One of the most soul-stirring sites in old Nauvoo, Illinois, is Parley Street as it runs west from Granger Street to the bank of the Mississippi River. It is often referred to as the Trail of Hope in reference to the thousands of Saints who left Nauvoo and crossed the Mississippi into the insecurity and dangers of Iowa Territory and the unsettled American West. Deep was their sorrow and poignant their feelings at the reality of having to leave all they had worked so hard to build in Nauvoo.
At the final dedicatory service for the Nauvoo Illinois Temple on June 30, 2002, President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) asked those in attendance to walk down Parley Street to the waterfront on the Mississippi River. That summer evening, more than 1,000 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints walked down Parley Street.
All visitors may walk along this moving site where several dozen markers have the words of pioneer journal excerpts expressing the tender feelings of those who left.