LDS Church to rebuild history at Susquehanna

SUSQUEHANNA, Pa. — Always conscious of its past, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has opened temples at two important historic sites in recent years and now has made another purchase inspired by faith — about 25 rural acres contaminated by diesel fuel and other chemicals.

The land is needed for the church's plan to rebuild the home of founder Joseph Smith and improve access to the nearby Susquehanna River, where Smith was baptized in May 1829.

Church tradition holds that in his small, wood-frame house in northeast Pennsylvania, Smith — an uneducated farmer's son — translated most of the Book of Mormon from a series of golden plates given to him by an angel named Moroni.

Along with the Bible, the Book of Mormon is one of four books in the church's scriptural canon. It tells of migrations of ancient Israelites to the Americas and of Jesus Christ's second ministry, in the New World.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has long promoted pilgrimages to its historic sites, and the Pennsylvania project is part of a new wave of such development.

The church dedicated a temple two years ago to serve visitors to sites in Palmyra, N.Y., where Smith said he received the golden plates. In June, the Church dedicated a reconstruction of the five-story temple along the Mississippi River in Nauvoo, Ill. There, Smith established a city and originated the religion's temple rites; he was assassinated nearby in 1844.

Susquehanna County has often been skipped by Mormon tour operators because it is far from other sites important to the faith, said Clinton Day, owner of the Mormon Heritage Association, a tour operator in Salt Lake City.

But Day predicts higher tourist demand if the church develops the Smith homesite.

"It's a crucial site, absolutely crucial" to church history, said Day, who runs about five tours a year to Susquehanna.

Smith and his father came to Susquehanna County in 1825 in search of buried treasure.

While there, Smith fell in love with Emma Hale, and they eloped. The couple bought a 13-acre farm from Emma's father, Isaac Hale, and lived in a house near the Susquehanna River. That was the place where Smith did most of the work on the Book of Mormon and where tradition says he received several important revelations from God.