The Kinderhook plates were a set of 6 small, bell-shaped pieces of brass with strange engravings which were claimed to have been discovered in 1843 in an Indian mound near Kinderhook, Illinois

Kinderhook, Illinois

Kinderhook is a village in Pike County, Illinois, United States. The population was 249 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Kinderhook is located at ....

.

According to Wilbur Fugate in 1879, the plates were carefully forged by himself and two other men (Bridge Whitten and Robert Wiley) from Kinderhook who were testing the validity of the claims made by Joseph Smith, Jr. (founder of the Latter Day Saint movement

Latter Day Saint movement

The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...

), at that time headquartered in Nauvoo

Nauvoo, Illinois

Nauvoo is a small city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States. Although the population was just 1,063 at the 2000 census, and despite being difficult to reach due to its location in a remote corner of Illinois, Nauvoo attracts large numbers of visitors for its historic importance and its...

. According to Latter Day Saint belief, the Book of Mormon

Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...

 was originally translated by Smith from a record engraved on Golden Plates

Golden Plates

According to Latter Day Saint belief, the golden plates are the source from which Joseph Smith, Jr. translated the Book of Mormon, a sacred text of the faith...

 by the ancient inhabitants of the Americas.

Purported discovery

An account of the purported discovery of the plates was published in the May 3, 1843 Quincy Whig

Quincy Newspapers

Quincy Newspapers, Inc. is a family-owned media company that originated in the newspapers of Quincy, Illinois. The company's history can be traced back to 1835, when the Bounty Land Register was one of only four newspapers in all of Illinois. Over the next century, a number of mergers followed...

:
The Quincy Whig account also notes that the plates were discovered with a small number of human bones, perhaps those of a person or a family of distinction. Another account of the "discovery" was given in the May 1, 1843 Times and Seasons

Times and Seasons

Times and Seasons was a 19th-century Latter Day Saint periodical published monthly or twice-monthly at Nauvoo, Illinois, from November 1839 to February 15, 1846...

, a 19th-century Latter Day Saint periodical:

Public reaction

The same issue of the Times and Seasons that described the discovery contained an editorial that illustrates its importance to the Saints and the excitement it created:
A month and a half after Times and Seasons published their article it was reprinted in the Nauvoo Neighbor

Nauvoo Neighbor

The Nauvoo Neighbor was a weekly newspaper edited and published by Latter Day Saint Apostle John Taylor in Nauvoo, Illinois from 1843 to 1845. While it was not an official publication of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Neighbor was consistently pro-Mormon and its primary target...

complete with facsimiles of the plates. The Nauvoo Neighbor additionally included added the statement "The contents of the Plates, together with a Fac-Similie of the same, will be published in the 'Times & Seasons,' as soon as the translation is completed."

A May 1 letter by Parley P. Pratt

Parley P. Pratt

Parley Parker Pratt, Sr. was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and an original member of Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from 1835 until his murder in 1857. He served in the Quorum with his younger brother, Orson Pratt...

 stated:
Charlotte Haven, a young woman visiting with Latter-Day Saint relatives in Nauvoo, wrote a letter on May 2 relating a third-hand account of the events:

Smith's response

Smith's private secretary William Clayton recorded that upon receiving the plates, Smith sent for his "Hebrew Bible & Lexicon," suggesting that he was going to attempt to translate the plates by conventional means, rather than by use of a seer stone

Seer stone

In early Latter Day Saint history, seer stones were stones used, primarily by Joseph Smith, Jr., to receive revelations from God. Smith owned at least two seer stones, which he had earlier employed for treasure seeking before he founded the church. Other early Mormons such as Hiram Page,David...

 or direct revelation.
The History of the Church

History of the Church

History of the Church is a semi-official history of the early Latter Day Saint movement during the lifetime of founder Joseph...

also states Smith said the following:
Some claim the statement found in History of the Church was only an altered version of William Clayton's statement, placing Smith in the first person. Diane Wirth, writing in Review of Books on the Book of Mormon (4:210), states: "A first-person narrative was apparently a common practice of this time period when a biographical work was being compiled. Since such words were never penned by the Prophet, they cannot be uncritically accepted as his words or his opinion."

Smith cited the kinderhook plates in a map he drew of Moroni's journey to the hill Cumorah

Rediscovery, analysis, and classification as a hoax

The Kinderhook Plates were presumed lost, but for decades The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) published facsimiles of them in its official History of the Church. In 1920, one of the plates came into the possession of the Chicago Historical Society (now the Chicago History Museum). Some determined the markings were engraved, whereas others concluded they were acid etched as Fulgate attested.

In 1966, one of the Kinderhook Plates was recovered and tested at Brigham Young University

Brigham Young University

Brigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...

 and Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

. The inscriptions matched facsimiles of the plate published contemporaneously, and the presence of a dent that had been interpreted in the facsimile as part of a character indicated that the plate was one of the Kinderhook Plates. The tolerances and composition of its metal proved entirely consistent with the facilities available in a 19th century blacksmith shop, and, more importantly, traces of nitrogen were found in what were clearly acid-etched grooves. The researchers concluded that the plates were a hoax

Hoax

A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...

.

However, leaders of the LDS Church did not immediately condemn the plates as a hoax. In 1979 apostle Mark E. Petersen

Mark E. Petersen

Mark Edward Petersen was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1944 until his death. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, he filled the vacancy caused by the excommunication of Richard R. Lyman...

 wrote a book called Those Gold Plates!. In the first chapter Peterson describes various ancient cultures that have written records on metal plates. Then Peterson claims: "There are the Kinderhook plates, too, found in America and now in the possession of the Chicago Historical Society. Controversy has surrounded these plates and their engravings, but most experts agree they are of ancient vintage."

In 1980 Professor D. Lynn Johnson of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University used various scanning devices and concluded: "the plate owned by the Chicago Historical Society is not of ancient origin" and that the plates were in fact etched with acid.

In 1981, the official magazine of the LDS Church ran an article stating that the plates were a hoax. In it, the author claimed that there was no proof that Smith made any attempt to translate the plates: "There is no evidence that the Prophet Joseph Smith ever took up the matter with the Lord, as he did when working with the Book of Mormon

Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...

 and the Book of Abraham

Book of Abraham

The Book of Abraham is a 1835 work by Joseph Smith, Jr. that he said was based on Egyptian papyri purchased from a traveling mummy exhibition. According to Smith, the book was "a translation of some ancient records....purporting to be the writings of Abraham, while he was in Egypt, called the Book...

."

External links

• "Kinderhook Plates" in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism
• "Wasn't Joseph Smith fooled by the fraudulent Kinderhook Plates? Doesn't that prove he didn't translate by the power of God?" by Jeff Lindsay (apologetic)
• Kinderhook Plates (MormonWiki.org) - Evangelical Christian perspective
• Kinderhook plates, (MormonWiki.com) - unofficial LDS perspective