The Hill Cumorah Historic Site in Palmyra, New York, will be rededicated on Sunday, September 21, 2025, at 1 p.m. EDT. Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will preside at the dedication and offer the dedicatory prayer. On-site participation is by invitation and requires a ticket.
The Hill Cumorah is among 30 historic sites operated by the Church of Jesus Christ across the United States. These sites highlight the heritage of the Church and help visitors understand significant events in Church history.
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| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
Latter-day Saints believe that the Book of Mormon was originally written in an ancient language on metal plates, often referred to as gold plates. The final writer in the book, a prophet named Moroni, buried the plates in the hill now known as Cumorah in about A.D. 420. About 1,400 years later, Moroni, then an angel sent from heaven, guided a young man named Joseph Smith to the plates. The angel Moroni first visited Smith, the founding prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on September 21, 1823, when Smith was 17. Moroni showed him the gold plates for the first time the following day. On September 22, 1827, after four years of preparation, he was allowed to take the plates from the hill. He translated the record to English by the gift and power of God.
Today, the Book of Mormon’s witness of Jesus Christ is published in more than 100 languages.
The Church of Jesus Christ has welcomed visitors to the hill since 1928, when it completed the purchase of the property. A monument featuring a statue of the angel Moroni was dedicated on the hill in 1935. From 1935 until 2019, the hill was the site of a pageant celebrating the Book of Mormon and the Church’s history. The pageant attracted tens of thousands of visitors each year.
The hill is now being reforested to help visitors focus more on its historical and spiritual significance. That long-term project began in 2021. Twenty-three buildings used to support the pageant were removed from the hill, including restrooms, a costume shop, cast changing rooms, storage sheds, an RV park and industrial kitchen facility for cast and crew, and an administration building. Approximately 400,000 square feet (over 9 acres) of asphalt, gravel roads, parking areas, and paths were also removed. The area is being reforested with thousands of native tree seeds, which will one day be a mature forest that more closely resembles what Joseph Smith would have seen in the early 1800s.
The visitors’ center, built in 2002, was recently renovated. The interior features new interactive exhibits, a film, and artwork, all sharing stories and messages about the site. The experience on the hill is self-guided, allowing visitors to move through the site at their own pace. The visitors’ center also features three new statues of a scene in the Book of Mormon in which the resurrected Jesus Christ visited His people in the Americas.
Admission is free. The visitors’ center and many features of the hill are ADA accessible. Visit here for additional information about visiting the site.
The rededication can be viewed live on Sunday, September 21, 2025, at 1 p.m. EDT, at BroadcastsChurchofJesusChrist.org and for two weeks after.