Mark Hofmann & the Forging of New Mormon History

By L. Hannah Stoddard and James F. Stoddard

A faithful retelling of the Hofmann forgeries, and their impact on the progressive rewriting of Latter-Day Saint history. Why did New Mormon Historians insist Hofmann's forgeries were legitimate, even when investigators provided convincing evidence

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joseph Smith Foundation
• Release date: Sep 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781637523469

L. Hannah Stoddard

L. Hannah Stoddard is the lead author of Faith Crisis, Volume 1: We Were NOT Betrayed!, Faith Crisis, Volume 2: Behind Closed Doors, Joseph Smith's Plural Wives, Volume 1: Helen Mar Kimball, Seer Stone v. Urim & Thummim: Book of Mormon Translation on Trial, and A Christ-Centered Home. She is the director of the Joseph Smith Foundation and the producer or director of seven documentary feature films.In addition to directing Joseph Smith Foundation projects for over a decade, she is often invited to speak on various radio and video programs. Beginning at age 16, Hannah helped direct her first documentary film. She has worked as a history and literature teacher, graphic design artist, software developer, videographer, project manager, agriculturist, and research assistant. Her work focuses on Church history and doctrine, answers to Latter-day Saint faith crisis questions, educational philosophy, culture, and defending the Prophet Joseph Smith. Hannah's research supports the writings and teachings of ancient and latter-day prophets.

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Mark Hofmann & the Forging of New Mormon History

The following 6 chapters are an excerpt from the book, Faith Crisis, Volume 1: We Were Not Betrayed! If you are interested in the full title, exploring the progressive and traditionalist battle over Latter-day Saint history, the legacy of Leonard Arrington, and answers to faith crisis questions, please visit www.JosephSmithFoundation.org.

Joseph Smith Foundation®

Joseph Smith Foundation is an organization focused on supporting and contributing to projects founded in the words of Jesus Christ. Those contributing to Joseph Smith Foundation projects are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the foundation is not sponsored by the Church. Joseph Smith Foundation projects include documentary films, Latter-day Answers, ZionTube, InspiraWiki, FAQs, Papers, Audio, Ebooks and much more.

www.JosephSmithFoundation.org

Copyright © 2020 by L. Hannah Stoddard.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the authors or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of any license permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.

Published by:

Joseph Smith Foundation®

Salem, UT, USA

Cover Design: Leah M. Stoddard

Thanks & Contribution: Jim F. & Margaret J. Stoddard, Russell H. & Heidi S. Barlow, Cameron & Kimberly W. Smith, Julie A. & Natalie Smith, Benjamin J. & Posey E. Cowart

L. Hannah Stoddard

James F. Stoddard III

Leah M. Stoddard — Editor

Kimberly W. Smith — Senior Researcher

Russell H. Barlow — Editor

Jill Limburg Korajac — Editor

Margaret J. Stoddard — Editor, Researcher

Threesa L. Cummings — Researcher

Isaiah M. Stoddard — Layout Editor

Emily Dayley — Researcher

Rebecca Connolly — Researcher

Ephraim J. Stoddard — Assistant Editor

Luke William Mulder — Assistant Editor

Benjamin G. Mulder — Assistant Editor

Mark Cochran — Assistant Editor

Lloyd E. Ward — Assistant Editor

Joseph Smith Foundation®

To Joseph Smith, the father of Latter-day Saint traditionalism

Contents

Chapter 1: Hofmann & the Forging of the New Mormon History

Chapter 2: Trusting in Experts or Revelation? Joseph III Blessing & Anthon Transcript

Chapter 3: Indolent Treasure Digger — The Josiah Stowell Letter

Chapter 4: Magical Worldview — The Salamander Letter

Chapter 5: Victims — Murders, Historians & Police Investigation

Chapter 6: Is Our Dominant Narrative True?

Authors

Joseph Smith Foundation

Raising the Bar

Chapter 1: Hofmann & the Forging of the New Mormon History

It was a cold Wednesday morning, January 18, 1984, when Ronald W. Walker, historian, author, and professor at Brigham Young University, approached the home of his supervisor, thoroughly unaware of the shocking blow that awaited him. Inside, Leonard J. Arrington, Walker’s supervisor, held a copy of an explosive, unsettling, alleged 19th-century document—a document that would forever change Latter-day Saint history. It would come to be known as the ‘Salamander Letter.’ Ron Walker would record in his journal later that night:

At face value, it [the Salamander Letter] is explosive. It is a letter from Martin Harris to W. W. Phelps, [written in] 1830, describing the early origins of the Church in spiritualistic¹ or cabalistic² terms. It confirms several other documents that have been recently found, indicating the treasure-hunting activity of Joseph Smith prior to the organization of the Church. These finds will require a re-examination and rewriting of our origins.³

The discovery perplexed Walker and many other Latter-day Saint historians. For over a century-and-a-half, anti-Mormons had accused Joseph Smith of dabbling in magic or participating in treasure digging during his formative years. The Smith family, Church leaders, and faithful historians persistently confronted these accusations, recognizing them as vile slander with no foundation of truth.⁴ Did the Prophet Joseph Smith not state in his own official history that evil-disposed and designing persons⁵ would malign his character and the character of the Church?

And yet, Latter-day Saint historians remained divided; now a primary source document had surfaced that appeared to have originated from the hand of an eyewitness favorable to Joseph Smith, and not from an enemy. This eyewitness’s account appeared to confirm Joseph’s alleged magical and self-serving practices.

