Week Seven | Nauvoo, IL to Winfield, MO: the next 200 miles
1pm, Thursday, August 27, 2020
Nauvoo, Warsaw, Quincy, Hannibal, Louisiana, Elsberry, Winfield
LANDSCAPE | Floodplains
In addition to crops, the vast and fertile bottom lands now sprout farms and communities. These once-forested low plains, so vital to the natural rhythm of the river, have at times brought great prosperity, and at other times great misfortune.
COMMUNITY | Advocates & Activists
Every community needs a champion, especially when times are hard, and from small town to big city, we found people digging in and making a difference.
VOICE | Terrie Harper
Elsberry, MO Alderman and proprietor of The Hair Movement Salon. Voice gathered on August 29, 2019 from morning to night across miles and scenes of Elsberry.
VOICE | Kristal Pitzer
Former Executive Director of the Louisiana, Missouri Chamber of Commerce, young mother of six, wife to a policeman, and advocate for her struggling home town. Voice gathered walking the streets of Louisiana on August 28, 2019.
VOICE | Sharon Nicholl
Director of Nauvoo Tourism and former LDS missionary who’s found a purpose in this beautiful place along the Mississippi River. Voice gathered across town over the course of two days, August 22 and 23, 2019.
Click here for original blogs from week seven.
We were a small group this Thursday, but an engaged one! Many thanks to Jeff Christiensen of Nauvoo, Illinois for joining us and sharing his thoughtful and insightful questions.
We almost thought of abandoning ship this week with Hurricane Laura having just clobbered my home town of Lake Charles, LA and still barreling up the middle of the country intersecting with many of our Mississippi River communities. However, just as we persisted last year, hour by hour, day by day, mile by mile, we are persisting here today. The work is important, the recollections and reconnections are invaluable, and the potential for what’s next continues to grow.
Again this week we were faced with the question of how to ultimately document and make available all of the information, stories, data, knowledge and understanding that we gathered on this journey—and are still gathering… This reunion journey, its presentations and performances, and the website here are a beginning. The light bulb of ideas is still glowing, flickering, alive with the support, insight and involvement from everyone who gathers with us each week.
We hope to see more of you next week and in the weeks to come.