Tensions Over Mormon Expansion in Nauvoo, IL

July 29, 2004

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/29/national/29mormons.html

On July 29, 2004 The New York Times reported that, "high upon a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River stands a soaring Mormon temple, the biggest building for many miles around. Closed to non-Mormons, it symbolizes the tension that has reshaped life in what was until recently a typical Midwestern town. The Mormons opened their rebuilt temple here two years ago, and since then more than half a million people, many from Utah, have come to see it. About 300 Mormons have moved here [Nauvoo, Illinois], bringing the population to 1,100... Mormons have brought a good deal of money to Nauvoo, something that many other towns along the Mississippi River might envy. Places like Warsaw, 17 miles north, and Fort Madison, Iowa, on the other side of the river, have few apparent prospects and seem to be shriveling away... Economic, political and social tensions have grown as Mormons have poured into Nauvoo. A developer wants to build a 70-unit residential complex on the edge of town, and the unspoken assumption is that Mormons would buy most of them. The City Council has blocked the project, citing concerns about its size."