Zelph Mound
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| On the top of Zelph Mound |
Zelph Mound
For our P-day and for our family home evening group, we had
a trip to Zelph’s mound. We traveled about 75 miles South to Hannibal, MO (home
town for Samuel Clements or Mark Twain).
There we met Brother Gibbon at the Hannibal Branch building. There Brother Gibbon spoke to us about
Zion’s Camp and Zelph. In early June of
1834, Zion’s Camp traveled to and crossed the Illinois River. They camped the west bank of the river and noticed several large
mounds there. Three men climbed to the
top of the largest one. One felt
inspired to dig there. In doing so he
discovers a skeleton. They brought some
of the bones back to camp to show Joseph.
Joseph then accompanied them back to the top of the 300-foot-high
mound. Joseph asked the Lord about the
bones and learned that the skeleton belonged to a man named Zelph. He was a righteous Lamanite who was a captain
and a great warrior for the Nephites. They recovered the rest of the skeleton. His
rib cage had an arrow lodged in it, which was the cause of his death. This arrow is at the Church History department in Salt Lake City. His thigh bone had
been broken and partially healed. Joseph
had the brothers bring the rest of the bones back to camp, so they could be
transported to a safe place in Missouri for burial. He stated that this
righteous man did not deserve for his bones to be disturbed again and this
ground would be disturbed many times.
Brother Gibbon then led a caravan of about 20 cars about 40
miles East on Interstate 72 and showed us three mounds from a distance. The larges one on the South was a Nephite
burial mound and the two smaller mounds on the North were Lamanite mounds. The custom at the time these mounds were
created was that at the end of each day’s battle, the remaining army would
gather up their dead and lay them side by side.
They would then haul in dirt to cover them up. The next day the process would be repeated on
the same spot. That is how the mounds
were created.
After viewing the mounds from a distance, we drove across
several back road to the base of Zelph Mound.
We climbed to the top. There Brother Gibbon explained that thousand of
bones have been discovered when farmers have plowed their fields. The farmer that owns Zelph Mound (his name is Mr. Bonebreaker) told Brother
Gibbons that when he discovered bones when farming, he moved them to a nearby
grove of trees out of respect for them.
We were surprised that we didn't feel anything spiritually while we were there. Even though it is a small footnote in the history of the Church, it does demonstrate the ability of Joseph to receive revelation concerning the former inhabitants of this land.
Brother Gibbon stated that there were six men from Zion’s
Camp that recorded this event in their Journals. One of the versions was included in the History of the Church. Another of these journals eventually reached the
Smithsonian Institute. They sent a team
to investigate and write a report. A
copy of the report was sent to the University of Illinois archaeology
department. They sent a team out and dug
a two-foot trench across the entire mound.
They still have the artifact they discovered from this dig. Pictures of some of these artifacts and Zelph
mound can be found in the book “Exploring the Book of Mormon In America’s
Heartland”, by Rod L. Meldrum.
One of the historical markers between Nauvoo and Keokuk,
refers to these ancient Indian burial mounds on the banks of the Illinois River
as the Dickson Mounds.
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