Joseph Smith’s Treasure Hunting, Emma, Seer Stones, and Tumbaga

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General background on Joseph and the seer stones here.

Two short videos introducing seer stones and Joseph’s use of them:

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This next video discusses seer stones, treasure hunting, and Joseph’s early relationship with Emma.

Josiah Stowell’s nephew filed a suit against Joseph.  Josiah Stowell, the man for whom Joseph worked, testified in court on behalf of Joseph against the charge of Joseph being a conman.  No conviction.

Emma met Joseph while Joseph was employed by Josiah Stowell.  Joseph, in fact, stayed in Emma’s home.  Emma’s parents didn’t approve of their courtship.

Jeff at LDS Q&A.  Joseph shifted from looking for objects to that of a seer.

Bill Reel discusses the history behind well digging, treasure digging, the seer stone, diving rods, and more.

Rather than being a treasure digger, Bill argues that Joseph was a lost-item finder.  Several anecdotes support this theory.

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Josiah Stowell surely heard about Joseph’s ability to find things, and hired Joseph to find rumored Spanish gold near Harmony, PA .  Joseph had a spiritual gift or talent.  He was not, however, a serial conman.  In fact, Joseph told Josiah Stowell to stop his gold-seeking enterprise, since it wasn’t successful.

Joseph was tried for glass looking after Stowell’s nephew pressed charges.  Joseph was ultimately exonerated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4nxSX7_W64

***  The fellow who did the podcast (in 2014), Bill Reel, is now far from the kind of believer he was when he made this podcast. Faith is similar to any living organism. Must be nourished.

I’ve called Bill Reel. Nice guy. Sadly, he’s now very (very, very, very, very) far from the basics.

Excellent podcast, however!

The Gold(en) Plates

The wonderful 3 Mormons:

BMC Studios and Stephen Smoot:

Jeff Lindsay shares this recent report of OT scripture on silver:

Latter-day Saints Q & A shares this:

Richard Bushman’s 2010 Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum (BMAF) presentation is entitled “The Gold Plates in Mormon Culture and Thought.”

Bushman also authored the widely-read biography of Joseph Smith, “Rough Stone Rolling”.  Bushman likely knows Joseph Smith better than any other living human — from an entire career of meticulous research — and is a faithful Latter-day Saint.

Another video about metals and golden plates in MesoAmerica.  Daniel Johnson shares about metal plates in the Old and New World:

The LDS Church made a pamphlet — Gold Plates Used Anciently — in 1963.  You can read the pamphlet here.   The pamphlets shows many photographs & lists the dozens of metal plates found throughout the world.

Brother Read Putnam wrote this article for the Improvement Era in 1966: “Were the Golden Plates made of Tumbaga?” Read it here.