Fragments of Nauvoo history reclaimed after years of neglect

A treasure trove of artifacts left in Nauvoo, Ill., by early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been reclaimed after years of neglect left them deteriorating in an old shed.

Shane Baker, an archaeologist formerly with Brigham Young University, secured funding from two LDS entities — the Foundation for Ancient Research in Mormon Studies and the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation — to lead a team that cleaned, catalogued and repackaged the items this past summer in Nauvoo.

Among them are not only pieces of the original temple's baptismal font and floor, fragments of sun stones and moon stones, but items that reflect the everyday life of early Latter-day Saints including silverware, ceramics, fruit and canning jars, medicine bottles, lanterns and even children's dolls. Such recovered items often help flesh out details about those whose names never appear in any written account, such as women, children and minorities.

First excavated during the 1960s at the site of the original Nauvoo Temple and other historic buildings, the items were boxed and put away for future study, but they apparently fell through the cracks with numerous overseers during the intervening decades.

When Baker and his team got to the site last August, cardboard boxes containing the items — stored inside an old garage — were deteriorating and had become a haven for rodents. "We had to chase a raccoon out of the shed," Baker remembers. Working with masks and rubber gloves in the summer heat, the team spent a week cleaning, cataloguing, repackaging and boxing the entire collection.

Baker said he became aware of the collection from his work with BYU archaeologist Dale Berge, who knew of its existence after working on the collection after excavations in the 1960s. Spearheaded by Salt Lake physician Leroy Kimball, a descendant of early Nauvoo resident and church leader Heber C. Kimball, the excavation on the site of old Mormon homes and buildings began when Kimball purchased his ancestor's home, intending to restore it, Baker said.

As he worked, "he was constantly inundated with people stopping by who wanted to see and tour it," Baker said. As a result, he began a quest to restore historic sites in the small town and formed the nonprofit Nauvoo Restoration Inc. in July 1962, with the objective of restoring historic Nauvoo, Baker said. Kimball and other supporters funded the project early on until the LDS Church stepped in.