PALMYRA, N.Y. — The new visitors center at the Hill Cumorah in New York was dedicated July 1 by President Gordon B. Hinckley, just in time for the beginning on Friday, July 5, of the annual "America's Witness for Christ" pageant.
President Hinckley, accompanied by his wife, Marjorie, came directly from Nauvoo, Ill., to dedicate the new center. Some 110 specially invited guests — all who could fit in the building's auditorium — attended the ceremony.
Despite addressing 13 dedicatory sessions at the Nauvoo Illinois Temple in four days, he was was vigorous as he arrived, waving to a crowd of Hill Cumorah pageant cast members lined up to greet him.
Elder Richard S. Fox, director of historic sites here, conducted the dedicatory meeting and commented that President Hinckley had been involved in planning the center. His fingerprints were in evidence in every phase of construction, said Elder Fox.
President Hinckley replied, "You better clean them up!"
In remarks at the dedication, President Hinckley said, "We are here to dedicate this facility," and noted that he had been here many times, the first some 67 years ago as he returned from his mission, "on my homeward journey." He related how he and four other weary missionaries hitched a ride with a reporter to the Hill Cumorah. They arrived just in time for the dedication and unveiling of the statue of the Angel Moroni that stands atop the hill.
"I was here when the shroud was dropped from the statue of the Angel Moroni," he said. He recalled another historic occasion when the first pageant was presented, and trumpeters standing on the hillside played a number they called "The Nephite Lamentation."
The pageant "has grown over the years to become a great and beautiful thing," he said. "I have been here many times and was always intrigued and fascinated with the significance of the wonderful things that occurred here.
"There is nothing like it anywhere else in the history of the world, really, when all is said and done, to reflect on the fact that the Father and the Son appeared to the boy Joseph and spoke to him. The curtains were parted after centuries of darkness to open a new dispensation, the dispensation of the fulness of times when all of the previous dispensations should be gathered together in one."
It was here where Moroni appeared, and here where the boy came four years in a row to see the set of plates.
"A set of plates, engravings on sheets of gold which should bring the world another witness of the divinity, and the reality, and the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Joseph Smith learned more concerning the nature of God in the initial visit in the grove that all the learned divines arguing though all of the centuries ever really had a knowledge of. Then to have this marvelous new testament . . . speaking as with one voice in the witness and testimony of the Son of God, the Redeemer of mankind. What a glorious and wonderful thing took place here, right here at this hill. I am . . . glad to be back and walk this ground where Moroni walked so very, very long ago."
President Hinckley bore his testimony and concluded, "May we be true and faithful to the great trust which has been given us as witnesses of these things, ever standing ready to declare, and unashamed of the knowledge which we have."
In his dedicatory prayer, he petitioned that "Thy Spirit may dwell here and that it may touch the hearts and lives of those who come here, that as they walk through these halls there may grow in their hearts an increased appreciation for the marvelous events that took place in this area, the literal restoration of the gospel, the opening of a new dispensation, the great and final dispensation when the stone which was cut out of the mountains without hands, as Daniel foresaw, should roll forth to fill the whole earth."
— Elder W. Boyd Jensen
