COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — On the sunny Saturday morning of Sept. 28, Elder Kyle S. McKay, a General Authority Seventy who serves as Church historian and recorder, dedicated the new Kanesville Memorial Historic Site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“We express gratitude for this site and the opportunity it provides to commemorate the faith and sacrifice of early Saints,” Elder McKay said in the dedicatory prayer. “We pray that in a special, sacred way, they might be given to know of our profound gratitude and admiration for them. Above all, we give honor and praise and glory unto Thee and Thy Son, Jesus Christ, for Thy goodness and mercy, Thy kindness and love.”
Church leaders, members, historians and friends gathered under a tent in the parking lot to celebrate the newly reopened site before touring the gardens during an open house.
The site in Council Bluffs, Iowa, had been under construction since 2022, when a replica wood tabernacle was removed due to structural weaknesses. The site now features gardens, statues and interpretive panels that tell three significant stories of Church history from 1846 to 1852: the reorganization of the First Presidency, with Brigham Young as President; the return of Oliver Cowdery to the Church; and the mustering of the Mormon Battalion.
Benjamin Pykles, director of the Church History Department’s Historic Sites Division, reflected on the challenges faced with the project “on a piece of property that is not the actual site” but that is a centerpiece of a community — how do you replace something that was loved (the replica tabernacle) with something equally meaningful?
Pykles said the team succeeded in “putting so much symbolism into the landscape and stories.” He hopes every visitor to the site “will have their faith strengthened in the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and feel the Spirit of the Lord witness to them of the significant things that happened here in Council Bluffs.”
First Presidency reorganization
The centerpiece of the Kanesville Memorial is a statue in memory of the reorganization of the Church’s First Presidency.
On Dec. 27, 1847, more than three years after Joseph Smith’s death, the First Presidency was reorganized, and Brigham Young became Church President.
Oliver Cowdery’s return
Elder McKay spoke of another significant event to happen at Kanesville, “the return of one who was overlooked or pushed aside by his society.” That was Oliver Cowdery, one of the faith’s first leaders, who was “not without fault, nor was he without defense,” when he became separated from the Church for 10 years.
Cowdery’s friend and brother-in-law, Phineas Young, continued to minister to Cowdery, “encouraging him, inviting him and reminding him of his identity and his invaluable contributions” to the Church. In 1848, Cowdery traveled to Kanesville and rejoined the Church.
“His meek return here in Kanesville marked a joyous, historic day for the Church and is a tender example to all who have felt alienated through the wrongdoing of self or others,” Elder McKay said.
Mustering the Mormon Battalion
Matt Grow, a historian and managing director of the Church History Department, reminded the audience how the Saints leaving Nauvoo, Illinois, had planned for at least some of them to reach the Rocky Mountains before winter. When that plan “evaporated,” Grow said, “they began to settle in makeshift communities, including what was first called Miller’s Hollow, named after pioneer Henry W. Miller,” a statue of whom greets visitors in the garden entrance.
Grow went on to describe how this group of refugees, short on food and supplies, needed cash to continue on. A young man in Philadelphia named Thomas L. Kane had learned of the Saints’ plight and “decided that he might be of some help to them, that a relationship might be mutually beneficial. Within a few weeks, he used his father’s political connections in the White House to open doors and to have commissioned a battalion of Latter-day Saint soldiers” for the newly declared war on Mexico.
When army officials arrived, the Saints were suspicious, but Brigham Young recognized the blessing from God: “The outfit of these 500 men costs us nothing, and their pay will be sufficient to take their families over the mountains,” he said in support of the government request. While “tears fell like raindrops” at their departure, the Mormon Battalion completed the nation’s longest infantry march of about 2,000 miles without engaging in combat.
Kane’s interaction with Latter-day Saints did not end with the mustering of the battalion, and some of his later contributions were shared by Elder McKay, who invited the audience to act in the spirit of Thomas Kane, to “go forth and care for the downtrodden and oppressed, to take time to recognize beauty and worth in those who are overlooked and pushed aside by society, and to actively believe the truth that every child of God is worthy of love. I hope you do not make this your plan or your strategy, rather I hope you make it your way of life.”
The Kanesville Memorial features bronze footsteps on the walkway to remember their sacrifice. The rest of the story is told by the bronze statues of five women who stayed behind to care for their families.
What attendees said
Council Bluffs Mayor Matt Walsh spoke at the event and said the site would continue to be a “significant community attraction.” Of the early Saints, he said: “They established businesses and were very successful,” outfitting travelers on the seven overland trails that wound through the area, and marveled at their resolve. “You can imagine the sacrifice. You had people who had real estate, who had businesses…but they [left] because they thought it was the right thing to do.”
Following the dedicatory prayer, a local ensemble performed a stirring arrangement of the pioneer hymn “Come, Come, Ye Saints.” Rachel Jones, one of the vocalists, said preparing for the performance of her brother’s arrangement: “We imagined [William Clayton] sitting around the campfire singing a song, rejoicing ‘all is well.’ There’s hard things, and everything is going to be OK. And when we were singing, I just felt the joy of the pioneers.”
Her husband, Brent Jones, was touched by the bronze footprints at the site, “because there was so much sacrifice for the men who had to leave their families — especially for the wives who had to trek across the plains on their own with their kids.” Holding his 6-month-old daughter, Jones became emotional as he said, “As a father of young children, I can only imagine how those moms must have felt to have their husbands leave. There would be so much responsibility for them. And I’m glad that we can remember them and have this opportunity to reflect on the sacrifices they made so that we can live the comfortable lives that we have.”
Jake and Rachel Hansen, also attending with their children, said the story about Oliver Cowdery and Brigham Young helped them remember “the one.”
