Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Journal of Book of Mormon Studies
Volume 13 Number 1 Article 6
7-31-2004
Cumorah's Cave Cumorah's Cave
Cameron J. Packer
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Cumorah’s Cave
Cameron J. Packer
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 13/1–2 (2004): 50–57, 170–71.
1065-9366 (print), 2168-3158 (online)
The signicance of the Hill Cumorah in the restora-
tion of the gospel goes beyond its identication as the
ancient repository of the metal plates known as the
Book of Mormon. In the second half of the 19th cen-
tury, a teaching about a cave in the hill began surfac-
ing in the writings of several leaders of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In their view,
the hill was not only the place where Joseph Smith
received the plates but also their nal repository,
along with other sacred treasures, after the translation
was nished. This article cites ten dierent accounts,
all secondhand, that refer to this cave and what was
found there. The author includes a comparison of the
accounts that discusses additional records in the cave,
God’s dominion over Earth’s treasure, miraculous
dealings of God, and the signicance of the presence
of the sword of Laban.
Title
A uthor(s)
Reference
ISSN
Abs tract
50 VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1–2, 2004
Cumorah’s Cave, by Robert T. Barrett. Oil on canvas.
JOURNAL OF BOOK OF MORMON STUDIES 51
Cumorah
’
s
Cumorah
c ameron j. packer
52 VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1–2, 2004
52
VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1–2, 2004
1. William Horne Dame Diary,
14 January 1855
Attended meeting a discourse from W. W.
Phelps. He related a story told him by Hyrum
Smith which was as follows: Joseph, Hyrum,
Cowdery & Whitmere went to the hill
Cormorah. As they were walking up the hill, a
door opened and they walked into a room about
16 ft square. In that room was an angel and a
trunk. On that trunk lay a book of Mormon &
gold plates, Laban’s sword, Aaron’s brestplate.
2. Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses,
28 September 1856
In response to a Brother Mills’s statement about
the handcart pioneers, Heber C. Kimball said:
How does it compare with the vision that
Joseph and others had, when they went into a
cave in the hill Cumorah, and saw more records
than ten men could carry? There were books
piled up on tables, book upon book. Those re-
cords this people will yet have, if they accept of
the Book of Mormon and observe its precepts,
and keep the commandments.
T
he hill cumorah’s significance in the restoration of the gospel goes beyond
its being the ancient repository of the metal plates known as the Book of Mor-
mon. In the second half of the 19th century, a certain teaching about a cave in
the hill began surfacing in the writings and teachings of several leaders of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In their view, the hill was not only the place where
Joseph Smith received the plates but also their final repository, along with other sa-
cred treasures, after the translation was finished. According to some of those leaders,
Joseph Smith and others returned the plates to a cave in the Hill Cumorah after he
finished translating them. At least 10 different accounts,¹ all secondhand, refer to this
cave and what was found there.
With these reports of a cave in the Hill Cumorah comes the question, Was this a
real cave that Joseph and others actually walked into, or was it a visionary, or “virtual,”
experience? The wording of the accounts leaves the issue open. While this question
cannot be answered unless we find firsthand information regarding the cave, what
can be learned from these accounts captures our interest. A closer look at them shows
that at times they have been used to teach certain gospel principles in a memorable
way. Following is a chronological synopsis of the cave accounts (with original spelling
and punctuation preserved) and an examination of four associated gospel principles.
JOURNAL OF BOOK OF MORMON STUDIES 53
3. Manuscript History of Brigham Young,
5 May 1867
President [Heber C.] Kimball talked familiarly
to the brethren about Father Smith, [Oliver]
Cowdery, and others walking into the hill
Cumorah and seeing records upon records piled
upon table[s,] they walked from cell to cell and
saw the records that were piled up. . . .
