Hill Cumorah Pageant

The Hill Cumorah with the stage for the pageant. In the back ground behind the trees you can see the Moroni Monument.

A view of the audience from atop the hill at the monument.

Couple of Nephite boys.

Lamanite women

Joseph Smith what a handsome smile.

Joseph Smith mingling with the people.

Me and Joseph Smith aka Ben King

Sunset waiting for the pageant.

Moroni, Mormon's son

The stage all lit up waiting a few more minutes for the pageant to start.

At the start of the pageant all the people came on stage and started off singing a song.

The Tree of Life Vision

The Angel talking to Nephi about the vision.

The Angel telling Nephi about the death of our Savior.

Nephi and his family sailing to the Promise Land

Here is a clip when Christ is Crucified and the destruction that took place amongst the Nephites.

When the Savior visits the American continent after his resurrection. 

The effects were pretty cool because the Savior really descended from up in the sky.

The Savior tells of his mission here on earth and invites the people to come and feel the prints to know that he is real. That they may know for themselves.

The people go unto him and praise him.

The pageant was neat. It tells of the main events and prophecies from the Book of Mormon. They have really done a great job on the effects and props.

Four Corner Churches

Downtown Palmyra has four churches one on each corner. If you look close you can see all four church spires.

The four corner churches in Palmyra, are unique to any town across the United States. Because of the several Religions that started in this town, including Spiritualism and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, the four corner churches seem to be symbolic of the religious diversity of Palmyra.

The four corner churches include the First Methodist Church on the northeast corner, the First Baptist Church on the southwest corner, the Palmyra Zion Episcopal Church on the southeast corner, and the Western Presbyterian Church on the northwestern corner.

Martin Harris Home

We stopped by the Martin Harris Farm which was just down the road from town.

The Martin Harris home is actually a private residence so tours were not allowed inside of the home but you can wander around the exterior of the home.

The home is made of little rocks it was so beautiful and with all the flowers. Just a gorgeous site.

In case you can't read the sign

Martin Harris's home was a one-and-a-half story, white frame house, which stood on this site. When Martin moved away in 1831, it was occupied by William Chapman. That house burned down in 1849 and was replaced by the present lake-stone house, which dated from 1850. 

Lake-stone buildings were first built in this area by English artisans who came here to work on the Erie Canal. After the canal was completed in 1825, they found employment by constructing stone houses. Approximately 700 of these structures were built in this part of the state.

Many of the stones for this house were hauled from the shores of Lake Ontario by wagon often a two or three day trip because of the heavy load. The stones were then sorted and sized with the most uniform stones used for the front, the less desirable stones for the sides, and the least desirable ones for the back. If you examine the house closely, you can see the intricate trowel work around each stone.

I can't imagine the amount of work and time in sorting the stones and then placing them on the walls.

A field across the street from Martin Harris home.

I thought it was interesting how the Chimney portion only went up part way on the side of the home. It is tapered off as it goes to the top. When I first looked at it I thought maybe the other part fell off but I think it was designed like this the closer I looked.

Grandin Printing

We entered the Grandin Printing store on the back side of the building. This is the side that faces the street. This is where the Book of Mormon was printed.

I love this picture because it shows how important it is to have the Book of Mormon and the Bible together. They are both witnesses of the life of Jesus Christ. One testifies of his life from Jerusalem-the Bible and the other from the American Continents-the Book of Mormon. You can't have the complete gospel without them both.

Here is the store portion of the Printing shop. Very old bound books and tools.

Ink Bottles

As we went to the second floor they had  a replica of one of the homes where the Book of Mormon was translated.

Book of Mormon Manuscript pages.

They would dip the ink balls in ink and then blot them on the plates of letters.

The thing in the back that has a black base and you can see the white lid to the right is where the ink is put on the black portion. Then the paper is put between the two white pieces and pressed down. This particular press was called the Smith press which allowed them to decreased the time in making a book in half because it allowed for 12 pages to be done at once rather than 6.

These stands are all of the different letters and numbers used to print the books.

Here is one of the finished pages before it is folded, cut, glued and bound.

The Ink Balls

Here is where the binding took place

This is the book press

Then the books were brought here to be cut and sewn

The binding would then be glued

Here they would be finished with making the cover and finish the binding.

Law office that took up a room in the Printing shop.

There were many miracle that were present to help get the Book of Mormon printed. Grandin didn't want to take the contact with Joseph Smith because he didn't want to print this many books and not get paid for it. Martin Harris promised Grandin he would be paid and in the end Martin sold his farm in order to pay for the Books of Mormon. The completion of the Erie Canal was important because they were then able to get the Smith Press sent to them and allowed for a quicker shipment. The Smith Press alone is a miracle because it allowed them to make the books twice as fast.

It is incredible the time they took on just one book to print and bind it. It was a lot of work in a very long process. It was most interesting to be able to see each step it took to make a book. To think they had 5,000 printed is incredible which a job that size was never heard of for a printing press company like Grandin's. It sure does give one perspective on how lucky we are to have the technology we have today that allows us to make jobs like these much easier and quicker to accomplish.