Day 2: Scranton/Palmyra

So we woke up Sunday morning right outside of Scranton, PA. If you didn’t already know, Matthew and I are big fans of The Office and we figured that since it was along the way we might as well take some snapshots of some of the places mentioned on the show. What is intriguing about the show is that although the characters and plot are all fictitious, as well as some of the places mentioned, there are a fair amount of places that actually exist in the small town. For example: Poor Richard’s Pub. Now this Pub is not exactly how many fans pictured it, but it does indeed exist…in the front entrance of a bowling alley! Here are some pictures:

When Matthew and I began our journey we soon realized that neither of us brought a towel along with us, so as we were driving around Scranton we also stopped at a pharmacy and picked up two new towels. After touring Scranton and making our towel stop we headed for Palmyra, NY.

In Palmyra we first stopped at the Visitor's Center at the Hill Cumorah to get information on the sites surrounding the area. We first went to the Smith Farm and saw the Log Cabin, the Frame House, the Threshing Barn, the Cooper Shop and the Sacred Grove. Here are some of the pics:

Matthew and I in front of the Smith Log Cabin

This is replica of the room where Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith

Top Left: The trees in this picture are Maple Trees. The Smiths would tap into these trees to get the sap. They would then make syrup and sugar out of the sap and would sell it. We were told that the process of tapping these trees and making the sugar was a very hard thing to do.

Top Right: This is one of the fireplaces in the Frame Home. The bricks at the base of the fireplace are the original bricks and underneath the bricks was once a hiding place of the Gold Plates.

Bottom: This is a sink that back in the day would have been considered a great luxury because it actually drains to the outside of the house, so the Smiths would not have to carry out all the dirty water.

Me outside of the Frame House

Above Left: This is where the hay was stored and when the stack got too high they would adjust the pegs and climb up like a ladder.

Above Right: The floor Matthew is standing on is the threshing floor. Before they would begin threshing (beating) the grain they would put wedges at either end of the barn in order to tighten the floorboards so the grain wouldn't slip through the cracks. Then they would place planks of wood at either end and open the barn doors. (This is where we get the term threshold from) This would allow the chaff (light part of the grain that is not eaten) to blow away in the wind while keeping the other part inside the barn.

Above Left: This is a picture of the Cooper's Shop (a cooper is a barrel maker) where the plates were hidden. At one time they were in a box hidden under the floor boards, but Joseph Smith had a prompting to move the plates. Within a few nights of moving the plates, some men came and tore up the floorboards in the cooper shop, but only found the empty box. None of the men noticed that the plates were in the loft, under the hay, just above their heads.

Above Center: A map of the Smith's land.

Above Right: This is a rock sled! If you are anything like me you thought, "That's pretty dangerous sledding on rocks." And then you will find yourself to be a silly person, because they used this sled to move heavy rocks, not to sled themselves down a rock pile!

Left: This is a picture of the Sacred Grove, where Joseph Smith had the first vision.

I wouldn't say that Matthew and I felt anything miraculous when we entered the grove, but we did feel peace. It was a wonderful experience to be out in nature and to feel and understand the love that our Father in Heaven feels for us. It was a wonderful opportunity that Matthew and I will never forget. While in the grove Matthew and I wandered about for about 30 minutes or so. We saw many beautiful and interesting things, including remnants of the stone wall that used to be the boundary line of the Smith's land and interesting trees and assortments of moss.

After visiting the Sacred Grove, Matthew and I visited the Grandin Building which is where the Book of Mormon was first published. This was an interesting site because it is a building inside of a building. There are still portions of the original building and I think in order to help preserve it they built an extension around it. On the tour we learned about the process of compiling the book. In learning this Matthew came to the realization of the term "signature." This is a term he has heard a lot in his experiences in high school and college, but he was never sure of where it came from. He knew that a signature represented 16 pages of a book and that it was 16 pages, because that is the number of pages that could fit on one huge page, but what he and I learned is that they call it a signature because the women who folded the pages initialed the edges so that people would know who did the work and once enough pages were put together the initials were cut off. Here are some pictures of the building:

After visiting the publication site we decided to end our day by visiting the visitor center and taking pictures at the Hill Cumorah. We had a wonderful time and felt the spirit strongly as the Sister missionary bore her testimony to us. It was only later after setting up our tent and reviewing the pictures of the day that we realized that none of the pictures we had taken there had saved on our camera. We think that the memory card got jostled and slipped out of place. Luckily we were already planning to stay in the Palmyra area the next morning so that we could go to the temple, so we just woke up early and got our pictures!