FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Question: What happened to the stone box in which gold plates were deposited?
Question: What happened to the stone box in which gold plates were deposited?
David Whitmer reported seeing the stone box three times, but that it had broken apart and been destroyed
It was reported that David Whitmer had "seen the casket that contained the tablets and seerstone," and that over time "the casket has been washed down to the foot of the hill."[1]
Treasure seekers dug up the hill in an attempt to locate additional treasures
In the years after Joseph Smith reporting recovering the gold plates from "Mormon Hill," treasure seekers dug up the hill in an attempt to locate additional treasure.
There were many holes dug in the Hill Cumorah by treasure seekers after Joseph obtained the plates. Full size image may be viewed here: http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/GEA/id/11495/rv/singleitem
Notes
- ↑ Salt Lake Herald (12 August 1875); reprinting from Chicago Times (7 August 1875); cited in Ebbie L V Richardson, "David Whitmer: A Witness to the Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon," (M.A. thesis, Brigham Young University, 1952), 156-58. Also in Lyndon Cook (editor), David Whitmer Interviews: A Restoration Witness (Orem, Utah: Grandin Books, 1991), 7.