SHARON, VT.
The bus loads of visitors have dwindled to a handful, but the witness of the Prophet is as vibrant as the fall colors surrounding the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial here.
Prominent at the more than 300-acre site is the polished shaft of Vermont granite, 38 1/2 feet tall, each foot signifying one year of the Prophet Joseph Smith's life. It was dedicated on Dec. 23, 1905, the 100th anniversary of his birth, by President Joseph F. Smith. (A special commemoration featuring President Gordon B. Hinckley was broadcast from the visitors center on the same date in 2005.)
Just a few yards away is a stone marking the doorstep of the log cabin on the Solomon Mack Farm where Joseph Smith was born to Lucy Mack and Joseph Smith Sr., on Dec. 23, 1805. That same doorstep was later the back step of the first visitors center that stood here until 1955. A replica of the cabin's fireplace stands just down the hill in the visitors center built in 1960.
Elder Gary McKinnon and Sister Linda McKinnon are directors of the center, which during the summer months operates with four senior couples to handle the many tour groups and families on vacation. But during the fall, when other full-time Church service missionaries pull out summer blooms and replace them with equally colorful pansies and chrysanthemums to beautify the grounds, the McKinnons are joined by only one other couple at the visitors center.
During a guided tour of the visitors center, Elder McKinnon emphasized that although the Prophet spent only the first 10 years of his life here, "they were impressionable years, when he was taught the basics that would lead him to seek truth and restore the gospel."
Around the capstone of the monument are inscribed the words of James 1:5, which led the 14-year-old Joseph Smith to seek answers through prayer in the Sacred Grove. The south side of the monument base is inscribed, "Sacred to the memory of Joseph Smith the Prophet. Born here 23d December 1805, martyred, Carthage, Illinois, 27th June 1844." The north side highlights some of the accomplishments of Joseph Smith, including translating the Book of Mormon and organizing the Church.
A room at the visitors center features Dee Jay Bawden's full-size bronze statue of Joseph Smith, surrounded by portraits of Church leaders from Brigham Young to Thomas S. Monson, who bear testimony that the baby born on this site more than 200 years ago later restored the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The missionaries serving at the Joseph Smith Memorial Birthplace add their own testimonies. Elder McKinnon said, "The opportunity to bear testimony every day that Joseph Smith is the Prophet of the Restoration and that the gospel has been restored" is the best thing about serving here. During the "slow time" in January, after drive-through visitors who come to see the Christmas lights stop coming and the snow is piled high, the McKinnons said, they enjoy having time to read and study about Joseph Smith.
This year saw nearly 43,000 visitors to the site, 15,000 of whom took the "tour" — a presentation in the visitors center by one of the missionaries, focusing on the historical background of the Smith family as well as Joseph Smith's role as a prophet. The majority who visited were Latter-day Saints, but a good number — 1,700 — were not members of the Church. And though tourists are fewer in the fall, the occasional bus load of "leaf peepers" stops by.
Many locals enjoy hiking in the wooded area surrounding the visitors center and monument; it's a popular site for the sport of geocaching. Visitors are welcome to walk down the half-mile-long lane through the woods to see excavated foundations of the original Solomon Mack home or hike up to Patriarch Mountain — the tallest peak around — for a view into New Hampshire.
Although the visitors center has "hours," said Sister McKinnon, "we're here to accommodate the schedules of our guests," including activities such as seminary student groups, when a film will be shown in the McKinnons' spacious living room. "It's important that everybody feels really good when they leave here," she said.
Gazing at the monument against a blue sky as colorful leaves float to the ground in a fall breeze, there's a sense that the words of President Joseph F. Smith's dedicatory prayer in 1905 is being fulfilled: "May it be surrounded by the influence of the spirit of peace, and remain a joy to thy people who may behold it, and a silent witness for thee to all who look upon it."
