On September 6, 1888, three Church history missionaries—Andrew Jenson, Edward Stevenson, and Joseph S. Black—left on a fact-finding mission to the Church’s historic sites in Missouri, Illinois, New York, Ohio, and Iowa. They spent a majority of their time visiting the sacred spaces of the Restoration. The observations they made became the subjects of a lengthy correspondence to the Deseret News. These letters were later compiled into a pamphlet, allowing the Saints in the West to vicariously experience the early days of the Restoration. Some notable historical themes in their observations include a desire for the establishment and redemption of Zion and the promise that righteous Saints would be restored to their lands to build up Zion.