“Cumorah which must become as famous among the Latter-day Saints, as Sinai was among the former day Saints…Cumorah, the artificial hill of North America, is well calculated to stand in this generation, as a monument of marvelous works and wonders.” WW Phelps Letter 12
Hill Cumorah is not a typical hill, but is defined as a drumlin.
“Drumlin, oval or elongated hill believed to have been formed by the streamlined movement of glacial ice sheets across rock debris, or till. The name is derived from the Gaelic word druim (“rounded hill,” or “mound”) and first appeared in 1833.” Britannica.com
Below, W.W. Phelps calls Cumorah an “artificial” hill. What would he mean by the name, artificial hill? One that is obviously different than a typical dirt hill, or rock hill as we usually think? In other words typical hills naturally formed would have natural caves within. The Hill Cumorah was not a typical hill such as we normally understand, i.e. mountain, or mount etc. Hill Cumorah was a drumlin which many people don’t know the difference between that and a typical hill. Webster’s current dictionary says, “Definition of drumlin: an elongate or oval hill of glacial drift… First Known Use of drumlin 1812, in the meaning defined above.” So a drumlin was formed from glacial drift unlike many hills we usually think of.
Because of W.W. Phelps quote below, I assume the Mesoamerican theorists who are looking for the Hill Cumorah somewhere in Mesoamerica, are looking only at drumlins with a man made cave inside and not any typical hills or mountains or mounts in Mesoamerica?
ARTIFI’CIAL, adjective
1. Made or contrived by art, or by human skill and labor, in opposition to natural; as artificial heat or light; an artificial magnet.
2. Feigned, fictitious; not genuine or natural; as artificial tears.
3. Contrived with skill or art.
4. Cultivated; not indigenous; not being of spontaneous growth; as artificial grasses.
The Geologic History of Hill Cumorah Michael J. Dorais
Setting of Hill Cumorah
“Cumorah is perhaps the most famous drumlin in the world, other than Breed’s Hill, where the Battle of Bunker Hill took place during the American Revolutionary War. A drumlin, after the Gaelic word druim for hill, is an elongated hill formed by glacial processes. Cumorah is one of 10,000 similar hills of west-central New York that compose one of the largest drumlin fields in the world (see Picture below). The field defines an east-west trending belt about 35 miles wide bordering the south side of Lake Ontario and extends for about 140 miles from Syracuse to the Niagara River. In order to understand the processes that formed Hill Cumorah, a brief explanation of the causes of continental glaciation, the extent of Pleistocene glaciation, and the geomorphological evidence of glaciation in the Palmyra region of New York is in order.
Origin and Characteristics of Drumlins and Hill Cumorah
A type of drift deposited by continental glaciers, drumlins are not uniformly distributed under continental glaciers but form in distinct areas called drumlin swarms or fields (see picture above). Although their dimensions vary, drumlins are elongated, tapered hills that range from one-half to three-quarters of a mile in length, are about a quarter of a mile wide, and rise approximately 100 to 150 feet above the surrounding lowlands. In profile, they resemble inverted spoons with the shallow lee slope pointing in the direction of ice flow (see sketch below). The aspect ratios of drumlins are thought to reflect the speed of the glacier that produced them. That is, narrower and longer drumlins may indicate faster glacial movements than wider, shorter ones.
Because the formation of drumlins is a process that occurs under glaciers and is unobservable, the origin of drumlins has been a controversial topic. One theory is that because some drumlins contain stratified sands and gravels similar to those deposited by streams, the drumlins are water deposits. Subglacial flooding is thought to carry immense volumes of floodwater and sediment in cavities between the glacier and its underlying rock and sediment bed. Another theory is that because other drumlins are not stratified but consist of till, a poorly sorted sediment deposited by glaciers, drumlins are the result of a deformable layer of sediment between the glacier and bedrock. The sediment layer that forms drumlins is shaped by pressure exerted by the mass of the overlying glacier, with the sediment migrating to lower pressure regions under the ice sheet. Beginning about 19,000 years ago, when the Laurentide Ice Sheet began to melt at a faster rate than snow. (Editor’s note: In my opinion dating could be wrong by quite a bit) accumulated at its source, the margin of the glacier retreated, disappearing entirely from the Palmyra area around 12,000 years ago.
