A Labor Day Road Trip: Palmyra

We said goodbye to Mindy and Matthew and there family on Sunday morning and drive into Palmyra.

On the way we stopped at the Peter Whitmer home. This is where the church was organized in 1830. The log cabin wasn't open for tours until noon, which actually suited us just fine since Felix was asleep in the car, and we wanted to optimize our time in Palmyra. We met another family at the home, and they were also from Maryland. After chatting with them awhile and peering through the windows we continued our trek.

We started our tour of Palmyra at the site of the Martin Harris Farm.

Martin Harris's house no longer stands, but the home that is now on the site is famous in its own right. It's a Lake-Stone House constructed in 1850 with stone hauled from Lake Ontario (a two-day trip). They were then sorted by size and color. The result is unlike anything I have ever seen.

We then crossed over the Erie Canal, parked our car, and went to throw rocks into the water. It was so satisfying to see one of the most significant waterways in American history.

After a quick stop at Alvin Smith's grave we went to the print shop where the Book of Mormon was printed. It was actually one of the best church history tours I've ever had.

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Next stop was The Sacred Grove. Nate asked me if the grove looked the way I thought it would, and, for the most part it did. We've seen so many films that feature this site that it felt familiar.

After our walk through the grove it was time to tour the Joseph Smith homes. First up was the log cabin home. It is a replica of the cabin the Smith family lived in from 1818-1825. The log cabin is small and the tour was kind of your typical church history-site tour (meaning difficult for those of us with small children), but we did get to go upstairs into the loft where Joseph would have been sleeping when the Angel Moroni visited.

Next, I very quickly peaked into the Frame house (kids were done). The family moved into the house in 1825.

Finally we walked to the top of the Hill Cumorah. We were pretty impressed that we were able to accomplish all that touring in one day with the kids. They got to end the day with a swim in the hotel pool. A nice reward for their efforts.