4. Wilford Woodruff Journal,
11 December 1869
In his journal, Wilford Woodruff recounted what
he had heard Brigham Young say about the cave:
President Young said in relation to Joseph
Smith returning the Plates of the Book of
Mormon that He did not return them to the box
from wh[ence?] He had Received [them]. But
He went [into] a Cave in the Hill Comoro with
Oliver Cowdry & deposited those plates upon
a table or shelf. In that room were deposited a
large amount of gold plates Containing sacred
records & when they first visited that Room the
sword of Laban was Hanging upon the wall &
when they last visited it the sword was drawn
from the scabbard and [laid?] upon a table and
a Messenger who was the keeper of the room
informed them that that sword would never be
returned to its scabbard untill the Kingdom of
God was Esstablished upon the Earth & untill
it reigned triumphant over Evry Enemy. Joseph
Smith said that Cave Contained tons of Choice
Treasures & records.
5. Elizabeth Kane Journal, 15 January 1873
Although not a member of the church,
Elizabeth Kane lived in St. George, Utah, and en-
tertained the company of Brigham Young. She re-
corded the following discussion:
I asked where the plates were now, and saw
in a moment from the expression of the counte-
nances around that I had blundered. But I was
answered that they were in a cave; that Oliver
Cowdery though now an apostate would not
deny that he had seen them. He had been to the
cave. . . . Brigham Young’s tone was so solemn
that I listened bewildered like a child to the eve-
ning witch stories of its nurse. . . .
President Heber C. Kimball, first counselor to President Brigham
Young. Courtesy of the Church Archives, The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints.
President Wilford Woodruff. Courtesy of Church Archives.
54 VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1–2, 2004
Brigham Young said that when Oliver
Cowdery and Joseph Smith were in the cave
this third time, they could see its contents more
distinctly than before. . . . It was about fifteen
feet high and round its sides were ranged boxes
of treasure. In the centre was a large stone table
empty before, but now piled with similar gold
plates, some of which lay scattered on the floor
beneath. Formerly the sword of Laban hung on
the walls sheathed, but it was now unsheathed
and lying across the plates on the table; and
One that was with them said it was never to be
sheathed until the reign of Righteousness upon
the earth.
6. Jesse Nathaniel Smith Journal,
February 1874
A southern Utah Saint, Jesse Nathaniel Smith,
heard Brigham Young speak in Cedar City, Utah,
and recorded:
I heard him [Brigham Young] at an evening
meeting in Cedar City describe an apartment
in the Hill Cumorah that some of the brethren
had been permitted to enter. He said there was
great wealth in the room in sacred implements,
vestments, arms, precious metals and precious
stones, more than a six-mule team could draw.
7. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses,
17 June 1877
Oliver Cowdery went with the Prophet Joseph
when he deposited these plates. Joseph did not
translate all of the plates; there was a portion of
them sealed, which you can learn from the Book
of Doctrine and Covenants. When Joseph got the
plates, the angel instructed him to carry them
back to the hill Cumorah, which he did. Oliver
says that when Joseph and Oliver went there,
the hill opened, and they walked into a cave,
in which there was a large and spacious room.
He says he did not think, at the time, whether
they had the light of the sun or artificial light;
but that it was just as light as day. They laid the
plates on a table; it was a large table that stood
in the room. Under this table there was a pile of
plates as much as two feet high, and there were
altogether in this room more plates than prob-
ably many wagon loads; they were piled up in
the corners and along the walls. The first time
they went there the sword of Laban hung upon
the wall; but when they went again it had been
taken down and laid upon the table across the
gold plates; it was unsheathed, and on it was
written these words: “This sword will never be
sheathed again until the kingdoms of this world
become the kingdom of our God and his Christ.”
I tell you this as coming not only from Oliver
Cowdery, but others who were familiar with it,
and who understood it just as well as we under-
stand coming to this meeting. . . . [Don] Carlos
Smith was a young man of as much veracity as
any young man we had, and he was a witness
to these things. Samuel Smith saw some things,
Hyrum saw a good many things, but Joseph was
the leader.²
President Brigham Young. Courtesy of Church Archives.
