“Spring Hill is named by the Lord Adam-ondi-Ahman, because, said he, it is the place where Adam shall come to visit his people.” — Doctrine and Covenants 116¹

Adam-ondi-Ahman, a settlement in northwest Missouri, was identified in a 1835 revelation (now found in Doctrine and Covenants 107) as the place where Adam blessed his posterity after leaving the Garden of Eden.² In May 1838, Joseph Smith and others surveyed the site, intending to build a city centered on the bluffs of the Grand River. Joseph Smith announced the area as a gathering place for the Saints and renamed it from Spring Hill to Adam-ondi-Ahman, indicating it as the location where Adam would return before the Second Coming.³ Smith also said that there appeared to be a Nephite tower and altar in the area.⁴ Large groups of Saints began settling there in June 1838, which they often referred to as “Diahman,” and it soon became the principal Latter-day Saint settlement in Daviess County.⁵ However, by mid-October 1838, under pressure from vigilantes, the town was nearly abandoned by November after state militia gave an ultimatum to evacuate or face vigilante retaliation. By November 20, 1838, Adam-ondi-Ahman was almost completely abandoned, and by 1839 part of it became the town of Cravensville.⁶

1. Doctrine and Covenants 116

2. Doctrine and Covenants 107:53-57

3. 18 May–1 June 1838, Journal, March–September 1838, josephsmithpapers.org

4. Saints, Volume 1, Chapter 26, 310

5. Saints, Volume 1, Chapter 28, 324; “Adam-ondi-Ahman, Missouri,” josephsmithpapers.org; Saints, Volume 1, Chapter 29, 335-336

6. “Adam-ondi-Ahman, Missouri,” josephsmithpapers.org