Friday, June 17, 2016 – Martyrdom Trail, Spraying weeds, Sprinkler System, Painting, Package from home

On June 25, 1844 Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum and others left Nauvoo at 6:30 in the morning for Carthage, the County Seat. The anti-Mormon elements in Carthage and Warsaw ILL. brought false charges against Joseph Smith and had threatened violence against the Mormons and Joseph Smith in particular. Joseph could have escaped, but he submitted to arrest to satisfy the worries of his friends and the demands of his enemies. As Joseph and Hyrum traveled the road to Carthage it would be their last day as free men. Joseph had a strong sense of his fate and said, “I go like a lamb to the slaughter, but I am calm as a summer’s morning. I have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward all men . . . I shall die an innocent man . . . and it shall be said of me ‘He was murdered in cold blood.’” He was murdered three days later when an armed mob stormed the Carthage jail. The road Joseph and Hyrum took to Carthage on that fateful June morning has become known as “The Martyrdom Trail.”

“The Martyrdom Trail” still exists today. It is 22 miles long and makes a straight line from Nauvoo to Carthage. It is available for anyone to hike if they like. The emphasis of the trail is not to rehearse the tragic aspects of history, but instead to pay tribute to Joseph Smith’s character and accomplishments. Boy Scouts that hike the trail with their troop can earn any one of several patches.  

Today a group of young men and their leaders came to the visitor’s center to have their picture taken in front of the statue of Joseph and Hyrum. Yesterday they did the unheard of; they hiked “The Martyrdom Trail” round trip, 44 miles in one day! They started at 4:30AM and they all finished in fourteen and a half hours. Wow, what an accomplishment, they were sore, tired, limping and blistered but they all did it.

The young men and their leaders were from the Wabash Ward in Terre Houte, Indiana. It’s about a 5 hour drive east of Carthage. They make the trip to Nauvoo annually and visit the various historic sites as well as hike “The Martyrdom Trail.”

This morning after Sis. Johnson and I finished cleaning around the visitor’s center we both put on our backpack sprayers and went on the hunt for weeds.  And, there were a lot of weeds to spray. Sis. Johnson sprayed all of the bare ground around all of the tree trunks as well as the fence lines, etc. I sprayed the weeds that have sprung up in the cracks in the sidewalks and asphalt.

 

My final job of the day was to work on the sprinkler system again. There were six sprinkler heads that needed replacement but a job that should have only taken 45 minutes, ended up taking almost 2 hours. One of the sprinkler head was broken off 12 inches underground. Usually digging up a section of sprinkler line and fixing it only takes a few minutes. But this one was different; the line was under a Cyprus tree with all of its roots that made a solid barrier I had to dig through. 

 

My final job of the day was to work on the sprinkler system again. There were six sprinkler heads that needed replacement but a job that should have only taken 45 minutes, ended up taking almost 2 hours. One of the sprinkler head was broken off 12 inches underground. Usually digging up a section of sprinkler line and fixing it only takes a few minutes. But this one was different; the line was under a Cyprus tree with all of its roots that made a solid barrier I had to dig through.