John Tvedtnes writes that Elder Orson Pratt suggested that the records of the Nephites had been hidden up and kept "under the charge of holy angels, until the day should come for them to be transferred to the sacred temple; of Zion." His brother, Elder Parley P. Pratt, wrote of a room inside the New Jerusalem temple that would be set aside to hold these and other sacred records. [John Tvedtnes, The Book of Mormon and Other Hidden Books: Out of Darkness unto Light, p. 160]
“ID Up in the Hill Cumorah”
In Mormon 6:6, Mormon records that he "hid up in the hill Cumorah all the records which had been entrusted to [him]." In the book of Ether, Moroni records that as the prophet Ether "dwelt in the cavity of a rock he made the remainder of his record, viewing the destructions which came upon the people, by night." (Ether 13:14). Assuming a Mesoamerican setting, the following information might be of interest:
The disaster-migration theme is repeated in the Maya' Popol Vuh , The Book of Consul. It tells of an ancestral race arriving by sea after the Hun yecil (the Aztec Hun-Esil, or the Drowning of the Trees, a catastrophic deluge and earthquake), to build a temple at the Huehuhuetan River in memory of their escape. Known as the House of Darkness for its subterranean caverns, it was used as a depository for written records carried from the drowned homeland.
In 1691, just such an underground temple was found near the city of Saconusco, and its precious library burned on orders of church officials as the incomprehensible works of Satan. (Frank Joseph, "Latest Discoveries Show the Maya in a New Light," in Ancient American, Vol. 6, Issue #41, p. 38)
[Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes] [See the commentary on Ether 13:14]
Mormon Hid Up in the Hill Cumorah All the Records Which Had Been Entrusted to Him Possible Caves or Caverns in New York
Oliver Cowdery writes:
Soon after this visit to Cumorah, a gentleman from the south part of the state, (Chenango County), employed our brother [Joseph Smith] as a common laborer and accordingly he visited that section of the country; and had he not been accused of digging down all, or nearly so, the mountains of Susquehanna, or causing others to do it by some art of necromancy, I should leave this for the present unnoticed. You will remember, in the meantime, that those who seek to vilify his character, say that he has always been notorious for his idleness. This gentleman whose name is Stoal, resided in the town of Bainbridge, on or near the head-waters of the Susquehanna river. Some forty miles south, or down the river, in the town of Harmony, Susquehanna County, Pa., is said to be a cave or subterraneous recess, whether entirely formed by art or not, I am uninformed, neither does this matter; but such is said to be the case--where a company of Spaniards, a long time since, when the county was uninhabited by white settlers, excavated from the bowels of the earth ore, and coined a large quantity of money, after which they secured the cavity and evacuated, leaving a part still in the cave, purposing to return at some distant period. A long time elapsed, and this account came from one of the individuals who was first engaged in this mining business. The country was pointed out, and the spot minutely described. This, I believe is the substance, so far as my memory serves, though I shall not pledge my veracity for the correctness of the account as I have given it. Enough, however, was credited of the Spaniard's story, to excite the belief of many that there was a fine sum of precious metal lying coined in this subterraneous vault, among whom was the employer; and accordingly our brother [Joseph] was required to spend a few months with some others in excavating the earth in pursuit of this treasure. While employed here he became acquainted with the family of Isaac Hale, of whom you read in several of the productions of those who have sought to destroy the validity of the Book of Mormon. (Messenger and Advocate, October, 1835)
[As quoted in Francis W. Kirkham, A New Witness for Christ in America, vol. 1, pp. 104-105]
“I Hid Up in the Hill Cumorah All the Records Which Had Been Entrusted to Me”
If Mormon "hid up in the hill Cumorah all the records which had been entrusted" to him (Mormon 6:6), and in view of the many records that Mormon and Moroni used as source material (see Helaman 3:13, Words of Mormon 1:2-5, Moroni 9:23), one might reason that this repository was a cave not only because of size but because of continual access. The reader might also note that the last Jaredite prophet, Ether, also wrote his history from a "cavity of a rock" (see Ether 13:13-14, 18).
