Fred E. Woods, executive director of the Foundation (left) and Fairport Harbor Mayor Frank Sarosy (right) shake hands over the historical marker. Photo courtesy Fred E. Woods

On August 23, 2003 a historic marker was unveiled paying tribute to the early Saints who passed through Fairport Harbor on their way to Kirtland. The marker was mounted on a large cut stone in front of the Fairport Lighthouse.

Fairport Harbor Mayor Frank Sarosy said "We honor what you have done for us. We will maintain this and make you proud you brought it into the community. We are eager to learn more about you."

In addition, the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation created a musuem exhibit, "Fairport Harbor: Gateway to the Gathering."

From left to right: John Ollila, Trustee for the Fairport Marine Museum, Fred E. Woods, executive director of the MHSF, Steve Olsen, Associate Managing Director for the Historical Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and his daughter Chelsea Olsen Photo courtesy Fred E. Woods

The exhibit is located at the Lake County Historical Society during the Fall and Winter months and at the Fairport Harbor Museum during the Spring and Summer months.

The exhibit discusses the role Fairport Harbor played in the comings and goings of the early Church.

The monument reads as follows:

"Fairport is an excellent harbor, and affords a safe moorage for shipping"—so wrote Oliver Cowdery, one of the first Latter-day Saint missionaries to bring the message of the restored gospel to the Kirtland region. Fairport Harbor played a transitional role during the 1830s for many Mormon migrants, who believed they were obeying divine instruction that counseled them to “go to the Ohio.” Hundreds of converts passed through the harbor on their way to and from the town of Kirtland, which lay just twelve miles southwest. Many Saints were guided by Fairport’s beacons of light, which shone upon the waters of Lake Erie. For those incoming Saints, the Fairport lighthouse signaled a new ray of hope, and for those missionaries embarking from her banks, new paths to travel in the quest for more converts to Mormonism.

This was a meaningful place of comings and goings. From here, significant Latter-day Saint missions were launched, including the first mission of the Quorum of the Twelve (1835), and also the first mission of the Church to England (1837). It was also where Joseph Smith greeted his ninety-three-year-old grandmother, who had traveled hundreds of miles to see her family. Here, Latter-day Saint families were charged with emotion as they greeted loved ones and also bid them farewell, knowing that it would many months before they would once again embrace.

Fairport was also a place of active commerce that influenced the daily life of the Saints in this area. From here, Newel K. Whitney, a Mormon merchant, shipped many casks of ashes from his Kirtland ashery to the East. In 1847, Fairport reached a peak in commercial prosperity, witnessing nearly three thousand vessels coming in and out of her harbor. Yet by this time the Saints had left the region and in the same year had begun settling in the Salt Lake Valley."

Funded by the Mormon Historic Site Foundation