E96: The Scandal at Garden Grove

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:08)
Hey, Bryan, we've actually never talked about this, and there's something that I have to get off my chest.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:13)
Get it off my desk, get it off my desk.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:15)
So listen, there's this one story about Navu.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:19)
Ma'am, ma'am, don't you dare bring us back to Navu.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:23)
Hold your oxen, drink some cinnamon toast milkshake, and chill. I just have a little old Navu bit I keep forgetting to share that I really wanna share.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:33)
So you've brought us back to Navu.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:36)
So when the saints left Navu, they left it. We never talked about the goodbye note they left for the folks taking over the Navu temple.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:45)
Hey, we remember this. When the Mormons leave Navu, the new occupiers give them an old-fashioned F-U by ringing the bell in the bell tower.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:53)
Sure, we've talked about the bell. We talked about the bell, but we didn't talk about the note that the Mormons left for them inscribed in the temple. And as I've been researching, I found several sources on this, and I don't want it to get left behind in Nauvoo without us talking about it.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:07)
All right, because to me, it sounds like you want to, shall we say, linger longer in Nauvoo?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:13)
No, absolutely not. Hard pass. We will not be having Emma's cornbread and punch for our linger longer. We're getting out of Nauvoo.
I'm more excited to leave Nauvoo than William Clayton is, I promise you. Sing! That was a good joke, right? If you don't get that, then you're not a true fan of the podcast, and Hosea Stout will poison you.
I just found this mention in John Pulsifer's journal about the Nauvoo temple, and then I found other sources for it. And so I started digging into this, because I was like, I've never heard this story before. And thanks to Scott Barrett and other nerds, I know it's just a silly little thing. I didn't know where to put it, so I thought I'd start out our episode with it.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:54)
All right, gotcha, gotcha. Hit me.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:55)
Okay, so remember, as the saints were being driven from Nauvoo, they leave in three sorts of exoduses or acts, if you will.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:05)
Thanks, Bill Hartley. That's like thanks, Obama, but positive.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:09)
No, God rest his soul, we always talk positively about Bill Hartley. So yes, they leave in three groups, three acts in Nauvoo, and after the final group of stragglers get out of Dodge, the temple, the Nauvoo temple is almost finished, and the Mormons were really sad to leave it behind.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:28)
And then of course, the angry mob shoot some recycled cannonballs back and forth. Then they climb the tower as the poor Mormons are filtering out.
Remember the last ones to leave are the crippled, the sick, the poor, and the mobs climb up the tower and tell off those poor sick crippled folks. And then they ring the bell to say, see ya suckers.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:47)
Yes, very, very classy angry mob. We heard about this in Thomas Cain's last episode. Well, here's what I found in Pulsiver's Journal. He's talking about how they left the temple. And I want you to pay attention to the last phrase. He says, quote, at the west end, about 100 feet from the ground was the following inscription in large gold letters. The house of the Lord built by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints commenced April 6th, 1841 Holiness to the Lord. At the east end of the house inside was attached the following arch detached the following sentence.
The Lord had beheld our sacrifice.
Come after us.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:30)
See, the only thing missing there is a simple bro. Come after us, bro. See, that would have been much stronger and a much mobbier choice, I would argue.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:39)
It's a little salty, right? Like I'm trying to think of a different context for this, but I can't really find one. I think it was some trash talk.
And because I'm a little trashy, I like that the Mormons left with a little trash talk. Come after us.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:53)
Did you say trash talk?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:55)
I did.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:56)
Well, you've been promising some trash talk for a while now when it comes to Winter Quarters.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:01)
Okay, it's true, it's true. I have been dropping some teasers this season about the wildest little hen house in Garden Grove, haven't I? So, guess what folks, buckle up. I guess it's finally time to tell that story.