March 9, 2004

The Steps to the Martyrdom Room at the Carthage Jail

I have walked these steps scores and scores of times and feel the same feelings of sorrow and joy, despair and triumph, sadness and relief--all at the same time. Here, in the upper room, "the best blood of the nineteenth century" was shed. Here the testimony of Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum was sealed. The steps are symbols of their lives and all it took to come to that fateful Thursday, June 27, 1844.

Photograph by Scot Facer Proctor
Copyright 2004 Scot Facer Proctor