Archeological Finds in Nauvoo

Nauvoo. In 1838, the Cherokee Nation was forced from its lands, and the people began their great Trail of Tears through western Illinois. The following year, another displaced people made their way to the area. Having been driven from the state of Missouri, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began to gather amid the remains of the abandoned Fort Des Moines. Today on a horseshoe bend of the Mississippi River sits the quaint Midwestern town of Nauvoo, which rivaled Chicago in size during its heyday. Alex Smith, volume editor with the Joseph Smith Papers Project in the Church History Department, discusses Nauvoo and its history.