To reach Nauvoo, escape Chicago on Route 80 heading west to Princeton. The 300-odd-mile drive should take no more than five hours, but add a few during the summer festival of road construction. All routes south and west from Princeton are equally indirect, so take your pick. If your appetite for Icarian history has been stimulated, you might want to stop at the library of Western Illinois University, at Macomb (follow Route 41 south from Galesburg), home of the largest collection of Icariana in the country. Hours for the collection are Monday through Friday 8 to 4:30 (Marla Vizdal, librarian; 309-298-2717). Lodging is cheap and basic at the university’s Olson Conference Center (rooms start at $24; 309-298-3500).
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Rule number one for visitors to western Illinois: eat before you go. Like the episode with the ersatz muffins, many of our encounters with solid food over several days oscillated between the comic and the bewildering. Don’t order anything with a French name or cheese sauce. The “catfish fingers” we ate at one place looked a lot like fingers but didn’t taste very much like catfish. A simple request for a hot dog “with everything” at Porter’s, 1450 Mulholland in Nauvoo (217-453-2315), sent the counterman into extreme anxiety. He retreated into the back to seek advice. Reappearing a minute later, he asked, “Now, what exactly do you mean by “everything’?” We settled on ketchup, mustard, and, after he had rooted around for several frantic moments in the refrigerator, some sliced onion. Porter’s also sells Moroni Mixers; if you’ve ever tasted a Dairy Queen Blizzard, you’ve already had one. Porter’s has several displays on the life of Mormon folk hero Orrin Porter Rockwell, the “Avenging Angel of Mormonism” and bodyguard to Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, who seems to have committed quite a bit of mayhem in his day.
Also in Nauvoo, try the fresh-baked items from the Nauvoo Mill and Bakery (1530 Mulholland; 217-453-6734), which mills its own wheat. It also sells a locally produced blue cheese, jars of pickles, jams, and relishes, and snacks of the gingersnap and apple-cider variety.
The Mormon pilgrimage continues at Carthage: the pious or simply curious won’t want to pass up a visit to the jail where Hyrum and Joseph met their maker. Carthage is about an hour southeast of Nauvoo if you hurry, which would be missing the point. The drive south along the Mississippi to Hamilton is beautiful, with plenty of scenic turnoffs from which to observe river traffic. If you pass through Hamilton on a weekday between 7 AM and 4 PM stop at Dadant and Sons (51 S. Second; 217-847-3324). Descendants of an Icarian family, the Dadants sell beekeeping supplies, beeswax candles, T-shirts, and other apiary paraphernalia. Beekeeping was very big among the Icarians. Dadant’s is just west of 96 on Route 136, the road to Keokuk. From Dadant’s, head back east to the Old Carthage Jail Museum (217-357-2989), easy to find if you follow the signs on Route 136. Now owned by the Mormons, the jail offers a brief hagiographic video on the life of the prophet and a surprisingly appealing tour of the jail itself. The Mormon craving for bronze statuary is in strong evidence there. Lunch in Carthage should include a tasty pork tenderloin sandwich at the Towne House Restaurant (65 S. Adams, opposite the courthouse; 217-357-3373).
