Good question. Such fragments would be of indeterminate value to the LDS church.

I think the question posed is acutally a good question which hasn't gotten a satisfactory response from anyone. Where is the box that contained the plates? The LDS church has invested significant effort and money over the years on acheological support but I have never seen anything to indicate that the box that Moroni placed the plates in has been identified. Bob, all Spaulding theories aside, do you know the answer to the question asked?

Maybe it is sitting next to the Ark of the Covenant...

This question is so facinating. Where is the box? Bob Blaylock speculates that maybe the angel Moroni took the box. I've done a bit of research through FARMS on this subject and find nothing to support where the box is or might be and certainly nothing to support Bob's speculation. However regarding archaeology and the Hill Cumorah (supposed site of the box) I did find a FARMS article Archaeology & Cumorah Questions. In the article (referencing so Blaylocks don't ding me) recorded in Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Volume 13, Number 1-2, 2004, page 151, it is reported that "In accord with these general observations about New York and Pennsylvania, we come to our principal object—the Hill Cumorah. Archaeologically speaking, it is a clean hill. No artifacts, no walls, no trenches, no arrowheads. The area immediately surrounding the hill is similarly clean. Pre-Columbian people did not settle or build here. This is not the place of Mormon’s last stand. We must look elsewhere for that hill. The Palmyra hill is still a sacred place and was the repository of the golden plates and other relics placed there by Moroni. How Moroni made his way to this place and constructed his time capsule of artifacts is a historic adventure for another time." So, it seems that Bob is right, NO ONE KNOWS!! Wow.

i believe the "legend" goes that is disappeared with the plates about the time that he was asked to show someone to prove their existance

According to offical LDS church history, Joseph Smith left the stone box where he found it, in the hill Cumorah.

I am going to get negative points I'm sure :( but my opinion is, None of it ever happened so there is no box to be found.

Lost in his imagination.

well you know he had to wait 3 or 4 years till he was allowed to take them....and then he probably had to use them to pay for all wives he had to feed.....

I think that there was a South Park episode that described this story to the tee....season 5 or 6

I can see where naïve and uneducated people can fall into this whole Joseph Smith and Mormon cult sect trap. But it is hard for me to believe that Intelligent, educated people actually fall for it to. I am unable to follow today’s LDS teachings when its foundation (Joseph Smith story) is so flaky and easily seen as nothing but a big fat lie. It is no wonder that present LDS leaders don’t want to bring up JS and the past. That the Mormon faith has grown to its present size with so many intelligent people really bewilders me to no end. I put it right along side Islam, Scientology and other religions that make no sense whatsoever after a little research of its foundation or beginning. Somebody please explain it to me. Thanks Jannes

This is like asking "Where is the Ark of the covenant?" or "Where are the tablets the 10 Commandments were written on?". Yeah I know, they are in the Ark.... I'm not Mormon but there are a lot of religious artifacts whose existence cannot be proven. Let's at least be fair.

Sorry I'm getting used to this site...the answer to your question Joseph Smith claims he gave the plates back to Moroni an angle that visited him.

"I will now give you a description of the manner in which the Book of Mormon was translated. Joseph would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing.... Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man." (An Address To All Believers In Christ, by David Whitmer, Richmond, Missouri, 1887, p. 12)

People have answered that they don't know where the golden plates are, because there is no evidence that can back it up. Therefore, there was no such thing as the Golden Plates, which is why the Mormon Church is a false religion.

They are all together in Joesephs mind as he sits along side Satan drinking coffee and laughing at you all.

it's like the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail, no one knows where exactly it is, in fact there was a sealed portion of the book the Joseph Smith couldn't open and we will have when we are ready so it will appear again one day.

Jesus has left a message for everyone who seeks for a sign..Matt.12;39.."But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; So I suggest those of you who need some physical proof of Joseph Smith or anything connected with him, be aware, one day you will encounter Jesus Christ himself. Then ask him for a sign, if you dare...whew6

Considering their value to Ur churchs' history (Authority & Legitimacy), it seems to me to be kinda "Lame" the way they have been handled & lost & such. Wasn't much of an Administrator for a "Prophet of God" now was he??? If God or an Angelic Being gave me something, I damned sure wouldn't lose it rather protect it with my Life & Record & Keep Everything about it!!! John

I am not sure why there is such an interest in the Stone Box. Even if we had such a thing, you would then want us to prove that box was the exact same box in question. However we have a quote from Chicago Times in an interview with David Whitmer "David Whitmer, a contemporary resident of the area and early convert to the church, and one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, reported the following many decades later in an interview with a Chicago journalist (this was also decades after Whitmer left the church). He said that on three occasions he had seen the stone box that contained the plates, and that it had been washed down to the bottom of the hill over time, and that the last time he was there it was still visible at the bottom of the hill. That was, of course, a very long time ago, and there is nothing more known about the remnants of the stone box. It is also interesting to note that the Hill Cumorah in New York State was nearly treeless in 1827 (per old photographs) although it is today covered in trees. Once such a box was uncovered from its protective covering, it would not have taken long for rain and weather to erode it from the hill, given the lack of foliage. (Source: Chicago Times Interviews David Whitmer August 1875 S.L. Herald, 12 Aug 1875 in Ebbie Richardson, "David Whitmer," pp.158. "Three times he has been at the Hill Cumorah and seen the casket that contained the tablets and seerstone. Eventually the casket has been washed down to the foot of the hill, but it was to be seen when he last visited the historic place.") I hope this helps...whew4

The official account that I've heard is that it was left in place in the Hill Cumorah as Joseph Smith didn't take it. As the account in the Book of Mormon goes: “Convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario county, New York, stands a hill of considerable size, and the most elevated of any in the neighborhood. On the west side of this hill, not far from the top, under a stone of considerable size, lay the plates, deposited in a stone box. This stone was thick and rounding in the middle on the upper side, and thinner towards the edges, so that the middle part of it was visible above the ground, but the edge all around was covered with earth. “Having removed the earth, I obtained a lever, which I got fixed under the edge of the stone, and with a little exertion raised it up. I looked in, and there indeed did I behold the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate, as stated by the messenger. The box in which they lay was formed by laying stones together in some kind of cement. In the bottom of the box were laid two stones crossways of the box, and on these stones lay the plates and the other things with them. “I made an attempt to take them out, but was forbidden by the messenger, and was again informed that the time for bringing them forth had not yet arrived, neither would it, until four years from that time; but he told me that I should come to that place precisely in one year from that time, and that he would there meet with me, and that I should continue to do so until the time should come for obtaining the plates." http://scriptures.lds.org/bm/jstestimony And while y'all at it could someone please respond to my related question on the Stone Box: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1292103 Thanks all!