Sunday, May 5, 2013

Vanishing Communities #3 Union, Nevada May 2013


I continue my vanishing communities series with Union, Nevada, in central Nevada.  This ghost town is located approximately two miles from Berlin in Berlin Icthyosaur State Park. Union was a small mining community within the Union Mining District. The camp thrived for awhile in the 1860s but by 1866 most miners had left. A short revival occured in 1890 because of a renewed interest in Berlin area mines. Today this building is the only remaining structure in the town. Nevada state parks has done a good job with using plaques to show where other structures existed.  (Information from Nevada Ghost Towns and Mining Camps By Stanley Paher).

Church History Museum Salt Lake City, Utah April 27, 2013

                                              Map showing the immigration to Zion

Location and General Information: The Mormon History Museum is located off of Temple Square next to the Family History Center.Admission is free but donations are appreciated. I should allocate at least one hour and a half to walk around. A museum store sells artifacts as well as information about the Mormon religion. On the main floor exhibits show the immigration of believers from Nauvoo to Zion (Salt Lake City). Church members also came from around the world. They left because of persecution at Nauvoo. Church leaders summoned believers from around the world to Zion where they would be free to practice their religion in peace.  Immigrants started out traveling by covered wagon however, that method became too expensive and the majority used hand carts to travel to Zion. This journey was very arduous and many died as a result.  The second floor of the museum has a big exhibit showing the past Presidents of the Church. Highlights include Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.The exhibit is informative and worth your time.
              I partly visited the museum to see how the Church portrayed the Mountain Meadows Massacre as well the future. I was very surprised that there was no mention of the Mountain Meadows  Massacre anywhere in the museum. I expected the Church to attempt to explain what happened to visitors. There was also no mention of future reforms within the church such as letting women  and African Americans become more involved within leadership.

                        Pistols belonging to Joseph SMith and Hyrum in Missouri

                            A method used to determine mileage traveled on a covered wagon

                           Blurry map showing the path immigrants took to get to Zion

                                                  Presidents of the Church exhibit

                                      Covered wagon