Nearly every American recognizes Williamsburg, Va., as one of the country's premier, working historical villages. But say "Nauvoo," and you're likely to get blank stares. Yet Nauvoo covers more acres than Williamsburg and in the early 1800s, the town rivaled Chicago in population. Today, it's still a working village, graced with historic homes and people performing tasks much as they might have 200 years ago.

As I drive toward Nauvoo along Highway 96--the famous "Spoon River Drive" of rural Illinois--I admire the gorgeous scenery along the Mississippi River before turning a bend into Nauvoo.

How unknown is this place? Williamsburg gets 3 to 4 million visitors annually; only 150,000 to 20§0,000 find Nauvoo. But it was there that Joseph Smith, known as the prophet of the Mormon Church, built one of the most beautiful and powerful American cities of the early 19th century. The name of the town literally means "beautiful place" in Hebrew because the early Mormons felt a close kinship with the House of Israel.

With more than 20 restored buildings dating from the early 1800s, Nauvoo is an important, and often overlooked, site in early American history. It operated under a quasi-sovereign charter of laws that allowed it to function free of many strictures imposed by the federal government.

Today, this richly restored community is still filled with beautiful brick homes surrounded by white picket fences, sitting on enormous, immaculately shorn lawns. The interiors of the homes are exactly as they were in the mid 1800s--complete with antiquše furnishings, clothing, place settings and utensils. Guides, dressed in authentic period costumes, give informative tours about the lives and times of the settlement's residents.

A smithy at a working blacksmith shop throws open his doors so visitors can watch him work glowing red iron into a utilitarian ladle. A cobbler at the Riser Boot Shop demonstrates the art of fitting a sole to the leather upper of a lady's lace-up boot. At the Coolidge House, visitors see such early frontier crafts as candle making, pottery throwing, and coopering--otherwise known as barrel making. Local Jonathan Browning invented the original repeating rifle, and at the Browning Home and Gun Shop, where the Browning Arms company began in 1843, a fine display of Browning guns, past and present, is showcased.

In June 1844, Joseph Smith was killed by a mob that resented the political power the Church had gained in the county. By autumn of 1846, Nauvoo was a ghost town. Homes were sold--in some cases for as little as $3--as Mormons fled, eventually settling in Utah.

Three years later, a group from France who called themselves Icarians settled in the town and began a short- lived experiment in communal living. The commune fell apart but those who remained discovered that the climate and soil of the surrounding countryside were very much like grape-growing regions in their native country. Prohibition cut short Nauvoo's foray into the wine business but, ever resourceful, the vintners found that their cool, moist wine cellars were ideal for aging cheese. In the late 1930s, Nauvoo's blue cheese industry was born.

Today, there are 75 productive vineyards in operation and Baxter's Winery, Illinois' oldest winery, offers tours and tastings. Award-winning blue cheese is still made at the Nauvoo Blue Cheese Company.

For some, visiting the town is a religious pilgrimage, and for others, it's a chance in late July and early August to see the outdoor musical depiction of Joseph Smith's life and the Mormons' time in Nauvoo. But for many visitors, Nauvoo is simply about Americana in the early 1800--a rare opportunity to see first-hand what that day-to-day existence was like.

Nauvoo Tourism Information Office: 877-628-8661; www.visitnauvoo.org

(Melanie Walker, a resident of Virginia, stumbled upon the beauty and down-to-earth delights of central Illinois by growing up there.)

May 2001