Is there an account of Joseph Smith taking part in treasure hunting?
Joseph Smith and his father were hired by a man named Josiah Stoal as a laborer in Stoal’s search for hidden treasure. At the time, there were numerous legends of pirate treasure having been hidden in the region. Stoal, having heard of Joseph’s prophetic claims, hoped that Joseph would be able to find some of this treasure. Instead, Joseph eventually convinced Stoal to quit wasting his money on this fruitless search. Joseph’s enemies have used this incident in his life to try to portray Joseph as nothing more than a greedy treasure seeker. Had that been the case, Joseph would have kept egging Stoal on and milked him for all that he could. (His family sure could have used the money at the time.) The fact the Stoal became one of Joseph’s early followers shows that he did not think that Joseph had defrauded him.
