Historedia
AmericasEvent

Joseph Smith reports obtaining the golden plates at Cumorah

When
1827
Where
Hill Cumorah
Episodes
1

Joseph Smith reported obtaining golden plates from Hill Cumorah near Manchester, New York, on September 22, 1827, marking the traditional start of the Book of Mormon translation. Accounts vary regarding prior attempts and specific details, but this date is widely recognized as the recovery event.

Episodes

  1. 1827-09-22 · Hill CumorahRecovery of the Plates

    Smith reported recovering the golden plates on September 22, 1827, after four annual attempts, with friends present in Palmyra.

Background and detail

Background. Smith claimed to have visited the hill annually starting in 1823. Records indicate he was not in the vicinity between January 1826 and January 1827. Friends Josiah Stowell and Joseph Knight Sr. traveled to Palmyra in September 1827 to support the anticipated recovery, viewing the event as a treasure hunt.

Recovery. Smith stated that September 22, 1827, was his last chance to receive the plates. On the eve of the visit, he dispatched his father to spy on Lawrence's house. The plates were described as gold, fastened by wires, and widely called the 'gold bible' starting in 1827.

Aftermath. Smith and his wife moved to Pennsylvania in October 1827, transporting the plates in a wooden box hidden in a barrel of beans. The translation process began in Harmony, Pennsylvania, with financial assistance from Martin Harris, who later lost 116 pages of manuscript.

People involved

Sources

  1. Golden plates Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-28
  2. Cumorah Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-29
  3. Joseph Smith Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-29

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.