According to Ben Olsen, who has some geological experience in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, caves most frequently visited in the world are those within limestones, which form by dissolving action of groundwater circulating along the partings in the rocks. Caves formed in this manner take thousands to millions of years to develop large underground connecting rooms. . . Smaller cavities in limestones can occur more quickly when the limestone beds are exposed in canyons to fast moving river currents, where they are not only dissolved, but cut by water erosion as well. . . . Another quickly-formed type of cave is that associated with volcanism. Volcanic vents and fissures on the flanks of volcanoes are natural openings extending into the volcano which could develop into large cavities. Lava flows may, on cooling, develop a stiff upper crust over still molten rock which, continuing to flow after supply at the source has ceased, may leave caves or lava tubes. . . .
While there are many caves in and around the proposed site of the hill Cumorah (Cerro Vigia) in Veracruz, Mexico, there is a geological problem with caves in New York. Ben Olsen relates the following:
As a young person I had heard and assumed it was factual, that the prophet Joseph and others had physically walked into a cave in the hill Cumorah and observed the plates, sword, etc. (see the related commentary on Mormon 6:6). I grew up assuming that this hill was in New York.
In the course of my geological studies I learned about the geology of New York, of the formation of the elongate, rounded hills in the Finger Lakes area, and I became a bit alarmed at the thought of a naturally-formed room being inside the New York hill now called Cumorah.
This hill, and others like it in the region, are called drumlins and are composed of rock debris originally incorporated within the continental ice sheet that covered the area during the last ice age. As the ice melted, this debris accumulated on the earth's surface. This loose unconsolidated debris, consisting of sands, silts, muds and gravels, was then molded into drumlin-shaped hills as the frontal lobes of the ice advanced and receded during the waning stages of glacial time, about 10 to 13 thousand years ago.
Though nothing is impossible with God, I found it difficult to imagine a naturally-formed room in a hill composed primarily of unconsolidated material.
[Ben L. Olsen, Some Earthly Treasures of the Book of Mormon, pp. 54-55, Unpublished]
“I Hid Up in the Hill Cumorah All the Records Which Had Been Entrusted to Me”
In Mormon 6:6 it says:
And it came to pass that when we had gathered in all our people in one to the land of Cumorah, behold I, Mormon, began to be old; and knowing it to be the last struggle of my people, and having been commanded of the Lord that I should not suffer the records which had been handed down by our fathers, which were sacred, to fall into the hands of the Lamanites, (for the Lamanites would destroy them) therefore I made this record out of the plates of Nephi, and hid up in the hill Cumorah all the records which had been entrusted to me by the hand of the Lord, save it were these few plates which I gave unto my son Moroni. (emphasis added)
According to Joseph Allen, the question is often asked, "How did the records that Mormon gave to Moroni about 385 AD and that the Angel Moroni gave to Joseph Smith in 1827 AD get to the Hill Cumorah in New York?"
If the last battle was fought at the hill Vigia in Veracruz, Mexico, then Moroni must have carried the records to New York after the final battle at Ramah/Cumorah in Mesoamerica. The final battle was 385 AD; Moroni's last entry was 421 AD. That makes 36 years from the time of the last battle to Moroni's last dated entry. During that 36 years, he abridged the Jaredite record that we know as the book of Ether; he finished the record of his father, Mormon; and he wrote material under his own name, which is the last book in the Book of Mormon.
Furthermore, he tells us that he did not make himself known to the Lamanites because they killed everyone who did not deny Christ; and he refused to deny Christ. After abridging the Book of Ether, Moroni very probably hid up, in the Mesoamerica Cumorah, the 24 gold plates from which he abridged the Jaredite record and then carried the abridged portion of the record to New York. He had ample time. His motivation to distance himself from the Lamanites is adequate.
