ROADTRIPPIN - OLD NAUVOO BURIAL SITE

There are a number of cemeteries in Nauvoo – but my sister (and her wonderful husband) took me to one I’d never even heard of before. The Old Nauvoo Burial Ground (also called the Pioneer Saints Cemetery) was the primary cemetery in Nauvoo during the time the Mormons first came to Nauvoo. It is believed that over 2000 people died in Nauvoo during the period, from 1836 until the Pioneers headed west in 1846 – and about half of them children.

Although most cemeteries have a solemnity about them, this place feels different. There’s a small parking lot, and a path leading back into the woods. A few hundred yards in, you come to a rotunda – and on the walls are listed the names of those known to have died while in Nauvoo. The list is humbling, and names familiar from my own family tree stand out to me as I glance through the hundreds and hundreds of names. So many infants and small children. And diseases like Malaria, Tuberculosis, Cholera were so prevalent at the time.

A few hundred yards farther, and there is a large wooded grove – surrounded by a simple wood fence, and a few headstones scattered about. And although thousands died in Nauvoo, only 119 gravestones are here. Some headstones were lost over the years – overgrown by 180 years. Some were long-ago-disintegrated wood markers that just couldn’t withstand the test of time. Still many others were never marked – either from a death in the middle of a harsh winter, or because sometimes there just wasn’t time nor resources.

Tall trees shade this hallowed ground, with light gently filtering through the trees. Grass grows a foot tall, and will be taller by mid-summer. Of the headstones that do exist, some are newer additions (now no longer allowed), and most are weather-worn and fading, most spotted with moss. So many barely-legible or no-longer legible from the years. 

In the center of the back fence, a bronze statue of a young pioneer family in mourning watches over this hallowed ground. No doubt many young families stood here, facing heartbreaking loss. 

It's humbling to stand in this place. 2000 unmarked graves. Graves of people who sacrificed their lives for their beliefs. That made that sacrifice for the gospel. That made that sacrifice for me.