The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently announced Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will be rededicating the church’s Hill Cumorah Historic Site in Palmyra, New York, on Sept. 21.
In its announcement, the church explained the Hill Cumorah Historic Site marks the place an angel named Moroni visited the church’s founding prophet Joseph Smith, preparing him for four years to obtain a set of metal plates — often referred to as “gold plates” — which the young prophet later translated into the Book of Mormon “by the gift and power of God.”
Having first welcomed visitors in 1928, the Hill Cumorah Historic Site is one of 30 sites owned and operated by the church to highlight the church’s heritage and help visitors understand events in its history. Over the years, the hill has served a variety of purposes, such as by being the site of the Hill Cumorah Pageant — a pageant celebrating the Book of Mormon and the church’s history.
Yet in 2021, the church began taking action on plans to “rehabilitate” the hill, including by reforesting the landscape and removing pageant-related infrastructure, as well as all other non-historical facilities.
The site’s Sept. 21 rededication, held at 1 p.m. EDT, will fall exactly 202 years after the angel Moroni’s first appearance to the prophet Joseph Smith in 1823.
About the site and the church’s rehabilitation project
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints first purchased the property where the hill Cumorah stands in 1928. It is located just three miles southeast of the Smith family farm, and has received visitors for roughly 97 years.
From 1935 to 2019, the hill also served as the site of the Hill Cumorah Pageant, attracting “tens of thousands of visitors each year,” according to the church’s announcement.
Yet in 2018, the first presidency of the church announced plans to end the pageant in 2020. Soon following, LeGrand R. Curtis Jr. — former church historian and recorder — specified the church’s plans to rehabilitate the hill.
This long-term rehabilitation project began in 2021 and, since then, has sought to “help visitors focus more on (the site’s) historical and spiritual significance.”
The project has done so by:
- Removing 23 buildings previously used to support the pageant, including cast changing rooms, restrooms, storage sheds, a custom shop and an RV park.
- Removing and reforesting approximately 400,000 square feet of asphalt, gravel roads, parking areas and other paths.
- Renovating the site’s visitors’ center to include new interactive exhibits, a film and artwork, all pointing to the site’s history.
- Installing three new statues in the visitors’ center, which depict Christ’s visit to the people of the ancient Americas, as recorded in the Book of Mormon.
Of the site’s reforestation, the “area is being reforested with thousands of native tree seeds” in efforts to make the hill more closely resemble what the prophet Joseph Smith would have seen in the early 1800s, according to the church’s announcement.
Admission to the site is free of charge. The experience on the hill is “self-guided” to allow visitors to move through the site at their own pace, the church’s announcement further states. The visitors’ center and many features of the hill are also accessible to those with disabilities.
Individuals and families interested in visiting the site can find additional information at ChurchofJesusChrist.org. And those interested in viewing the site’s rededication can do so live on Sept. 21 and for two weeks after on BroadcastsChurchofJesusChrist.org.
About the site’s significance for Latter-day Saints
Latter-day Saints believe the hill Cumorah is significant as it is the place where Joseph Smith obtained the metal plates which, being preserved underground for centuries, contained an ancient record of the Americas inhabitants and a testament of Jesus Christ.
Joseph Smith, being led to the plates by an angel named Moroni, was then able to translate the ancient record to English, thus bringing forth the Book of Mormon.
“He translated the record to English by the gift and power of God,” the church’s announcement reads. “Today, the Book of Mormon’s witness of Jesus Christ is published in more than 100 languages.”
In its announcement, the church further explained Moroni was the Book of Mormon’s final writer. He buried the plates at hill Cumorah in about A.D. 420. And about 1,400 years later, appeared to the young prophet Joseph Smith as an angel, leading him to the buried plates and preparing him for four years to receive them.
