The Kinderhook Plates Incident: History, Hoax, and Mormon Significance

LDS Perspective

In April 1843, six bell-shaped brass plates were allegedly discovered in an American Indian burial mound near Kinderhook, Illinois, and subsequently brought to the Prophet Joseph Smith in Nauvoo. Local men—including Robert Wiley, Wilbur Fugate, and Bridge Whitton—later confessed that they had forged the plates by etching false characters into brass using nitric acid, artificially aging them with rust, and planting them in the mound to be "discovered." The plates were brought to Joseph Smith amid public excitement, with some Saints hoping they would provide further evidence of ancient civilizations in the Americas. However, scientific analysis conducted in 1980

Historical Perspective

In April 1843, six bell-shaped brass plates engraved with unfamiliar characters were unearthed from a burial mound near Kinderhook, Illinois, and subsequently brought to Joseph Smith for examination. According to the detailed journal entry of Smith’s secretary, William Clayton, dated May 1, 1843, Smith examined the plates and declared that he had "translated a portion of them," determining that they contained "the history of the person with whom they were found." Smith specifically identified the author as "a descendant of Ham, through the loins of Pharaoh, king of Egypt," who had received his kingdom from the "Ruler of heaven and earth." This account was later published in the church newspaper *Times and Seasons* and subsequently canonized in the official *History of the Church*, Volume 5