NAUVOO, Ill. — Hosted at this living history town Oct. 11, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Senate assistant minority leader, saw Main Street from a horse-drawn wagon and enjoyed fresh-baked cinnamon rolls from a wood-fired "bustle oven."
Sen. Durbin said he took the tour because his friend and fellow U. S. Senator Harry Reid, D-Nev., had encouraged him to see Nauvoo and learn about the restored 1840's village, which includes 20 homes, shops and public buildings. Sen. Reid, Senate minority leader, is a member of the Church.
President Neal Lewis of the Illinois Nauvoo Mission hosted the senator's visit. Sen. Durbin and his staff viewed "Remember Nauvoo, " a film that through quotations from early journals of Church members chronicles the building of the city from its beginnings in 1839 until the exodus of the saints in 1845.
The senator's tour was narrated by President Lewis' wife, Sister Kay Lewis, a guide and site interpreter in Nauvoo who, like the other site interpreters, wore 1840's garb.
Joyce Shireman, director of the Joseph Smith Historic Center, operated by the Community of Christ, showed the group Joseph Smith's home, the Mansion House.
Accompanying the senator on his tour were John McCarty, Nauvoo mayor; David Miller, Chamber of Commerce president; and Rustin Lippincott, tourism director.