Cooper Shop

Located to the northwest of the Joseph and Lucy Smith Farm Home, the Cooper Shop was one of the places where Joseph Smith, Jr., hid the golden plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated. Shortly after Joseph obtained the plates, several of the Smith Family’s neighbors came to the Smith Home looking for the plates.As the threats that the plates would be stolen intensified, Joseph wrapped them in cloth and hid them in the loft above the shop. He then took the empty box they had been stored in and placed it under the floorboards. A mob came that night and ransacked the Cooper Shop. They found the empty box under the floorboards, but did not check the loft where the plates remained safely hidden.

Joseph Smith Sr.’s father, Asael, taught him the trade of coopering (barrel making) and Joseph, Sr., passed the skill down to his son Hyrum. In a shop similar to this, Both Joseph Sr. and Hyrum made and repaired barrels, baskets, and light furniture both for their own use and to sell to others . While the original Cooper Shop location is unknown this reproduction of a cooper shop is accurate to the period when the Smith Family lived here.


Learn more about Joseph Smith’s efforts to hide the plates from potential thieves in Saints Volume 1, Chapter 5.

What to Expect

The Cooper Shop is part of the guided tour given by missionaries of the homes on the Smith family, which also includes Joseph Smith’s Boyhood Home and the Smith Farm Home.