As kids, we never visited Adam-ondi-Ahman, because everyone told us that all we’d see was a brown sign and a big open field. Today, there is a bit to do at Diahman, as the early saints called it. Plan to spend around 45 minutes walking the two trails and seeing the overlooks.
Adam-ondi-Ahman is located in Missouri, and if you’ve come this far, you should probably see Far West and Haun’s Mill, both of which are small Church historic sites. None of these three sites have a Visitor Center or attendants, but they do have things to see.
Valley Overlook
Adam-ondi-Ahman has 2 overlooks, one on each end of the valley. Depending on the direction you come from, you’ll need to make short drive between them. We started at Valley Overlook, which is the smaller of the two. At this site, there is a restroom and short trail to the overlook. There are also a few signs telling the story of Adam-ondi-Ahman. The valley is long and narrow, and very beautiful.
Tower Hill
It’s about a mile and a half between Valley Overlook and Tower Hill. The drive passes over the Spring Hill Summit, but there is no reason to stop there. Around at Tower Hill, there is another nice overlook and there’s also another longer trail. This one drops down several times, and runs as far as you want to take it.
The first section takes you down to some informational signs about an altar built by Adam in this area, as well as information on the ancient tower that the saints found when they arrived. You can continue down to more information signs that talk about Lyman Wight and his ferry that was used near here on the Grand River, which is across the valley. Finally, you can walk all the way down into Diahman itself. This allows you to walk along a road in the valley floor, and though we didn’t go far, we did enter the valley, which was pretty cool to think about.
To read our reviews of all other Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Historic sites across the country, click here.
