Cornerstone of Zion: Historic Nauvoo Visitors’ Center Exhibit

In section 124 of the Doctrine and Covenants, Jesus Christ refers to Nauvoo as a “cornerstone of Zion” four times (see verses 2, 23, 60, and 131). A cornerstone is a large stone laid at the corner of a building’s foundation. It gives order, strength, and stability to the entire structure. Zion can mean “the Lord’s people,” “the pure in heart,” or a specific temple-centered location like Jerusalem.² The Lord called the stake of Nauvoo “a cornerstone of Zion” because the prophetic revelations and the temple covenants He revealed there as well as the community of believers would give order, strength, and stability to the entire Church for generations to follow.

Before 19th-century European settlement, Native peoples lived along Nauvoo’s horseshoe bend in the Mississippi River for generations.⁴ Some called it Quashquema, a Meskwaki word meaning “peaceful place.”⁵ But by 1832, after a treaty with the federal government, the Native Americans were forced to leave.⁶ Investors soon began planning a frontier city they named Venus and later Commerce, but a nationwide banking panic in 1837 changed their plans. The city promoters started looking for someone to buy the land.


During the winter of 1838–1839, Latter-day Saints were driven from their homes in Missouri. Many found refuge in Iowa Territory or around the town of Quincy, Illinois. The Latter-day Saints had tried many times to follow Jesus Christ’s direction to build up a city, but each time they were forced to abandon their efforts. Now, in the spring of 1839, huddled in temporary lodgings and with the Prophet Joseph Smith a prisoner in Liberty, Missouri, they faced a choice: should they gather to build a city again and risk persecution, or should they scatter among the larger population?⁷ Aware of the risks but trusting in God, Joseph Smith authorized Church leaders to buy land for gathering. Joseph named the city Nauvoo, a Hebrew word sometimes translated as “beautiful.”⁸



The Latter-day Saints went to work. They drained swampy land, planted farms and orchards, built homes and roads, and started businesses. At the same time, they welcomed waves of converts from North America and Europe. At its height, Nauvoo’s population surpassed 10,000, making it one of the largest cities in the state of Illinois. At the center stood the Nauvoo Temple, dedicated in 1846 as the house of the Lord, the crowning achievement of the “cornerstone of Zion.”

Nauvoo represents the height of Joseph Smith’s mission to restore the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here the Lord revealed a greater understanding of the plan of salvation and restored temple ordinances and blessings. Joseph taught the Saints they could be sealed together in preparation for exaltation and eternal life. He also taught them they could stand in for their deceased ancestors and receive ordinances that would allow them to be together in the next life.

Baptism for the Dead

Joseph Smith preached about the doctrine of baptism for the dead during a funeral in August 1840. Following this newly-revealed teaching, Saints began performing proxy baptisms in the Mississippi River. In a later revelation, the Lord taught that the ordinance should be performed in temples (see Doctrine and Covenants 124:29–36).

Endowment of Divine Power

Before the temple was built, Joseph furnished the upper room of his Red Brick Store to present the endowment in May 1842. Joseph first invited nine men to receive their endowment. Before his death, Joseph administered the endowment to 60 people, including 28 women.⁹

Sealing for Eternity

Like other ordinances, marriage sealings were first performed outside the temple. Two months after Joseph and Emma’s May 1843 sealing, Joseph recorded a revelation about the new and everlasting covenant of marriage. This covenant promised to keep families together not only for life but also for the afterlife (see Doctrine and Covenants 132).

The Lord revealed these ordinances as the Saints designed and built the temple. As portions of the temple were completed, priesthood leaders would dedicate spaces for the performance of temple ordinances while construction continued on the rest of the building. Eventually, baptisms for the dead, endowment ordinances, and sealings were performed inside the Nauvoo Temple.

Central to building up Nauvoo as a cornerstone of Zion was building a temple. Nearly every member of the Nauvoo community was invited to help build the temple. Some were paid wages for their work while others donated their time, money, talent, and labor during more than five years of construction. Some of the most skilled laborers were the stone masons, who carved decorative features into some stones and set all the stones in place as the temple walls rose.

On June 11, 1842, British convert and stone mason William Player oversaw the setting of the first moonstone of the Nauvoo Temple.

In addition to constructing the temple, Latter-day Saints also drew closer together through religious worship inside the temple. Even as they prepared to depart their beloved temple city in the winter of 1845–1846, the Saints continued receiving ordinances and making covenants with God and each other in the temple day and night. In three short months, over 5,000 Saints received the endowment and over 2,000 were sealed. These covenant relationships solemnized in the Nauvoo Temple bound the growing community of Saints together. As they sought to realize Zion throughout the world in the following decades, they built on the foundational cornerstone of temple blessings revealed in Nauvoo.

On February 3, 1846, the Saints in Nauvoo continued to administer ordinances and make covenants with God and each other even as the first group prepared to begin their exodus from the city in the morning.

“The Restoration is a process, not an event, and will continue until the Lord comes again. The ultimate objective of the gathering of Israel is to bring the blessings of the temple to God’s faithful children. As we seek how to accomplish that objective more effectively, the Lord reveals more insights. The ongoing Restoration needs ongoing revelation.” —President Russell M. Nelson¹⁰

The work of salvation and exaltation performed in Latter-day Saint temples throughout the world today began in Nauvoo. Under divine instruction, Joseph Smith introduced temple covenants and associated priesthood ordinances to the Saints in Nauvoo. Joseph understood that these ordinances would be refined through continuing revelation.

To prepare for the continuation of prophetic revelation, Joseph delegated essential priesthood keys to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles shortly before his death at Carthage Jail. Using these keys, the Apostles directed the completion of the Nauvoo Temple and administration of temple ordinances to thousands of Latter-day Saints before their exodus to the American West.

Following the departure of the Saints from their city, the original Nauvoo Temple was destroyed by fire and tornado. Over 150 years after the Saints left Nauvoo, President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the reconstructed Nauvoo Illinois Temple. The ongoing revelation that builds on the foundational temple revelations is what makes Nauvoo and its temple one of the most sacred places on earth, truly “a cornerstone of Zion.”