Bushman Nauvoo Reunion 2022 Itinerary

Friday, July 29: Welcome & British Pageant

Today the Bushmans assemble in Nauvoo, Illinois! Airport Bus ticket holders will meet at 10:00 in the morning at or near the St. Louis Lambert Airport (STL) to load the bus and drive to Nauvoo, IL. We’ll see the Gateway Arch museum, make a quick lunch stop in Mark Twain’s hometown of Hannibal, MO, then proceed on to Nauvoo Family Inn & Suites (NFIS), where check-in begins at 4pm. Participants providing their own transportation also meet this afternoon in Nauvoo between 3:00pm and 5:30pm to pick up their packets of tickets and nametags from the nearby church meetinghouse (Stake Center). Dinner will be served at 6pm before we join in the fun of Nauvoo's pre-pageant activities, the Frontier County Fair. Blocks of seats will be reserved for us at The British Pageant, which begins that evening at 8:30pm.

Saturday, July 30: Bushmans Move to Nauvoo, Historic Nauvoo Activities, Nauvoo Pageant

At the Stake Center, we will meet for a Morning Welcome and presentations sharing discoveries about how Martin and Elizabeth moved their family from Pennsylvania to Illinois and their experiences when they arrived. Then we're off for our first Field Trip! On our Farms Field Trip, we visit the land where the Bushmans lived and farmed in Nauvoo and point out nearby places that were once their friends’ farms. Next, at Historic Nauvoo Visitors’ Center, we will be oriented to Historic Nauvoo’s tours and activities, and boxed lunches will be distributed. We disperse to enjoy Historic Nauvoo: to explore the attractions on our own, go on a reserved Mississippi River Boat Cruise, participate in temple ordinances (by appointment only), or rest. Buses will run regularly between NFIS and Historic Nauvoo sites to help us get around. Back at the Stake Center, we will hear a presentation about the Bushmans’ Life in Nauvoo that will help give us context for Sunday’s Life in Nauvoo Field Trip. We end the day with dinner, the Frontier County Fair, and The Nauvoo Pageant!

Sunday, July 31: Life in Nauvoo, Historic Nauvoo Activities, Small Group Sessions

The morning includes a Life in Nauvoo Field Trip and church for those who wish to attend a service. We will drive to see one of the stone quarries where Martin & Jacob hauled stone with their team for the temple, the Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds, a schoolhouse from that time period, and the Nauvoo Temple grounds. We will take our boxed lunches with us as we disperse again for another afternoon of exploring Historic Nauvoo, with buses running after church to NFIS, Stake Center, Historic Nauvoo Sites, and Carthage Jail tours. Back at the Stake Center, we eat dinner and end the day dividing into smaller groups for evening presentations.

Monday, Aug 1: Bushmans Leave Nauvoo, Bonnell Farm, and Closing Banquet

Our last Nauvoo Day, at the Stake Center we’ll hear a presentation about the dangerous circumstances in which the Bushmans left Nauvoo and the conflicting family accounts of their departure. We then visit the Trail of Hope, Pioneer Monument, and meet together by the Mississippi River, which the Bushmans crossed to find safety and continue with their church to their next home in Iowa. With our boxed lunches, we enjoy more Free Time for Historic Nauvoo activities and Mississippi River Boat Cruise reservations, with buses shuttling around Historic Nauvoo. In the afternoon, we leave on our Iowa Field Trip, driving through Keokuk, on to Montrose (Nauvoo’s sister community across the river), and then to the Bonnell Farm where the Bushmans worked in the summer of 1846. We continue on to Burlington, where we arrive for our Reunion Banquet. While we enjoy a wonderful dinner and speakers, don’t miss the Art & Artifacts Exhibit, where we have a chance to admire family heirlooms and original creations honoring our Bushman heritage. Buses will head back to NFIS beginning around 8pm.

Tues, Aug 2: Abraham Lincoln Sites

Today we visit Springfield, IL, and connect the Bushmans' time in Illinois with their famous American contemporary, Abraham Lincoln. In Lincoln’s New Salem historic site, we will explore a historical reconstruction of the village where Lincoln spent his early adulthood, about 10 years before the Bushmans arrived in Illinois. Here we can see buildings, furnishings, and tools that may have been much like those the Bushmans and other farming pioneers used as they arrived in Illinois. We will also visit the Lincoln Presidential Library Museum and see theater shows and exhibits about Lincoln’s early life, family, presidency, and the Civil War. We take a tour of the Lincoln Home, the first and only home Abraham Lincoln owned and which still stands today. We will drive through Oak Ridge Cemetery to catch a glimpse of the monument at Lincoln’s Tomb. Airport Bus riders leave Springfield for St. Louis at about 4:30pm, arriving at STL around 6:00pm, and Nauvoo Bus riders will head back to NFIS, arriving around 7:30pm.

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