Fragments of Nauvoo history reclaimed after years of neglect

Baker said at least 25 different properties in Nauvoo were investigated in addition to the old temple site, including the Browning home and gunsmith shop, the Brigham Young home, the Wilford Woodruff home, Times and Seasons newspaper offices, the Seventies Hall, a bakery and a blacksmith shop. The work was conducted by scholars from both Southern Illinois University and the University of Missouri, Baker said, adding that famed historical archaeologist J.C. Harrington spent several seasons researching in the area as well.

As the project progressed, the bulk of responsibility for cleaning up and conducting research on the excavated objects fell to Berge, Baker said. But Nauvoo Restoration Inc. put its major "emphasis from the very start on restoration of the architecture. That was implicit in their objectives. They wanted to facilitate restoration of the buildings to their period appearance."

Yet at many sites, the structures had been demolished completely. At that point, reconstruction becomes a work for archaeologists in conjunction with others, Baker said.

"As they dug, they came up with a wonderful collection" of household materials, he said. "Some of them were washed and processed and restored, but there was never much emphasis at the time on analysis and publication of those materials.

"They have an important story to tell and can add lots of insights, but that was not the objective at that time."

Berge's work on the excavated items took place at the old Lyon Drug store in Nauvoo, a historic building with modern additions that he used as an archaeological lab, Baker said.

He returned for several summers to work on the project under Nauvoo Restoration supervision, and locking the lab when he left to return the next summer. "NRI at some point decided they were finished, and I think it caught him (Berge) unaware. He didn't know it would be his last summer," and Berge was "not present when the artifacts had to be boxed up and moved" while the drugstore was renovated.

After Berge's work ended, Baker said, the items were "moved three or four times. They resided at some point in a barn and they ended up finally in this shed-like storage structure and just sat there." Not for just a year or two — but for nearly four decades.

Berge and Baker talked often of the items, and Berge returned to Nauvoo in 2001 to find out what had become of them. He found many had, at one time, been displayed in the restored Seventies Hall, but the rest were languishing uncared for in a shed.

"They were forgotten, essentially," Baker said, explaining that NRI is now operated by LDS missionaries whose assignments rotate every year to 18 months. The problem with such constant turnover is a lack of real ownership by anyone for supervision of the artifacts.