A replica of the rough-hewn Kanesville Tabernacle, where Brigham Young was sustained as the second president of the LDS Church in 1847, was dedicated Saturday by President Gordon B. Hinckley.
"It is fitting we gather here today with deep appreciation in our hearts," said President Hinckley, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, before offering the dedicatory prayer.He talked of the Mormon migration from Nauvoo, Ill., and the establishment of communities along the way and in the Great Basin. "They longed for the freedom to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience," President Hinckley said of the pioneers.
"Tremendous was their vision," he declared, and that vision came largely from the leadership of Brigham Young.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback and great-great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, Steve Young, traded in his helmet and pads for a period costume to participate in the event.
"This tabernacle had special meaning to Brigham Young, as I've studied the journals," said the former BYU quarterback.
About 400 invited guests attended the dedicatory services in the newly built tabernacle in downtown Council Bluffs near the site of the original tabernacle.
Thousands of others viewed the dedicatory services on the grounds of the Iowa School for the Deaf, some five miles away, where the services were later telecast onto a stadium-size TV screen.
The 140-year-old school is located on the site where the Mormon pioneers camped in 1846 near the eastern banks of the Missouri River as they made their way across America's frontier.
Within a month after the first pioneers arrived on June 14, 1846, as many as 10,000 Mormon refugees had reached the encampment. The vast collection of people, livestock, wagons and tents became known as the Grand Encampment, which stretched back to the east for nine miles.
It was also at the Grand Encampment that the 500-man Mormon Battalion was mustered for duty during the Mexican War.
In his prayer dedicating the tabernacle, President Hinckley petitioned that the structure "may stand as a landmark in this community. May it be a place to remember and ponder the lives and deeds of men and women who were endowed with a great overpowering sense of mission, and who out of love for a great cause were willing to give their all, even life itself.
"May the realistic re-creation of the past become a sobering part of the present that there will be a grateful remembrance of those who have gone before."
The reconstructed tabernacle was a joint project of the Pottowattamie County Mormon Trail Association and Kanesville Restoration Inc.
Earlier in the day, a huge crowd witnessed the re-enactment ceremony of the Mormon Battalion mustering, which was held on the campus of the deaf school. Descendants of the five companies of battalion members, dressed in period clothing, were mustered in, just as their ancestors were 150 years ago.
Steve Young represented Brigham Young, who gave the mustering speech. U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jeff Haines represented Col. Thomas L. Kane and presented Kane's endorsement, and retired Army Maj. Joseph R. Carlson represented Capt. James Allen and gave Allen's call for recruits.
Elder Hugh W. Pinnock of the Seventy was the featured speaker and spoke as if his listeners were the actual battalion members.
"Five hundred of you marched away as we are commemorating today," said Elder Pinnock, "but you had a type of schooling that few people have ever had."
After speaking of events leading up to the battalion's mustering, Elder Pinnock said, "Thank you for your courage. We salute you, we wish you well. Our prayers, thoughts and dreams go with you. We will meet again to build Zion, a place of peace and joy, way out in the Rocky Mountains."
Also speaking at the mustering ceremony were Larry C. Porter, a professor at Brigham Young University who is an expert on the Mormon Battalion history, who gave a historical perspective, and Ann Stoddard Reese of Salt Lake City, who gave a descendant's perspective.
Dedication of the tabernacle and a re-enactment of the Mormon Battalion mustering were the major events of a two-day Grand Encampment Celebration in commemoration of the sesquicentennial of the founding of Council Bluffs and of Iowa statehood, as well as the Mormon pioneer trek.
As part of the celebration, a sesquicentennial wagon train, sponsored by the Iowa Mormon Trail Association, pulled into the Grand Encampment site Friday. Consisting of several wagons and a number of handcarts, the modern-day trekkers left Nauvoo, Ill., June 24 and inched their way across southern Iowa, traveling as close to the original trail as possible.
Crawling about three or four miles an hour, the wagon train went through a number of towns founded by the Mormon pioneers in their exodus 150 years ago. In all, the pioneers founded about 80 communities in southwest Iowa, including Kanesville.