By Jerald and Sandra Tanner
During the past few months there have been a great many rumors circulating concerning the discovery of important letters proving that the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith was involved in the money-digging business and that he used magical practices in finding buried treasures. It is reported that there are three or four important letters concerning the subject. The first letter has recently been published by the Mormon scholar Dean Jessee in his book, The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, 1984, pages 358-359. A photograph of the letter is included in Jessee’s book. According to Jessee, it is in the handwriting of Joseph Smith and is addressed to his brother Hyrum. Jessee says that it was mailed from Far West, Missouri to Plattisgrove on May 25, 1838. The text is very short:
Verily thus Saith the Lord unto Hyrum Smith if he will come strateaway to Far West and in=quire of his brother it shall be shown him how that he may be freed from de[b]t and ob=tain a grate treasure in the earth even so Amen
Jessee says that this letter is stored in the “LDS Church Archives.” It was supposed to have been written just after Joseph Smith explored some mounds. His History of the Church, vol. 3, page 37, indicates that he believed these mounds contained treasures:
. . . I returned to camp . . . We discovered some antiquities about one mile west of the camp, consisting of stone mounds, . . . These mounds were probably erected by the aborigines of the land, to secrete treasures.
The reader will note that this is more than just a letter; it actually purports to be a revelation from “the Lord.” This appears to be the second false revelation Joseph Smith wrote concerning the location of hidden treasures. The other revelation is actually canonized in the Mormon Church’s Doctrine and Covenants, Section 111:1, 2, 4;
I, the Lord your God, am not displeased with your coming this journey, . . . I have much treasure in this city for you, . . . I will give this city into your hands . . . and its wealth pertaining to gold and silver shall be yours.
(For a more complete treatment of this revelation see Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? page 49)
The second letter has never been published. It was sold to the Mormon Church by Mark Hofmann. Although its existence has been known by Mormon scholars for months, the Church has never publicly announced that it has possession of it. This is rather remarkable since it would be the earliest known letter of Joseph Smith. We have been told that Dean Jessee confirmed its existence, and when he was asked why he did not publish it in his book, The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, he said that it would take an entire volume to explain the letter. In any case, the text of the document has leaked out. A number of scholars received typed copies in the mail. The letters were sent anonymously from New York City. Although we were not sent a copy, we were able to obtain one from a friend. The letter was supposed to have been written to Josiah Stowel and reads as follows:
Canandaigua, New York
June 18, 1825Dear Sir:
My father has shown me your letter informing him and me of your success in locating the mine of which you told me, but we are of the opinion that if you have not ascertained the particulars, you should not dig for it till you first discover if any valuables remain. You know the treasure must be guarded by some clever spirit, and if such is discovered, so also is the treasure. So do this. Take a hazel stick, one yard long, being new cut, cleave it just in the middle and lay it asunder on the mine so that both inner parts of the stick hang up one right against the other one inch distant. If there is a treasure, after a while it will draw them both together unto themselves. Let me know how it is that you were here. I have almost decided to accept your offer. If you should make the decision to come this way, I shall be ready to accompany you if nothing happens more than I know of. I am,
Respectfully yours,
JOSEPH SMITH, JUN.
Since the spelling and punctuation are too good for Joseph Smith, we conclude that they have been corrected by the person who made the typescript. Although we cannot say that this typescript is 100% accurate, we know from very good sources that it gives the substance of the letter.
As far as the historical setting of the letter is concerned, we see no obvious problems. Joseph Smith acknowledged in his History that
in the month of October, 1825, I hired with an old gentleman by the name of Josiah Stowel, . . . He had heard something of a silver mine having been opened by the Spaniards . . . After I went to live with him, he took me, with the rest of his hands, to dig for the silver mine, . . . Hence arose the very prevalent story of my having been a money-digger (History of the Church, vol. 1, page 17).
In his 1826 trial Joseph Smith admitted that he had “a certain stone” he used to help Stowel locate buried treasures. There is also evidence linking him to the use of a hazel rod. We have a great deal of material on these matters in Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? chapter 4.
Although we can see no obvious historical problems with the letter to Stowel, we will withhold judgment concerning its authenticity until we obtain more information concerning it.
The third letter was supposed to have been written by Book of Mormon witness Martin Harris in 1830. In the last newsletter we published a few extracts from it. The most important portion is the following account of how Joseph Smith obtained the gold plates of the Book of Mormon (Harris is quoting Smith):
. . . I found it 4 years ago with my stone but only got it because of the enchantment the old spirit come to me 3 times in the same dream & says dig up the gold but when I take it up the next morning the spirit transfigured himself from a white salamander in the bottom of the hole . . . (Letter purported to have been written by Martin Harris to W. W. Phelps, dated October 23, 1830, typed extract)
After our newsletter appeared, Steven Christensen acknowledged that he had the original letter. In a press release, dated March 7, 1984, he wrote:
It is true that I am the owner of a letter written by Martin Harris to William W. Phelps, dated October 23, 1830. . . . Before I will release transcripts or photographs of the document to the public, I wish to first determine the document’s historicity . . . I look forward to the time when I will be able to offer a more complete presentation to the public and the media.
Five months have passed and no further statement concerning the document has appeared.
Recently we received a complete transcript of the letter. One thing about this letter that really surprised us is that it doesn’t mention anything about God or angels. This is certainly very strange. An interview with Harris published in 1859 in Tiffany’s Monthly, is filled with material on this subject. For instance, Harris quoted at least five portions of the Bible. He used the words revelation, Moses, Scripture and Christ at least once. He used the word prayed twice, and mentioned the devil four times. The word angel or angels appears five times. God is mentioned seven times, and the word Lord appears ten times. In the Salamander letter, however, all of these words are absent. In fact, there is nothing we can find concerning religion. Spirits are mentioned many times in the letter, but they are never linked to God in any way. Instead, they are linked to money-digging.
This total lack of religious material seems to be out of character for Martin Harris. A person might try to explain this by saying that Harris was more interested in religion in 1859, but the evidence shows that he was always that way. One suggested reconciliation is that Phelps was a money-digger and this is why Harris emphasized this aspect of the story and suppressed the divine element.
We have learned that Mark Hofmann originally tried to sell this letter to the Mormon Church for a large sum of money. When his offer was turned down, he sold it to Steven Christensen. One of the most important things in determining a document’s authenticity is finding its pedigree. We have tried to find out where this letter came from but have not achieved any success. Hofmann claims that he has told the buyer (Christensen) the source, but cannot tell anyone else. We do hope that Christensen will reveal this important information soon. While we have expressed some doubts about the authenticity of the letter, they are based strictly on the text itself. The results of tests on the document as well as the establishment of a pedigree could alter our conclusions. We do hope that this will be the case.
Originally appeared in: