[Update: on 12/15/2015 I was shown to be wrong on one of my assumptions. Changes inline]
Many times, people will ask me why I bother to read and research LDS history. Let me tell you the story of a map to illustrate why.
A map of Moroni’s travels.
This map right here.
You see this map? It’s a fascinating piece of mormon folklore. Written on the back of it were the words, “A chart, and description of Moroni’s travels through this country. Got it from Br. Robert Dickson. He got it from Patriarch Wm. McBride at Richfield in the Sevier and also from Andrew M. Hamilton of same place. And they got it from Joseph Smith the Prophet.”
It was locked away in the church historical archive. What’s more, there was a second map also locked away.
Second map
One would think that two maps sketched by Joseph Smith would be proof positive that the things listed on the map were believed by Joseph. Certainly, BYU professors gave it credibility.
In fact, this is the most supportive piece of evidence that the lands of the Book of Mormon were in Central America that exists.
But, if we look closer, we see that the Kinderhook plates are listed on it as being dropped off by Moroni. Now we have to think about this. This directly ties Joseph Smith to saying that Moroni put the known forgeries into a hill.
This is very damning evidence indeed, until we scan down and see the name “Arizona.”
Now, Arizona didn’t achieve statehood until 1912, and the first use of the name “Arizona” in any official capacity was “… by presidential proclamation of Jefferson Davis on February 14, 1862.”
[Update: Ahh, but unofficially “Arizona” was in use and commonplace, and perhaps most interesting, was related to a discovery of a large silver deposit.
While the list of twentieth century scholars and writers who have called the place Arizonac is impressive, their numbers and significance pale in comparison to those who lived and worked there two hundred years earlier and did not call it that.
The majority of documents that mention Arizona were written in 1736 and 1751-52.
This is because the famous silver discovery and the Pima uprising both centered very near it. Otherwise, it was and is so insignificant that hardly anyone would have heard of it.
Locals who wrote about it during the disturbances of 1736 (Father Campos’ removal from the Pimería Alta in the spring and the rush to the site of the silver discovery in the fall) and universally called it Arizona…
Arizona; as we know it, would have been called “Sand Hills”. Which means that if Joseph did know about it; he was referencing Moroni stopping by a 17th century silver find. If Joseph did know, he may have thought Moroni was leaving silver and gold for people to find [End update, thanks to /u/WillyPete for pointing this out]
That’s 20 years after Joseph Smith died.
[Unless the updated portion impacts Joseph’s knowledge ] The anachronism of “Arizona” pretty much proves that this map is a forgery. But it is a historical forgery, clearly created by mormons to support the official line (that the Saints were to go to the Salt Lake Valley, and that the Nephites were in Central America) sometime after 1862.
So here you have a map, used by the church 100+ years later to support their beliefs, that proves that Joseph was a fraud if the map is genuine. But that map may actually be a forgery by faithful Saints trying to support the beliefs of the day (i.e. Brigham led the Saints to where Joseph said he would, and Nephite lands were broader than just around the Great Lakes).
Someone thought that faking data to support the church’s current beliefs was beneficial and worthwhile, but while doing so included the kinderhook forgeries and it has led to a continuation of bad research and conclusions ever since. [Or the map is real and shows Joseph’s disposition towards silver and Gold] and really does include the Kinderhook forgeries as believed by Joseph; calling into question everything he ever claimed about the Nephites]
That little twisted knot of history fascinates me… and that is why I continue to do the research that I do.