Monday, March 11, 2019

Why Do We Keep Claiming the Hill in New York is the Hill Cumorah of the Book of Mormon? – Part I

In a recent 2012 article published by Phil Michel, under the title: “Archaeological and Historical evidence of the Hill Cumorah in the State of New York,” the following was the lead paragraph, claiming to quote Joseph Smith: “This hill located "convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario county, New York" and is now called in our day "The Hill Cumorah" (Joseph Smith-History 1:51).
    Note that the author claims Joseph Smith said of the New York Hill “and is now called in our day “the Hill Cumorah,” and then provided the reference of the History 1:51, as though to evidence Joseph called the hill in New York the Hill Cumorah. However, it should be noted that no such reference is made by Joseph in his history.
    In the actual written History of Joseph Smith, first published under the title History of the Church, and nicknamed Documentary History of the Church or DHC, which was largely written during Joseph Smith’s lifetime and composed of Joseph’s writings and interpolations and editorial comments, beginning in 1839. In section 1:51, which the author of the article referenced to this comment, the actual statement is:
The hill in Manchester, New York is large in comparison to the few other low-lying hills in the area, but is not actually very large

“Convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario county, New York, stands a hill of considerable size, and the most elevated of any in the neighborhood. On the west side of this hill, not far from the top, under a stone of considerable size, lay the plates, deposited in a stone box. This stone was thick and rounding in the middle on the upper side, and thinner towards the edges, so that the middle part of it was visible above the ground, but the edge all around was covered with earth” (emphasis added).
    Note there is no mention of the word “Cumorah,” let alone the words “and is now called in our day…” Yet, “the hill” is mentioned twice—surely, if Joseph thought of it having a name, that name would have properly been inserted to reference the hill itself. But no name was given by Joseph in his writing, though the author of the article claimed he had.
    Such is the misleading writing of people who want to make a point and feel they can fudge on the facts of the matter, and give a real reference to back up their claim. After all, most authors know that few people check the references they write down. In our book “Inaccuracies of Mesoamerican and Other Theorists,” we list and detail in several hundred pages the inaccurate statements attributed to scriptural references in the Book of Mormon by John L. Sorenson, the past BYU Archaeology Department head and guru of Book of Mormon Land of Promise archaeology, as well as several other writers of Book of Mormon geography. The point is, claiming a reference to support an article that does not say what is being claimed is not only erroneous and very poor scholarship, it is downright misleading, deceptive and spurious.
    In addition to the lack of reference to a hill Cumorah by Joseph Smith, he also stated in the preceding paragraph: “I obeyed; I returned to my father in the field, and rehearsed the whole matter to him. He replied to me that it was of God, and told me to go and do as commanded by the messenger. I left the field, and went to the place where the messenger had told me the plates were deposited; and owing to the distinctness of the vision which I had had concerning it, I knew the place the instant that I arrived there” (Hisotry 1:50, emphasis added).
    Again, there were two more incidents where Joseph could have, and appropriately so, inserted the words “hill Cumorah” for specific referencing, but did not. It would seem from these two paragraphs of his History, that the word “Cumorah” was either not known to him at the time, or he did not associated such a name to the hill in New York.
In addition, Joseph wrote two additional instances where he could have appropriately used the name “hill Cumorah,” but did not: “The messenger…told me that I should come to that place precisely in one year from that time, and that he would there meet with me, and that I should continue to do so until the time should come for obtaining the plates.
    Accordingly, as I had been commanded, I went at the end of each year, and at each time I found the same messenger there, and received instruction and intelligence from him at each of our interviews, respecting what the Lord was going to do, and how and in what manner his kingdom was to be conducted in the last days” (History 1:53–54).
    It seems really strange that Joseph did not place a name on the hill, calling it “that place” and “there,” when a name would have been far more clear. And in another instance above, did not even refer to the hill at all saying only “I went at the end of each year.” It would also appear from this, that Moroni did not call the hill “Cumorah,” but simply “that” or “this place.”
    Again, in another instance and the final reference to the hill, Joseph wrote: “At length the time arrived for obtaining the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate. On the twenty-second day of September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, having gone as usual at the end of another year to the place where they were deposited, the same heavenly messenger delivered them up to me with this charge: that I should be responsible for them; that if I should let them go carelessly, or through any neglect of mine, I should be cut off; but that if I would use all my endeavors to preserve them, until he, the messenger, should call for them, they should be protected” (History 1:59).
    Since this information was written in 1839 or later, 16 years after the initial meeting with Moroni, and several years after Oliver Cowdery first used the term “hill Cumorah” and other members began calling it the “hill Cumorah,” Joseph still did not refer to it as such, calling it only “the hill,” “the place,” “that hill,” etc.
The entire area around the hill in New York has been searched for artifacts, except for the (red circle) parking area and Visitor’s Center and seating area for the Pageant—no artifacts have been found