JOURNAL OF BOOK OF MORMON STUDIES 55
8. Edward Stevenson, Reminiscences of Joseph,
the Prophet, 1877
In his book Reminiscences of Joseph, the
Prophet, and the Coming Forth of the Book of Mor-
mon, Edward Stevenson relates an interview with
David Whitmer in 1877:
It was likewise stated to me by David Whitmer
in the year 1877 that Oliver Cowdery told him
that the Prophet Joseph and himself had seen
this room and that it was filled with treasure,
and on a table therein were the breastplate and
the sword of Laban, as well as the portion of
gold plates not yet translated, and that these
plates were bound by three small gold rings, and
would also be translated, as was the first por-
tion in the days of Joseph. When they are trans-
lated much useful information will be brought
to light. But till that day arrives, no Rochester
adventurers shall ever see them or the treasures,
although science and mineral rods testify that
they are there.
9. David Whitmer, Deseret Evening News,
16 August 1878
In an interview with P. Wilhelm Poulson, David
Whitmer gave another account of the cave:
[Poulson]: Where are the plates now?
[Whitmer]: In a cave, where the angel has hid-
den them up till the time arrives when the
plates, which are sealed, shall be translated. God
will yet raise up a mighty one, who shall do his
work till it is finished and Jesus comes again.
[Poulson]: Where is that cave?
[Whitmer]: In the State of New York.
[Poulson]: In the Hill of Comorah?
[Whitmer]: No, but not far away from that place.³
10. Orson Pratt, The Contributor,
September 1882
But the grand repository of all the numerous
records of the ancient nations of the western
continent, was located in another department of
the hill, and its contents put under the charge of
holy angels, until the day should come for them
to be transferred to the sacred temple of Zion.
Gospel Principles and the Cave Accounts
Future Records Yet to Come Forth
While there are variations in each of the cave
accounts, one of the most obvious consistencies
concerns the additional records present in the cave.
All of the accounts except 1 and 6 refer to addi-
tional records, whether the sealed “portion of the
gold plates not yet translated” or additional “piles”
of plates that were around the sides of the cave or
under the table. While the number and perhaps
identity of the additional records may vary in the
different accounts, the message is the same: there
are records we do not yet have.⁴ This is in harmony
with the Latter-day Saint doctrine that God “will
yet reveal many great and important things pertain-
ing to the Kingdom of God” (Articles of Faith 1:9).
One apostle in particular expounded on the
future coming forth of these records and what he
thought they would contain. In a discourse deliv-
ered at the tabernacle in Ogden on 18 May 1873,
Orson Pratt said: “Will these things be brought
to light? Yes. The records, now slumbering in the
hill Cumorah, will be brought forth by the power
of God, to fulfill the words of our text, that ‘the
knowledge of God shall cover the earth, as the wa-
ters cover the great deep.’”⁵ Regarding what these
records might contain, Elder Pratt taught, “When
these plates, now hidden in the hill Cumorah, are
brought to light we shall have the history of the
Old Testament much more fully, with the addition
of a great many prophecies that are not now con-
tained in the record.” These additional prophecies
are, according to Elder Pratt, “the prophecies of Jo-
seph in Egypt . . . [and of] Neum, a great Prophet
who prophesied concerning Christ; also those of
Zenos and Zenock, and others of which only bare
reference is given.”⁶ Thus we are to understand
that such records will yet serve an important role
in the future of the Church of Jesus Christ of Lat-
ter-day Saints.
