I read that an angel presented a golden Birch tree to the Island chief, 'Big Tail'. It was encrypted with gnaw marks...pointing to the 'Great Salamandor'. Seriously, I haven't heard anything about Joeseph Smiths visions of this salamander and it's insight, since it was discovered in his writings 15+ years ago.[perhaps this should be asked as a question]

After the death of Joseph Smith, there were a number of people who presented claims to being his rightful successor as leader of the Church. One of these was a relatively recent convert by the name of James Strang. He presented a letter that he claimed had been written by Joseph Smith appointing him to be the next president of the church. He also claimed that an angle had ordained him to that position at the time of Joseph's death. Through these claims he was able to draw a small portion of the Latter-day Saints off and led them to Voree, Michigan, where he had been appointed to set up an LDS community. However, because or the high price of land there, he moved his followers to Beaver Island where he eventually had himself crowned King of the Mormon Church. As a result of tensions between Strang's followers and their neighbors, Strang was eventually assassinated and his followers forced from Beaver Island. Note, the religion that James Strang founded does still exist and they do call themselves The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but they are not the same group that eventually followed Brigham Young to Utah. These people broke away from the main body of the Church right after Joseph Smith's assassination. Some of Strang's early followers did eventually return to the group that went to Utah, some joined other splinter groups, and some did remain faithful to Strang's teaching. However, despite the fact that both churches use the same name, they are not the same Church. The followers of Strang are sometimes referred to as Strangites to distinguish them from us and they sometimes refer to us as Brighamites. If you want to know more, you might try doing a search for James Strang and/or Strangites.