PALMYRA, N.Y. -- The Wayne County town of Palmyra is the birthplace of one of the fastest growing Christian denominations: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
“We have about 100,000 site visits a year," said Elder David Ostler. “There’s a group we saw from Ontario, yesterday I saw a group from China, and earlier this week there was a group from Guatemala.”
Visitors take in the Joseph Smith log home. It sits on the 100 acre Joseph Smith Farm, where the founder of the Mormon religion, Joseph Smith Jr. lived as a teenager. The home has been restored to look as it did back then.
“The interior of this really gives you a glimpse of what life was like in 1820."
The two-level log cabin also represents to members of the Mormon faith the beginning of a church that now has 15 million members and 20,000 congregations in more than 150 different countries.
The home is one stop on the self-guided tour, but perhaps one of the most peaceful stops is the Sacred Grove.
“This grove is very much the way it would have looked back during Joseph Smith ‘s time. Some of the trees would be that old.”
There’s about a two mile path where you can walk to take it all in. The family farm is open to visitors free of charge Monday through Friday from 9 to dusk and on Saturdays from 12:30 to dusk.
"People just come out to the Sacred Grove and follow the paths and have their own experience. It’s a great place for people to meditate, even just to feel nature, but it’s often a place people can feel a connection with God. Whether they're members of our church or not they can come out here to pray, ponder.”
Just three miles from the grove and Joseph Smith’s boyhood home is another stop on this historic tour, the Hill Cumorah.
“It was upstairs Moroni told Joseph that nearby, and we call it Hill Cumorah, that he would find golden plates that he could translate into modern-day scripture which became known as the Book of Mormon.”
It’s also site of the Hill Cumorah Pageant, a stage play and musical with over 700 volunteers that act out scenes from the Book of Mormon. The pageant is held every July and attracts thousands.