As the ice retreated, glacial features that had formed below the ice sheet were exposed, including the large drumlin fields of west-central New York. Hill Cumorah is typical of the drumlins of this region, being 1.7 miles long and 0.4 miles wide and attaining a height of 140 feet above the lowland topography. The hill is also typical because its elongated profile is shaped like an inverted spoon with one end of the hill being steeper (the location of the Angel Moroni Monument and the pageant) and the other tapering off at a shallower angle (see sketch below). Perpendicular to its length, the hill has a cross-sectional profile common to drumlins, namely, a wide base of several hundred feet and a narrow summit, especially at the northern end where it narrows to less than 20 feet. Drumlins are composed of a variety of materials including mixtures of till, sand, and gravel. Most of these materials have high porosity and permeability, which, combined with the slope of the hill, would have allowed efficient water drainage that could have been important in the preservation of the plates, Urim and Thummim, Laban’s sword, and the Liahona over the centuries after their deposition in the stone box by Moroni. The tills and outwash deposits from the ice sheet at Palmyra are excellent sources of sand and gravel and are well suited for agriculture. It was these fertile soils that attracted the Smiths and other early agriculturally minded settlers. Indeed, had glaciation and till deposition not produced good farmlands in western New York, the Smiths might not have migrated there, and the restoration of the gospel might have commenced elsewhere. We readily recognize that the religious freedoms provided by the Constitution of the United States, coupled with the religious fervor that swept western New York in the early 1800s, were essential to pro-viding the political and cultural conditions necessary for the restoration of the gospel.
But it was the development of the appropriate climate and agricultural conditions of western New York by glaciation and till deposition that brought the Smiths to Palmyra. Once the family was there, the unique political and cultural conditions provided the appropriate setting for the boy prophet to begin his divinely appointed mission. While it is faith promoting to see the Lord’s foresight in the preparation and preservation of the plates, it is also faith promoting to see an even greater foreknowledge of the Lord throughout the thousands of years of geologic history that led to the formation of Hill Cumorah and the surrounding lands. For he who has seen “the least of these hath seen God moving in his majesty and power” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:47).” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies. The Geologic History of Hill Cumorah Michael J. Dorais 142 VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1–2, 2004 JOURNAL OF BOOK OF MORMON STUDIES 143
The majority of Mesoamerican theorists believe that Moroni deposited the gold plates in a hill, but not the Hill Cumorah in New York. These same theorists also believe the final battles of the Nephites to be somewhere in Mesoamerica. I don’t agree with this perspective. .
In Ether 15:11 Moroni says that the same hill that the Jaredites were destroyed was called Ramah, and was the same hill that Mormon hid the plates. It makes sense that all the plates were buried in the man made cave or depository in the Hill Cumorah, and not in Moroni’s man made stone box that held the set of plates Joseph translated.
We believe there are two repositories in Cumorah for all the records. Both man made. First, the *Cave at Cumorah spoken of by Heber C. Kimball, Brigham Young and many others. Secondly, the stone box where Joseph Smith found the plates that were sealed with the Urim and Thummim and the Jaredite Breastplate.