God’s Dominion over Earthly Treasures
Another obvious theme in many of the cave ac-
counts is that of wealth or treasure. Accounts 4, 5, 6,
and 8 all mention treasures or wealth being inside
the cave. It appears that this is an aspect of the cave
experience that Brigham Young employed to teach
the principle that God has dominion over earthly
56 VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1–2, 2004
treasures and that the Saints should therefore avoid
prospecting for silver and gold. For example, in his
17 June 1877 discourse, President Young told the
congregation, “You will find just enough [gold and
silver] to allure you and to destroy you.”⁷
Just before sharing the cave story, Brigham
Young recounted how Porter Rockwell and others
had searched for treasure. According to Rockwell,
they found treasure but were unable to withdraw
it because it kept sliding back into the earth.⁸ Af-
ter sharing the cave experience, President Young
said: “Now, you may think I am unwise in publicly
telling these things, thinking perhaps I should
preserve them in my own breast; but such is not
my mind. I would like the people called Latter-day
Saints to understand some little things with regard
to the workings and dealings of the Lord with his
people here upon the earth.”⁹ Therefore, in report-
ing the cave story, Brigham Young seems to have
been teaching that, as part of the “workings and
dealings of the Lord,”¹⁰ the earth’s treasures belong
to God, who can either bless or curse them (see
Helaman 13:31, 33, 36; Mormon 1:18). It must have
encouraged the impoverished Saints in the Great
Basin to know that God controls great wealth and
can bless the Saints with it if it is in their best in-
terest. As Brigham stated in the same sermon, “Are
not the earth and the treasures the property of the
Lord who created them?”¹¹
Jesse Nathaniel Smith’s account also shows
Brigham Young highlighting the cave experience
to illustrate God’s dominion over earthly treasures.
It appears his motive was to help convert church
members to the idea of the united order. In Smith’s
account, Brigham Young was traveling in southern
Utah to organize the united order, or the “Order of
Enoch.” Smith wrote:
In February, 1874, Pres. Young sent letters to
the authorities at Parowan announcing the
inauguration of a new order of life designed to
bring about greater harmony among the Saints
and to do away with selfish feelings, to be called
the Order of Enoch. He soon after started from
Salt Lake City organizing the people at the dif-
ferent settlements along the road. With others I
met this company at Kanarra and at[t]ended the
meetings until he reached our place. He spoke
with great power upon the all-absorbing theme.
I heard him at an evening meeting in Cedar City
describe an apartment in the Hill Cumorah that
some of the brethren had been permitted to enter.
He said there was great wealth in the room in
sacred implements, vestments, arms, precious
metals and precious stones, more than a six-mule
team could draw. Upon arriving at our place he
organized all into an order with the local au-
thorities in charge. All my property was valued
by the appraising committee and taken charge
of by the authorities of the order.¹²
Smith sandwiched the cave account (in italics)
between President Young’s teaching on the united or-
der and Smith’s record that he turned all his property
over to local authorities. It is possible, of course, that
Smith suddenly remembered the cave account and
included it in his journal where he did, with the re-
sult that it misleadingly implies that Young used the
story to illustrate a point he was making about con-
secration. However, if Smith’s sequencing of events
is correct, the question arises that if the purpose of
Young’s trip to Cedar City was to convert people to
the united order and set it in motion, why did he talk
about the cave? What makes this account of the cave
Sketch of the Palmyra area showing the Hill Cumorah and Miner’s
Hill, which because of a cave located there, was at times confused
with the Hill Cumorah. Courtesy of the Rochester Democrat and
Chronicle, 21 March 1998.
JOURNAL OF BOOK OF MORMON STUDIES 57
stand out in a journal entry dedicated to consecra-
tion is that it pointedly focuses on wealth more than
the other accounts do (“great wealth,” “precious met-
als and precious stones”). Perhaps Brigham Young
was using the cave experience to illustrate that God
is in charge of his treasures and that he will measure
them to the righteous and the unselfish who live the
united order.
Grander Principles of the Restored Gospel
Heber C. Kimball appears to have shared the
cave account in one instance to teach the early
Saints about the miraculous dealings of God in
establishing his church. Kimball was speaking to
a group of people in the bowery in Salt Lake City
when a man by the name of Mills expressed the
opinion that “crossing the Plains with hand-carts
was one of the greatest events that ever transpired
in this Church.”¹³ In response, Kimball admitted
that the handcart treks were an important event
but were not on the same plane as events such as
“the visitation of the angel of God to the Prophet
Joseph, and with the reception of the sacred records
from the hand of Moroni at the hill Cumorah.”¹⁴
He then cited the cave story as another example
of the “greatest events that ever transpired in this
Church.”¹⁵ While Kimball did not want to demean
the handcart pioneers, he did call attention to what
he viewed as the grander dimensions of the restored
gospel—visions, revelation, ministering of angels,
and additional scripture.