As for the hill itself, which Oliver Cowdery claimed was where the final battle that resulted in around 300,000 deaths took place in the valley in New York at the foot of the hill now called Hill Cumorah, it should be of interest that no authenticated artifacts have ever been found there. In fact, the entire archaeological record of New York does not support the idea the Book of Mormon peoples lived in that region or that the hill was the scene of the final battles between the Nephites and the Lamanites.
    In fact, according to the Vermont Archaeology Heritage Center at Barre, in central Vermont, which serves as the central repository for the artifacts and archives of Vermont’s unwritten past, there are over 800 known archaeological sites, with compliance reports, artifacts, and associated material available for study to qualified researchers, with more collections being accessioned regularly. A researcher of artifacts in New Haven, Vermont, named Landon Smith, who had investigated most every site in the New England area, including the fields surrounding the Hill Cumorah, near Palmyra in New York, wrote to BYU in 2005, regarding an article John E. Clark, professor of anthropology at BYU wrote entitled “Archaeology and Cumorah Questions,” in 2004.
    Landon Smith stated in his letter by way of introduction that he had been searching for native American sites in Vermont for several years, and “By myself I have found over 378 new Native American sites, obtaining Vermont State site numbers for all of them. I have made out all the required survey forms and sent the relevant information to the state offices. At this time, I have close to 5,000 arrowheads with all the other tools—bifaces, preforms, knives, scrapers, and so on. Altogether I have 17,000 pieces. Each piece has been traced, with the site number and catalog numbers painted on. Maps are made of each site with X marks locating where each piece was found.”
    Landon went on in his letter to talk about working with the State and having access to items, maps, etc., stating: “I get to see things that I'm probably not supposed to see—like a New York State site map. Around Syracuse and the areas in eastern New York State there are many sites recorded, as there are around and south of Rochester in western New York. But around the Hill Cumorah area, the closest site numbers are about 60 miles away.”
(See the nest post, “Why Do We Keep Claiming the Hill in New York is the Hill Cumorah of the Book of Mormon? – Part II,” regarding the effort of artifact hunters and official records of the area in Western New York in determining what has been found around the New York hill Cumorah)

11 comments:

  1. Have you heard about the new archaeology site found at the Hill Cumorah by I think Wayne May? It's true! He, or one of the leaders of the Heartland theory movement has found what they claim is a room in the Hill Cumorah that was built by Moroni and Mormon using limestone blocks hauled in from 20 miles away. They have photographed the inside of said room. Of course this is the very room that stored all the plates anciently and it has to be where Moroni hung-out during the final battles.

    Question is - has this room been identified by the Arch department of New York state or BYU? This would be one of the great archaeology finds of the age. Think of it - a room excavated into the real Hill Cumorah around 400ad.



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  2. My wife just asked me if I was being sarcastic. I told her no. I heard this story recently from a reputable source. The Heartland folks really do believe they have found this room excavated into the hill. Anybody have information about this?

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  3. Iterry, I have 3 pictures of that Room in Hill Cumorah. I will be glad to send them to anyone who is interested, if they will email me at dmecham@hotmail.com with "CumorahRoom" in the subject line. I would have posted them here, but I don't know how to put a picture in a comment.