*Quote about the Cave at Cumorah
“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 up on tables, book upon book. Those records this people will yet have, if they accept the Book of Mormon and observe it’s precepts, and keep the commandments.” Heber C. Kimball Journal of Discourses, 4:105, September 28, 1856
Orson Pratt- One Hill Cumorah- Two Depositories
“The Hill Cumorah is situated in western New York. . . . It is distinguished as the great battlefield on which, and near which, two powerful nations were concentrated with all their forces, men, women and children, and fought till hundreds of thousands on both sides were hewn down, and left to molder upon the ground. . . . The Hill Cumorah is remarkable also as being the hill on which and around which, a still more ancient nation perished, called Jaredites. . . . Millions fought millions, until the Hill Ramah, and the land round about, was soaked with blood.” 1866 Orson Pratt Millennial Star 28 (16 June 1866)
“The hill Cumorah, with the surrounding vicinity, is distinguished as the great battlefield on which, and near which, two powerful nations were concentrated with all their forces. Men, women and children fought till hundreds of thousands on both sides were hewn down, and left to molder upon the ground. . . . “These new plates were given to Moroni to finish the history. And all the ancient plates, Mormon deposited in Cumorah, about three hundred and eighty-four years after Christ. When Moroni, about thirty-six years after, made the deposit of the book entrusted to him, he was, without doubt, inspired to select a department of the hill separate from the great depository of the numerous volumes hid up by his father. The particular place in the hill where Moroni secreted the book, was revealed, by the angel, to the prophet Joseph Smith, to whom the volume was delivered in September, A.D. 1827. But the grand repository of all the numerous records of the ancient nations of the western continent, was located in another department of the hill, and it’s contents under the charge of holy angels, until the day should come for them to be transferred to the sacred temple of Zion.” 1866 Orson Pratt Millennial Star (28 (27): 417)
“In relation to these records, Orson Pratt commented in 1873: “But will these things be brought to light? Yes. The records, now slumbering in the hill Cumorah, will be brought forth by the power of God, to fulfil the words of our text, that ‘the knowledge of God shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the deep.'” (Orson Pratt, May 18, 1873, in Journal of Discourses 16:57)
Mormon 6: Chapter 6 Notes
The Nephites gather to the land of Cumorah for the final battles—Mormon hides the sacred records in the hill Cumorah—The Lamanites are victorious, and the Nephite nation is destroyed—Hundreds of thousands are slain with the sword. About A.D. 385.
Ether Chapter 15 Notes
Millions of the Jaredites are slain in battle—Shiz and Coriantumr assemble all the people to mortal combat—The Spirit of the Lord ceases to strive with them—The Jaredite nation is utterly destroyed—Only Coriantumr remains.
Ether 15:11 “And it came to pass that the army of Coriantumr did pitch their tents by the hill Ramah; and it was that same hill where my father Mormon did hide up the records unto the Lord, which were sacred.”
LETTER NO. 12 W.W. Phelps to Oliver Cowdery
I want to drop an idea or two about Cumorah. Yes, Cumorah which must become as famous among the latter-day saints, as Sinai was among the former day saints. — The law of the Lord, by the hand of Moses, was received upon Sinai, for the benefit of Israel, before they entered the goodly land of Canaan, and before they were scattered and driven among ail nations; and the fulness of the everlasting gospel, the history of the first settlers of America; even the book of Mormon, preparatory to gathering Israel from their long dispersion, came from Cumorah: Glorious spot! — sacred depository! out of thee came the glad tidings which will rejoice thousands! Israel must be restored to mercy; a holy people raised up unto God to possess the promised land, to bring the present unto the Lord of hosts, even to Mount Zion, as Isaiah foretold more than three thousand years ago.
Cumorah, the artificial hill of north America, is well calculated to stand in this generation, as a monument of marvelous works and wonders. Around that mount died millions of the Jaredites; yea, there ended one of the greatest nations of this earth. In that day, her inhabitants spread from sea to sea, and enjoyed national greatness and glory, nearly fifteen hundred years. — That people forsook the Lord and died in wickedness. There, too, fell the Nephites, after they had forgotten the Lord that bought them. There slept the records of age after age, for hundreds of years, even until the time of the Lord: —
“An angel came down from the regions of glory
“And told that a record was hid in Cumorah,
“Containing the fulness of Jesus’s gospel,
“And also the cov’nant to gather his people.”
“There began the church of Christ in 1830; yea, there the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, as foretold by Daniel, commenced rolling to fill the earth, and may it continue, in a moral sense, in dreadful splendor, till it fills the whole, and wickedness is ended. So much for the Hill Cumorah…”
As ever,
W.W. PHELPS.
To Oliver Cowdery.
LATTER DAY SAINTS’ MESSENGER AND ADVOCATE Vol. II No. 2 KIRTLAND, OHIO, Nov 1835 Page 221
Below is a photograph from a good friend of mine who worked for the Church Video Department. It shows the appearance of a probable man made cave in the Hill Cumorah that was about 15 feet square. The cave was empty. On the sides of the walls were stacked stones and there were some stones attached seemingly as shelves coming out from the stacked stones, which would mean the cave would have been man made. See complete article here: https://www.bofm.blog/hole-in-cumorah/