On January 6, 1984, Mark Hofmann sold the Salamander Letter to Steven F. Christensen, a wealthy Latter-day Saint document collector. Hofmann, a ‘married-in-the-temple,’ returned-missionary member of the Church had, in the past, sold many Mormon history⁶ documents to the Church. However, when he approached President Gordon B. Hinckley with the Salamander Letter, Hinckley declined, asserting the price was too high. A few weeks later, Hofmann sold the document to Steven Christensen, for $40,000.⁷

In an instant, Hofmann’s discovery shattered the very foundations of traditional Latter-day Saint history. According to the Salamander Letter, Martin Harris—one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, told W. W. Phelps in 1830 that the older Smith [Joseph Smith Sr.] . . . says Joseph can see any thing he wishes by looking at a stone Joseph often sees Spirits here with great kettles of coin money.⁸ Since the early days of the Church, many of its leaders have denied allegations that Joseph Smith, as a youth and young adult, had a career in treasure digging while using peep stones.⁹ However, during the 20th century, many progressive Latter-day Saint historians and researchers began insisting that the Church had ignored historical sources—even covering up inconvenient facts—and that our history needed to be rewritten.¹⁰

The progressive movement claimed—even demanded—that the traditional story was a lie, or at least, less than the complete truth. Traditionalist historians disagreed, affirming that the dominant history was essentially true, and they encouraged those in scholarly research to press on with faith. The battle intensified to the point that President Spencer W. Kimball, along with other leaders including President Gordon B. Hinckley, quietly and discreetly removed the Church Historian and Director of the History Division, Leonard Arrington, from his post in the early 1980s. The History Division was closed. Some mourned Arrington’s departure as an exile, an attempt to subdue the progressive voice. In the midst of this war over our faith’s history, the Salamander Letter appeared to offer support for the progressive new narrative.

Salamander: Progressive vs. Traditionalist History

While the traditional history of the Church portrays Joseph Smith obtaining the Nephite plates from the Angel Moroni and then translating them using the Jaredite-Nephite Urim & Thummim,¹¹ the Salamander Letter claimed that Joseph did not translate—but instead dictated the Book of Mormon using some giant silver spectacles [found] with the plates he puts them in an old hat & in the darkness reads the words & in this way it is all translated & written down.

While the dominant narrative of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints maintained that Joseph discovered the Nephite plates after being visited by Moroni—an ancient American prophet sent by the Lord—the Salamander Letter described Joseph meeting a spirit [who] transfigured himself from a white salamander.

In the magical worldview, some considered salamanders an amulet against Satan and evil spirits.¹² Furthermore, a New York newspaper, published in 1821 near where the Smiths made their home, recorded a Swedish mystic as being surrounded by hideous reptiles who were replaced by a man. Mexican Indians reportedly held that lizards could assist men in uncovering lost treasure, and German magical lore tells of treasure guardians and spirits who appear as lizards. Progressive historian, D. Michael Quinn, documented: The belief that fiery salamander spirits could communicate with humans is at least as old as the Middle Ages . . . and seems to have intensified during the generation of Joseph Smith, Sr., and his sons.¹³

Now, the copy of the Salamander Letter that Leonard Arrington placed in Ron Walker’s hands that cold January morning redefined the discovery of the Nephite plates as an occultic experience—a magical encounter Joseph must have experienced multiple times before—presumably while treasure digging and participating in ritual magic:

I [Joseph Smith] found it [the plates] 4 years ago with my stone [peep stone] but only just got it because of the enchantment the old spirit come [sic] to me 3 times in the same dream & says dig up the gold but when I take it up the next morning the spirit transfigured himself from a white salamander in the bottom of the hole & struck me 3 times & held the treasure & would not let me have it because I lay it down to cover over the hole when the spirit says do not lay it down¹⁴

The Salamander Letter connected not only the coming forth of the Book of Mormon with magic, but its ‘discovery’ appeared to corroborate statements made by antagonists and enemies of the Prophet Joseph Smith during early Mormonism.

Rewriting Latter-day Saint History

In 1984 many Latter-day Saint historians scurried to write a new history. Some who had maintained a traditionalist perspective, that Joseph Smith was not a treasure digger and had never dabbled in the occult, now bowed in humiliating surrender. No longer was it a question as to whether the Prophet Joseph had involved himself in occultic activities, treasure digging, and magic—but only to what degree. And for Ron Walker, his question was no longer if Joseph and his family participated in the cunning arts, but the degree and meaning of their activity.¹⁵ Some members clung resolutely to the traditional story, while others insisted that it was time to face the music. In the name of scholarship and ‘new sources,’ the progressive narrative took the reins and forced the traditionalist narrative into the back seat. Faced with what appeared to represent a viable history—and with the world looking on—many historians chose to introduce into their writings and publications a new Joseph Smith: a treasure-hunting, magic-dabbling, Palmyra village seer. Ron Walker commented:

While first holding the Harris letter in my hands in Mr. Christensen’s office, I sensed such a detailed study would be required. . . . I believed it would require all the old Joseph Smith sources to be re-read. New sources, I thought, should be searched for. Perhaps innovative methods of analysis would be required.¹⁶

Ron Walker explained that, in his opinion, Joseph Smith’s evolution to become a prophet involved a transformation from his occultic, self-serving past, into an honorable Christian prophet:

With Providence’s intervention, he [Joseph Smith] transformed himself from Joseph, the Palmyra Seer, who likely understood his early religious experiences in