The Word of God
Several accounts preserve the distinctive element
of the sword of Laban being visible in the cave (see
accounts 1, 4, 5, 7, and 8). At first reading, the sword
seems even more mystical than the cave itself. But it
too can reveal an important doctrinal teaching that
may have been significant to early Saints. In scripture
a sword is often a symbol of the word of God (see, for
example, Ephesians 6:17).¹⁶ In the five cave accounts
cited above, the sword’s final resting place was ei-
ther on the table with the plates or lying across them
unsheathed, almost in an obvious attempt to equate
the sword with the plates. A possible interpretation
is that the word of God that had just been translated
from the gold plates is “sharper than any two-edged
sword” (Hebrews 4:12), an image that would have a
powerful effect on the minds of people in this last
dispensation (see Alma 31:5).
Accounts 4, 5, and 7 include the detail of a
message being associated with the sword. The ac-
counts differ as to whether this message was writ-
ten on the sword (as in Brigham Young’s account)
or was related by an angelic messenger (the Wilford
Woodruff and Elizabeth Kane accounts).¹⁷ Regard-
less of the form of communication, the message
was essentially the same: it was a message of con-
flict. Elder Woodruff’s account states that “a Mes-
senger who was the keeper of the room informed
them that that sword would never be returned to
its scabbard untill the Kingdom of God was Es-
stablished upon the Earth & untill it reigned trium-
phant over Evry Enemy.”¹⁸
It is apparent that several of the early brethren
viewed Joseph’s receiving the plates at the hill as
the beginning of a war between good and evil.¹⁹
The unsheathed sword may therefore have been a
sign that the struggle that began at Cumorah was
still going on and that with the completed trans-
lation of the plates, the side of righteousness had
just gained a powerful weapon in the war against
evil—the Book of Mormon. It seems very fitting
that the Lord, also known as the “man of war”
(Exodus 15:3), would want Joseph Smith and oth-
ers to know that this mortal experience is indeed a
war and that He will conquer the enemies of righ-
teousness. This may have reassured the Saints that
divine help was on their side. Within the context
of then-current events, namely, severe persecution
of the fledgling church, the sword served as an ef-
fective teaching tool to emphasize that the Lord’s
side would be victorious despite the apparent over-
whelming odds against it.²⁰
While the cave accounts may stir questions
about the Hill Cumorah, perhaps the more impor-
tant issue is what the firsthand witnesses may have
learned from their encounters with the cave and,
in turn, how their experiences were used to teach
others. It is apparent from the existing records that
many of the early church leaders viewed the cave
experience as a legitimate event, whether an actual
physical experience or a visionary one. By looking
at the accounts and the context in which they were
shared, one can see that regardless of the meta-
physical nature of Cumorah’s cave, it has served to
teach important gospel principles—principles such
as God’s miraculous dealings with man, his do-
minion over all things, consecration, and continu-
ing revelation. !
170 VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1–2, 2004
New York Morning Courier
and Enquirer,
Vermont Gazette,
Cleveland (OH) Herald,
Boston
Christian Register,
St. Johnsbury
(OH) Farmer’s Herald,
New York
Churchman,
Salem (MA)
Gazette
Philadelphia U.S. Gazette
BYU Studies
Latter Day
Saints’Messenger and Advocate
Times
and Seasons
Latter Day Saints’Messenger and
Advocate
Times and Seasons
The Gospel
Reflector
An Interesting Account of Several
Remarkable Visions and of the Late
Discovery of Ancient American
Records
Letters by Oliver Cowdery to
W. W. Phelps on the Origin of the
Book of Mormon and the Rise of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
day Saints.
