Zelph Mound

These photos are all out of order, but we don't know how to put them in order.  Sorry.

 6: Here I am standing on top looking along the length of the Mound. You can see a depression in the middle of it.  This is where the State of Illinois did a partial archeology dig on the Mound and removed about 10 by 15 feet of the top.

 3:  This is as we are closer to the Mound, about 300 feet up from the river

 1: This is the entrance to the trail at the road next to the Illinois river where the Zions camp had ferried across and camped for the night June 2, 1834.   Sis. Ririe is on the trail

 2:  This is the mound from a distance as we hiked up to it.

 4:  This is as we are right in front of the mound.: the left side.

 Duplicate photo.  Sorry.

 7:  This is a closer photo of the depression of  the archeology dig that was done by the state.  They didn't do more because they didn't have enough money, but they found a lot of skeletons and artifacts.

Duplicate photo.  Sorry.

 Today, March 28, was our preparation day and we went to see the Zelph Mound which is about 1 1/2 hours south of here on the Illinois River.  On June 2, 1834 Joseph Smith and about 150 men camped here as they were on their way to Missouri with "Zions Camp".  While there, Joseph had a vision wherein he saw a short history of a Lamanite warrior that was killed in this spot in one of the final battles of the Lamanites in this area. His name was Zelph and in an earlier battle he had his thigh bone broken and then in this last battle he had become so righteous that the "curse" was leaving him and he had become a white Lamanite. The Lord "allowed" him to die in this battle so he could "return home", and he had an arrow in his spine. Joseph told the men where to dig and when they dug about  two feet deep they uncovered a skeleton with arrowhead in his spine and a thigh bone that was broken but healed with an osseous callous.

5: The photo to the right is the right side of the Mound and should be up next to #4