467. The Hill Cumorah Pageant, this week in New York. I was privileged to be in it in 1955, just before I was married.
I was privileged to be in the Hill Cumorah Pageant in 1955, just before I was married. I had gone to BYU the winter before, and had been writing to Wayne in the army. I signed up during the winter to go with the group from BYU to be among the group scenes. We were joined by the missionaries who were then in the Rochester, New York, mission. We spent one week on a bus driving back there, two weeks there, and one week driving back home. We didn't fly at that time, as people do now.
While there for 2 weeks, we learned missionary lessons so we could go among the crowds who came to the Pageant and talk as missionaries. I was in a group that stayed at the Joseph Smith Farm Home. The night before we left on June 28th, Wayne proposed to me, and gave me a diamond ring. He had come home from the army on July 4th, and we had been writing for 14 months and become quite well acquainted through letters. During the 3 weeks after he came home, and before I left to go be in the Hill Cumorah Pageant, we were together sometime every day but 2. The Pageant was not as elaborate then as it is now.
I was quite surprised to be engaged, but knew it was the right thing. So as we rode on the bus back to New York, I was known as the girl "who just got engaged!" Then Wayne wrote to me almost every day, and letters were handed out during lunch time, when we ate a boxed lunch. I probably got more mail than anyone! After we got home, Wayne had been planning to go to college, so we decided to get married in a month and 2 days, as he would go to Dixie College in St. George. I think of how difficult it must have been for my mother to help quickly put together a wedding during the beginning of a school year, as she was a teacher. That was 60 years ago.
Ten years ago this summer we went on a Church History tour for our 50th Wedding Anniversary. We saw the Pageant then, along with many wonderful Church History sites.
---------------I wrote the following after we went there in 2005:
When I went there in 1955, on the west side of the Hill Cumorah, near the top, was a printed sign, something like,“It was near this area that Joseph Smith found the Gold Plates.” It isn’t there now. But the Hill Cumorah is quite high,and 2 or 3 miles long, and was covered with trees during that time. We rode the bus to the top of the Hill Cumorah, and took several pictures.
That night, the Pageant was truly inspiring and wonderful. It tells of the stories in the Book of Mormon, Nephi, etc., and the coming of Savior to them, and culminates with the Prophet Joseph receiving and translating the plates. Joseph Smith once said something like, “I don’t blame people for not believing me. I wouldn’t believe it myself if it hadn’t happened to me.” What a
wonderful man! We all have heard the stories of the persecution Joseph received from the minute he told others of his vision.
We read much of the history during those days, and about the organizing of the Church. It was interesting to me that within a year after the Church was organized in 1830, he and most of his friends and followers had moved west. The growth of the Church in upper New York had been steady, but slow, and persecutions greatly hindered the Saints’ progress. On January 2, 1831, in the third general conference of the Church in Fayette, the Lord gave, through Joseph, the revelation that the Saints were to move to Ohio.
In January Joseph Knight provided a sleigh for Joseph and Emma, who was six months pregnant, to make the 300-mile journey. At that time, Kirtland, Ohio, had a population of about 1,000. The center for the area was the Gilbert and Whitney General Store, where Joseph entered, and extended his hand to
one of the owners, and exclaimed, “Newel K. Whitney! Thou art the man!” He said “You have the advantage of me, I could not call you by name, as you have me.” “I am Joseph, the Prophet. You’ve prayed me here, now what do you want of me? “ Newel and his wife were already members, and while in New York, Joseph had seen a vision in which Newel and his wife prayed for him to come to Kirtland.
Right now, this week, the Hill Cumorah Pageant is being played at the Hill Cumorah in New York!
The Hill Cumorah as it probably was in 1800's. Taken in 1910.
