Saturday, August 12, 2017 – Old Fort Madison, Train Museum, Last “Sunset by the Mississippi”

This morning after we finished our P-day chores we took Elder Kyle Johnson and went to Ft. Madison, IA to the “Old Fort Madison” Museum and Exhibition. From 1808 to 1813 it was a working fort during the war of 1812. This reconstructed exhibit is on the banks of the Mississippi a mile downstream from the original fort. It was the first US settlement west of the Mississippi in the Indian Territory. 

We found the information, reconstruction and tours of the fort very informative. We enjoyed our time there. The firing of an authentic “Revolutionary War” musket was very impressive.

Our next stop was at the Ft. Madison Train Museum. This museum turned out to be “North Lee County Historical Society Museum”.  It is a museum of local antiquities, history and artifacts. The museum is housed in the old “Fort Madison Santa Fe Train Station” buildings but it had little if nothing to do with trains. I was a little disappointed but the non-train museum was very interesting anyway.

 Tonight was our last and final “Sunset by the Mississippi” show. Not just the last show of the summer season but the final time Sis. Johnson and I will ever take the Sunset stage and perform. Performing in “Sunset” has been an awesome experience both this summer and last summer. We will cherish the memories, our director and our fellow cast members the rest of our lives.

The YPM’s (Young Performing Missionaries) have been wonderful in all of their performances, not just “Sunset” but in “Rendezvous” and all of the other stag shows, sidewalk vignettes, Cultural Hall and Visitor Center shows. They have been an awesome group and a joy and privilege to see and work with these past three months. They go home next week. Many of them go straight to school and three of them go straight to the MTC on missions.