    I was in attendance at a Heartland Conference a year or two age When Wayne May first went public with the pictures. Neither Wayne May nor any of the Heartland researchers have made the claims about who made the room or when they made it that you site above. But one of them has since made the claim that the room is a close fit to the description Brigham Young made of the room with all the plates which Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery visited at least two times (probably along with a few other people).

    Wayne May didn't find the room. It was a young boy who found it when he fell in to the Room when a small part of the roof of the Room caved in. The boy was not seriously hurt. The occasion was a private social gathering of all the participants in the Hill Cumorah Pageant and their families who were there about 10 or 15 years ago. So that boy was the first to find it (in the recent past). And then the rest of the group found it a bit later when they were searching for the missing boy. So at least a hundred people have known about the Room for more than ten years. And since Wayne May's lecture a few thousand people have known about the Room for more than a year.

    One person who was in attendance at both the Hill Cumorah incident and Wayne May's lecture approached him after and said "I thought we were supposed to keep it secret." Which I guess is the reason that more people hadn't heard of it.

    Another Hill Cumorah "secret" was revealed by a Granddaughter of Willard Bean who spoke at a Heartland Conference several years ago. Willard was primarily responsible for the Churches acquisition of the Hill. She was there when they were widening the grassy area for the Pageant production by removing brush and trees. She was taken to a back room of the Visitors Center and shown several basket loads of artifacts (mostly arrow points) which were discovered during the widening work. She didn't think to ask at the time, but went back the next day to ask if she might take one of the points. The baskets were gone.

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  4. DeVon, I was also told about the baskets full of arrow heads. Actually I would expect that there would be some arrow heads around a hill like that. It would be a happy hunting ground anciently. No other kinds of instruments used in war though like club heads that we see in Ecuador.

    I wonder what the room actually is? I suspect an 19th century root cellar. I bet it was located near the foot of the hill. Any mention as to where it was located?

    Thanks

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    1. Iterry, I just replayed a 4 minute clip of Wayne May's presentation (which I will incude with the 3 photos if you email me). This is what he said about the location: "right up there off the path on the way to the top, right where the show is put on just tucked off to the left side a little ways".

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  5. In talking with an avid Heartland believer about this I told him that claiming this was the location for the plates or Moroni was really ridiculous. If there were hundreds of thousands of warriors fighting nearby they would certainly have found the cave very quickly. It would serve only as a pill box. The location of it could not be concealed in anyway in such a small area. So it's ridiculous that this room if it even exists would be the location of the plates or a hiding spot for Moroni.

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    1. It is not a cave. It was a room constructed with non local stone. After Joseph got the plates treasure seekers were digging up the whole hill. They worked mostly at night and it was said that it looked like the whole hill was on fire due to the many fires that were lit to light the dig sites. And no one found the room. And more recently the pageant folks never found it even though it was right under their noses for many years (until it caved in with a boy).

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    2. This is quite interesting about the hill being dug up. That kind of changes what this was. Likely somebody dug the hole looking for the treasure. That makes much more sense. Thanks DeVon.

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  6. The boy didn't fall into a hole. As you can see from the pictures, the ground was uniform. He was just running around playing when the ground gave way and he fell directly into the room,

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  7. DeVon, I didnt get the pictures. I wrote you twice. Mine is iterry@xmission.com. thanks

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  8. Thanks DeVon, got the photos

    So to recap what we know. There is a room dug into the Hill Cumorah in NY. The room is near the top. It has a small opening at the top. Inside the room is about 10' x 12'. It is lined with limestone that was brought in from somewhere else. There is no limestone at this place. The hill is glacial in origin.

    It has now been covered with a steel plate to keep others from falling into it, I suppose.

    So what is it? And what was it built for? Seems to me since the Church owns the hill some prof at BYU ought to investigate.

    Could be a foundation for some 19th century structure. Has BYU examined the site? Anybody have any other information about that.

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