WI: No Joseph Smith Jr.

What happens if Joseph Smith Sr. and his wife Lucy Smith were childless?

The book of golden plates (presuming they did exist and we're buried near Palmyra, NY) remain buried until unearthed by a farmer later in the century or a developer in the next. While later than in OTL, the breadth and scope of settlement of the Great Salt Lake region will "look" much the same. Perhaps some other religious group looking for "space of their own" will find the region appealing.
 

Zioneer

Banned
The book of golden plates (presuming they did exist and we're buried near Palmyra, NY) remain buried until unearthed by a farmer later in the century or a developer in the next. While later than in OTL, the breadth and scope of settlement of the Great Salt Lake region will "look" much the same. Perhaps some other religious group looking for "space of their own" will find the region appealing.

Well, the area where Joseph Smith lived was known as the "burned over district", so I'm sure another religious movement would've popped up there eventually. You don't even need to get rid of all of the Smith boys (though as a point, the Smith family did have a long history of religious introspection), just don't have Joseph. Or have him be a normal boy.

Presuming the golden plates existed (which I'm flattered that you are giving the benefit of the doubt to in this scenario), a treasure-hunter might have found them (as a side note, Joseph Smith was accused of being a treasure hunter).

The Great Salt Lake area will be a excellent place for any persecuted religion who want an isolated place, though they might find some isolated region in OTL California more appealing.
 
With a proviso that the LDS never come about, could a migration of Jews decide to carve out a homeland around the Great Salt Lake?
 
I thought Joseph Smith knew had to translate the writing on the golden plates with some sort of enchanted goggles or something. Would the plates finders know what they were or what they said? Given that such things were most uncommon given the time or place I could see all sorts of theories and conjectures about just wtf they were.
Imagine some cult arising from these.
 
His cousin David Smith finds the plates and deciphers them with his bedazzled goggles signifying the beginning of the Moreman religion. Modern day Salt Lake is mostly male and very fabulous.
 
Having the gold plates exist but be found by accident by someone else doesn't make any sense. The existence of the gold plates is part of a miracle story. In the universe where the gold plates exist, they are protected by angels and only can be discovered by God's will. So with no Joseph Smith, Jr., either you have no gold plates at all (the secular view) or else someone else would be called as the new prophet to bring them forth (the Mormon view) probably around the same time.
 
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