Kinderhook Plates



The Kinderhook plates are a set of 6 small, bell-shaped pieces of brass with strange engravings discovered in 1843 in an Indian mound near Kinderhook, Illinois. Designed to appear ancient, the plates were in fact a forgery created by three men in Kinderhook who were hoping to trick Joseph Smith. The forgers intentionally "discovered" the plates in the presence of a Latter-day Saint neighbor, who took them to the prophet and church founder, Joseph Smith.

In what is presumed to have been a statement made directly by Joseph Smith, page 372 of the History of the Church reads:

I [Joseph Smith] have translated a portion of them, and find they contain the history of the person with whom they were found. He was a descendant of Ham, through the loins of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and that he received his kingdom from the Ruler of heaven and earth."

Some Mormon apologists have argued that these words are from the journal of William Clayton (Smith's personal secretary) and therefore "cannot be uncritically accepted as [Joseph's] words." The Kinderhook Plates were presumed lost, but for decades The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints published facsimiles of them in its official History of the Church — pointing to them as evidence that ancient Americans wrote on metal plates. The LDS Church acknowledged the plates as a hoax in 1981, and makes no attempt at defending their authenticity. They also make note that there is no proof that Joseph Smith made any attempt to translate the plates.