I was quite surprised to be engaged, but knew it was the right thing. So as we rode on the bus back to New York, I was known as the girl "who just got engaged!" Then Wayne wrote to me almost every day, and letters were handed out during lunch time, when we ate a boxed lunch. I probably got more mail than anyone! After we got home, Wayne had been planning to go to college, so we decided to get married in a month and 2 days, as he would go to Dixie College in St. George. I think of how difficult it must have been for my mother to help quickly put together a wedding during the beginning of a school year, as she was a teacher. That was 60 years ago.
A scene from the Pageant, in the past -- from Google.
Ten years ago this summer we went on a Church History tour for our 50th Wedding Anniversary. We saw the Pageant then, along with many wonderful Church History sites.
---------------I wrote the following after we went there in 2005:
When I went there in 1955, on the west side of the Hill Cumorah, near the top, was a printed sign, something like,“It was near this area that Joseph Smith found the Gold Plates.” It isn’t there now. But the Hill Cumorah is quite high,and 2 or 3 miles long, and was covered with trees during that time. We rode the bus to the top of the Hill Cumorah, and took several pictures.
That night, the Pageant was truly inspiring and wonderful. It tells of the stories in the Book of Mormon, Nephi, etc., and the coming of Savior to them, and culminates with the Prophet Joseph receiving and translating the plates. Joseph Smith once said something like, “I don’t blame people for not believing me. I wouldn’t believe it myself if it hadn’t happened to me.” What a
wonderful man! We all have heard the stories of the persecution Joseph received from the minute he told others of his vision.
We read much of the history during those days, and about the organizing of the Church. It was interesting to me that within a year after the Church was organized in 1830, he and most of his friends and followers had moved west. The growth of the Church in upper New York had been steady, but slow, and persecutions greatly hindered the Saints’ progress. On January 2, 1831, in the third general conference of the Church in Fayette, the Lord gave, through Joseph, the revelation that the Saints were to move to Ohio.
In January Joseph Knight provided a sleigh for Joseph and Emma, who was six months pregnant, to make the 300-mile journey. At that time, Kirtland, Ohio, had a population of about 1,000. The center for the area was the Gilbert and Whitney General Store, where Joseph entered, and extended his hand to
one of the owners, and exclaimed, “Newel K. Whitney! Thou art the man!” He said “You have the advantage of me, I could not call you by name, as you have me.” “I am Joseph, the Prophet. You’ve prayed me here, now what do you want of me? “ Newel and his wife were already members, and while in New York, Joseph had seen a vision in which Newel and his wife prayed for him to come to Kirtland.
The Hill Cumorah, showing the many chairs set up ready for the Pageant which takes place on the hill above.
Another scene, from the past productions.
Often a family will go and be in the Pageant together.
An Inside Peek at the Biggest Church Pageant in the World
The last glow of daylight disappears as hundreds of costumed Latter-day Saints of all ages excitedly line the aisles of a temporary seating area at the base of New York’s Hill Cumorah. With an opening blast from the trumpets, everyone is cued into action. And the thrill of those several hundred people rushing onto a massive stage on the hill gives you more goosebumps than the chilly night air. Welcome to the Hill Cumorah Pageant.
Photo courtesy of Robert Knight
When missionaries from the Eastern States Mission organized an annual “Cumorah Conference” Pioneer Day celebration at the Joseph Smith Farm in the 1920s, they had no idea that their small production would one day become the largest, longest-running Church pageant in the world. Since that modest celebration, the Hill Cumorah Pageant has expanded to a 700+ person cast, a 14,000-foot stage, and thousands of audience members each night—an experience that participants remember as one of the best of their lives.
A Family Affair
Every July, the pageant draws huge crowds. But audience members aren’t the only ones who return annually for this incredible spiritual experience. A few families have become familiar faces in the cast over the years. One of these pageant veterans is Sister Marcia Slichta. Slichta has been a member of the pageant cast 10 times since the age of 16. She recalls her most recent experience in 2014 as one of the sweetest, though, since she was blessed to bring her four children with her. “It was so amazing to go as a mom and watch my children have the same fun and spiritual experience that I had as a teenager,” she says.
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