One evidence of Moroni's wandering comes from a story quoted by Elder Franklin D. Richards of the Council of the Twelve in an Ensign article. The incident he spoke of occurred at the temple-site dedication of the Manti Temple on April 25, 1877. Early that morning, Brigham Young had asked Warren S. Snow to go with him to the temple hill. According to Snow:
We two were alone; President Young took me to a spot where the temple was to stand; we went to the southeast corner, and President Young said: "Here is the spot where the Prophet Moroni stood and dedicated this piece of land for a temple site, and that is the reason why the location is made here, and we can't move it from this spot." (Ensign, January 1972, p. 33)
Other possible evidences of Moroni's wanderings might come from the knowledge of gospel principles and legends about Christ which were told to the new American settlers by native North American Indians (Moroni might have spread the gospel as he wandered). In any event, the guiding hand of the Lord played a major role in Moroni's depositing the Book of Mormon record in New York.
Another issue in regards to the location of the hill Cumorah has arisen from a talk given by Brigham Young after the saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. This talk has been used as an argument on occasion to suggest that the Nephite Hill Cumorah was in New York. The rationale for the statement is that the Latter-day Saint Hill Cumorah in New York opened up and a number of the brethren went inside where they saw wagon loads of records. A follow-up visit included a statement dealing with the sword of Laban that had been unsheathed. The conclusion of the story is that if the Latter-day Saint Hill Cumorah in New York opened up, then the last battles must have been fought around that hill.
The statement of Brigham Young was printed in mainstream Latter-day Saint literature. However, a statement about the same experience, given by Heber C. Kimball, has not been included in the literature, and perhaps sheds some important light on the issue. In his talk, Brigham Young said that Oliver Cowdery and others went "into the hill." However, Heber C. Kimball said that the incident was a "vision" that the brethren had of the hill. Thus, those who might try to support a particular geographical point of view would be on inconclusive grounds. The Book of Mormon itself records a vision of Nephi concerning the history of the house of Israel (1 Nephi) in which he was carried to an exceedingly high mountain "in spirit."
For the benefit of the Book of Mormon student, the statements of Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball are written here as follows:
Oliver Cowdery went with the prophet Joseph when he deposited these plates. Joseph did not translate all of the plates; there was a portion of them sealed, which you can learn from the book of Doctrine and Covenants. When Joseph got the plates, the angel instructed him to carry them back to the hill Cumorah, which he did. Oliver says that when Joseph and Oliver went there, the hill opened, and they walked into a cave, in which there was a large and spacious room. He says he did not think, at the time, whether they had the light of the sun or artificial light; but that it was just as light as day. They laid the plates on a table; it was a large table that stood in the room. Under this table there was a pile of plates as much as two feet high, and there were altogether in this room more plates than probably many wagon loads; they were piled up in the corners and along the walls. The first time they went there the sword of Laban hung upon the wall; but when they went again it had been taken down and laid upon the table across the gold plates; it was unsheathed, and on it was written these words: "This sword will never be sheathed again until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and his Christ." I tell you this as coming not only from Oliver Cowdery, but others who were familiar with it, and who understood it just as well as we understand coming to this meeting enjoying the day, and by and by we separate and go away, forgetting most of what is said, but remembering some things. (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 19:38)
Brother Mills mentioned in his song, that crossing the Plains with hand-carts was one of the greatest events that ever transpired in this Church. I will admit that it is an important event, successfully testing another method for gathering Israel, but its importance is small in comparison with the visitation of the angel of God to the Prophet Joseph, and with the reception of the sacred records from the hand of Moroni at the hill Cumorah. How does it compare with the vision that Joseph and others had, when they went into a cave in the hill Cumorah, and saw more records than ten men could carry? There were books piled upon tables, book upon book. Those records this people will yet have, if they accept of the Book of Mormon and observe its precepts, and keep the commandments. (Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, 4:104--italics added)
[Joseph L. Allen, Exploring the Lands of the Book of Mormon, pp. 351-352] [For a comprehensive compilation of all known authoritative statements regarding the New York hill Cumorah as it relates to Book of Mormon geography, see Appendix D]