Place

Richardson's Point

A large brown entrance sign, — Entrance sign showing its fall colors during the Scenic Drive Festival near Milton, Iowa.
Photo/Susan Sims

Benches/Seating, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto, Parking - Bus/RV

Richardson’s Point gravesites contain the graves of the first two of three deaths on the Mormon Trail of the Brigham Young-led Vanguard Company that left Nauvoo, Illinois, in February 1846. The approximately 500 wagons camped in this area due to sickness and the terrible weather conditions.

Leaving Nauvoo in late February of 1846, approximately 500 wagons and 3000 people led by Brigham Young crossed the Mississippi River into Iowa and traveled into Van Buren County. Due to thawing conditions and rain, the roads became difficult to traverse and the main Mormon group stopped to make camp at a spot known as Richardson’s Point. Located near the Van Buren/Davis County line, the Saints stopped and stayed in this region from March 7th^tto March 19th. The Saints broke camp on the 19th^hand continued their journey westward.

Richardson’s Point was used as a stopping spot for many as others fled Nauvoo. One would have thought the two graves would have been forgotten due to the location of the grave placements deep within the timber, but they weren’t. The local community seemed to have never forgotten them. As early as 1910-1915, it has been recorded that local school children would go to the graves with their teacher and pick Mayflowers to put on them. One of these children, Harold Brown, lived approximately a mile from the graves and made this his home until his death in the 1980s. Harold could always find the graves to show interested people. In 1963, Hazen Bonar and his brother tried unsuccessfully to find the graves for a pair of Mormon missionaries. The missionaries returned in 1965 and, again with the Bonar brothers, the graves were discovered. The Bonar’s grandparents had homesteaded nearby properties in the 1840s and undoubtedly witnessed the large Mormon camps firsthand. In 1981, Wallace and Jane Maugar, with help from Wallace’s cousin Ila Garrett and her husband Bud, began searching for the graves themselves. Wallace was actually Edwin Little’s great-great-great grandson. The Maugars did not physically find the graves until 1983 and returned in 1985 with two funeral home markers and two headstones for the graves. The Maugars and Garretts should be given credit for their diligence. They carried bags of concrete, rock, water and tools into the woods by hand to accomplish their deed. Before, the only original visible markers were a granite headstone and limestone footstone on the Tanner grave.

Clarence Klodt purchased the 240-acre farm that the graves were located on in 1970 from the Bonar family, an unbelievable acquisition even by today’s standards as some of the land was virgin prairie and a plow had never touched it. There was never a clear path to the graves. The only marker to the graves was a piece of tin stuck in an oak tree about 500 feet from the graves. As time went on, interest slowly picked up about the graves. Read more...