The
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star
Infancy of the Church:
An Elaborate and Detailed
Description of Persons, Places and
Incidents connected with the Early
Rise and Progress of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Infancy of
the Church,
Infancy of
the Church,
Life of Joseph
Smith, the Prophet
The Latter-
Day Prophet: History of Joseph
Smith Written for Young People
A History of the Prophet
Joseph Smith for Young People
Young Woman’s
Journal
Birth of Mormonism in Picture:
Scenes and Incidents in Early
Church History
sic
Church History in
Black and White: George Edward
Anderson’s Photographic Mission
to Latter-day Saint Historical
Sites, 1907 Diary, 1907–8
Photographs
Church History in Black
and White,
Improvement Era,
June
Listen for a
Lonesome Drum: A York State
Chronicle
Lonesome Drum,
Lonesome Drum,
Cumorah’s
“Gold Bible”
Cumorah’s “Gold Bible,”
Cumorah’s Cave
Journal of the
Southern Exploring Company,
1854–1858, Iron County, UT,
Journal of Discourses,
Manuscript
History of Brigham Young,
Journal of
Wilford Woodruff,
A
Gentile Account of Life in Utah’s
Dixie, 1872–73: Elizabeth Kane’s
St. George Journal
The Journal of
Jesse Nathaniel Smith: Six Decades
in the Early West; Diaries and
Papers of a Mormon Pioneer,
1834–1906,
Journal of Discourses,
Reminiscences of Joseph, the
Prophet, and the Coming Forth of
the Book of Mormon
Deseret
Evening News,
The
Contributor
Journal of
JOURNAL OF BOOK OF MORMON STUDIES 171
Discourses,
Quorum
of the Twelve Minutes,
Manuscript
History of Brigham Young,
Journal History of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
now
have
Latter-day Saints’
Messenger and Advocate,
JBMS
Journal of
Discourses,
Journal of
Discourses,
Journal of
Discourses,
Journal of
Discourses,
Journal of
Discourses,
Journal of
Discourses,
Journal of
Discourses,
Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith,
Journal of
Discourses,
Journal of Discourses,
Journal of Discourses,
JBMS
Wilford Woodruff ’s Journal,
Life of Heber
C. Kimball: An Apostle, the
Father and Founder of the British
Mission
Journal of Discourses,
Journal of
Discourses,
Wilford Woodruff’s Journal,
sword,
The Hill Cumorah Pageant: A
Historical Perspective
The Passion Play of Oberam-
mergau
America’s Witness for
Christ
Encyclopedia of Mormonism,
Designing Costumes for the Hill
Cumorah Pageant
Costume as Communication:
Ethnographic Costumes and
Textiles from Middle America
and the Central Andes of South
America in the Collections of
the Haffenreffer Museum of
Anthropology, Brown University,
Bristol, Rhode Island
Everyday
Life of the Maya
confirm, prove, authen-
ticate, substantiate
Archaeology
and the Old Testament
The Geography
of Book of Mormon Events: A
Source Book
Exploring the
Lands of the Book of Mormon
An
Ancient American Setting for the
Book of Mormon
Indian Clothing before Cortés:
Mesoamerican Costumes from
the Codices
Everyday
Life of the Maya
Textiles and
Costumes among the Peoples
of the Ancient Near East
Textiles of Ancient
Mesopotamia, Persia, and
Egypt
Indian Clothing
before Cortés
Costume
as Communication
Ancestors of the Incas: The
Lost Civilization of Peru
Textiles
of Ancient Peru and Their
Techniques,
Beyond Cloth and Cordage:
Archaeological Textile Research
in the Americas,
The Art of the Maya Scribe
A New Beginning for the Pageant:
1948 to 1951
“Hail, Cumorah! Silent Wonder”:
Music Inspired by the Hill
Cumorah
Hymns of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints
Hymns
Children’s Songbook
of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints
