http://archival.link/mormoncave/story   Well . . .   There seem to me some real problems with the historical sources on this, such as they are.  But I suppose it’s not inconceivable that there’s some connection to Joseph Smith and, perhaps, to his activities as a treasure-digger.  Maybe.   I’ll be interested in feedback from historians and other experts out there, and from LDS readers more generally.   Feel free to weigh in.   (Thanks to Michael De Groote for... Read more

    Granted, Alaska then wasn’t like Alaska now.  But, still, it was scarcely tropical:   http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2015-09-22-US-Alaska-Dinosaur/id-ffb2704d3ee64a3e894acab9b682d786   The notion that some dinosaurs may have been more bird-like, even more mammal-like, than we’ve long imagined is very interesting.  It’s certainly not what I was taught, back in my dinosaur-loving childhood.   Posted from Nauvoo, Illinois     Read more

      I don’t believe that many who knew of him were surprised, and I suspect that he himself was delighted — he had yearned for his beloved Jeanene for more than twenty years, he’s been quite ill for some time, and he was (so I’ve heard) entirely willing, even eager, to go  — but it was still sad to hear of the passing of Elder Richard G. Scott:   “Elder Richard G. Scott Dies at Age 86”  ... Read more

    “The building up of Zion is a cause that has interested the people of God in every age; it is a theme upon which prophets, priests and kings have dwelt with peculiar delight; they have looked forward with joyful anticipation to the day in which we live; and fired with heavenly and joyful anticipations they have sung and written and prophesied of this our day; but they died without the sight; we are the favored people that God... Read more

    This trip represents at least the fourth time that I’ve driven by Cahokia, not far from St. Louis, without having the time to stop at the site.  I’ve always been in a hurry to reach somewhere else.  It’s becoming a real frustration.   I thought I had it worked out for this trip, but factors beyond my control robbed me of my discretionary time at point in the trip where I planned to use it.   So this... Read more

    Heber C. Kimball told a story of Joseph’s being reduced to tears at a little girl’s simple faith.  “He was gentle to children,” remembered George Q. Cannon, “and universally won their love.” When Martin Harris lost 116 manuscript pages of the translation. Joseph’s mother recalls his reaction: “‘Oh, my God!’ said Joseph, clinching his hands. ‘All is lost! All is lost! What shall I do? I have sinned—it is I who tempted the wrath of God.’” “He wept... Read more

    This is a potentially very important phenomenon, and our policy makers and strategists should be studying it:   http://www.vox.com/2015/9/21/9365953/isis-defections   I couldn’t help but think, at one point in the article, of the purported pirate announcement “The beatings will continue until morale improves.”   Thanks to Jabra Ghneim for calling this to my attention.   Posted from Nauvoo, Illinois     Read more

  “This is the loveliest place and the best people under the heavens; little do they know the trials that await them.”   So spoke the Prophet Joseph Smith as he surveyed the residential area of the Nauvoo Flats, as well as the Nauvoo Temple (still under construction), from the bluff on Mulholland Street.  It was about 6:30 AM on 24 June 1844, perhaps a hundred yards from where I write now.   “I am going like a lamb to the slaughter;... Read more

    Joseph Smith’s sincerity appears in the incidental glimpses of him that we obtain from many of his contemporaries.  Here, for example, is the account given by Joseph’s mother, Lucy Mack Smith, of the baptism of her husband: On the morning of the sixth day of [April], my husband and Martin Harris were baptized. When Mr. Smith came out of the water, Joseph stood upon the shore, and taking his father by the hand, he exclaimed, with tears of... Read more

    It’s science!   https://blogs.chapman.edu/press-room/2015/09/16/chapman-university-publishes-research-on-attractiveness-and-mating-in-national-study-of-americans/   Posted from Liberty, Missouri     Read more