On the way home from Winterset in October, after driving through Pammel State Park and recalling the last time I had been there, I told Bud "Someday I want to go over to Mt. Pisgah again". It was something my family and I did when I was a senior in high school - on that same Autumn, Sunday drive day in 1960 when we had gone to the Roseman covered bridge and Pammel Park.
Before we even left for Thanksgiving dinner in Winterset yesterday, I told Bud I thought it would be a good day to take that side trip to Mt. Pisgah on the way home.
There had been one other time I was there after the 1960 family trip. I think it was with my oldest son when he was small, so around 1967 or 68. I knew there had been changes made since then, like the addition of this replica log cabin, built to represent the types of dwellings built there between 1846 and 1852. Also present now is a picnic shelter, bathrooms and interpretive signage.
But in 1960, the only structure on this quiet hillside was the monument placed there in 1888. The names of some of the 300-800 pioneers who died there are on the monument.
If I ever find the photo of me taken next to the monument in 1960, I will add it to this post. If I remember correctly I was standing on the left side back then.
The sign explains how Mt. Pisgah was founded as a way station for the 13,000 Mormons who were following the trail from Nauvoo, Illinois to their new settlement in Utah.
Bud had never been there. He found it quite interesting. That fence and those benches were also something new to me.
I think if I had been one of those pioneer travelers, I would have opted to stop and settle in Mt. Pisgah. The view from this ridge, with the fertile, flat land of the Grand River valley below would have been too tempting. One of the members was even quoted as describing Mt. Pisgah as : "the first place that I felt willing in my heart to stay since I left Nauvoo."
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