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Historic Sites and Tourism

Lloyd E. Hudman

Two types of LDS historical sites can be recognized: those that consist of historical markers only, and those that include visitors' centers. Historical markers provide travelers with some specific information about LDS Church history at that site, such as campsites for the pioneer movement west and for the Mormon Battalion. The second type have important historical events associated with them and visitors' centers have been established to explain the importance of the site for LDS Church history.

Salt Lake Temple Square is the site of the Salt Lake Temple and the adjoining Tabernacle. With nearly 5 million annual visitors it attracts more than four times the number of people that visit all other visitors' centers combined.

Nauvoo, Illinois, Visitors' Center was opened September 4, 1971, to tell the story of the founding and occupancy of Nauvoo from 1841 to 1846. The restoration of many of its buildings has developed Nauvoo into an important attraction with over 150,000 visitors annually. Near Nauvoo is the Carthage Jail, opened on October 27, 1963, which receives only one-fourth the number of Nauvoo visitors. It was the site of the incarceration and assassination of Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum by a mob on June 27, 1844.

The third major historical site, attracting nearly 100,000 annual visitors, is the Hill Cumorah Historical Center at Manchester, New York. It was created in 1937 adjacent to Hill Cumorah, the burial site of early American ancient records whose translation by Joseph Smith became known as the Book of Mormon. Each year, in the summer, a pageant presents the story of the Book of Mormon.

Near Hill Cumorah are three significant sites. The Joseph Smith Home in Manchester, New York, where Joseph Smith lived from 1825 until 1829, is most visited of the three, attracting approximately 83,000 visitors. It was here Joseph Smith received the First Vision in the Sacred Grove. The E. B. Grandin Press Building in Palmyra, New York, is the site of the first printing of the Book of Mormon in 1830 and attracts nearly as many visitors as the Joseph Smith Home. The Peter Whitmer Farm Historical Site at Waterloo, New York, was the site of the formal organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It attracts about half the visitors of the Joseph Smith Home and the Grandin Press.