in the background, there rolled off a fair country, chequered sicT by the careful lines of fruitful husbandry. The unmistakable marks of industry, enterprise and educated wealth, everywhere, made the scene one of singular and most striking beauty."
Despite the beauty and vigor described in this scene, however, just a few short months remained of the prime of Nauvoo - then Illinois' largest city with a population of 20,000. Increasing conflict between the Mormons and non-Mormons in Illinois compelled Church leaders to seek another home for their people, and a mass exodus westward out of Nauvoo began.
The Mormons left behind some 300 brick homes, 2,000 hand-hewn log cabins, 200-300 one-story and two-story frame homes, and "the noble marble edifice," the Nauvoo Temple, which was later destroyed.
After the Mormons were gone, Nauvoo largely lost its significance. It passed through a century of time, mostly unkempt and vacant. A colony of German immigrants eventually occupied part of it. Now, it is again finding its place as a picture window to the past.
