April 2, 2025, 8:59am MDT
Latter-day Saints’ Church of Jesus Christ has launched a new website that provides information and resources for those interested in learning about and visiting historic Kirtlands and other historic sites in Ohio.
From 1831 to 1838, the church was headquartered in northeastern Ohio, the United States. Today, the church owns historical sites associated with this era in the towns of Kirtland and Hiram.
Elder David A. Bednar, a quorum of the 12 Apostles, characterizes the Kirtland era as a “amazing and enlightening season” for the church. This spiritual age included the appearance of the Savior and other heavenly messengers, the devotion of the First Temple, the acceptance of most of the doctrine and covenant, and other important events.
The Ohio Historic site website – Churchofjesuschrist.org/learn/history/sites/ohio – is designed to serve as a companion resource for Latter-day Saints studying doctrines and contracts with the “Come, follow Me” curriculum throughout 2025.
This website is the third in a series of new websites created for church history sites in recent months. The historic Nauvoo website (churchofjesuschrist.org/learn/history/sites/sites/historic-nauvoo) was launched in December 2024 and is the second website (churchofjeschrist.org/relearn/history/history/neditorial-daned-ylsylvana), featuring historical sites in New York and Pennsylvania. Each website comes in multiple languages.
The Church, curator of the historical sites in the Church History Department, which helped create the content for the website, hopes to make the historical sites more accessible, whether the website is on-site or online.
Like other websites, the Ohio Historic Sites website offers the following features:
Interactive maps showing the region, historic Kirtlands and other historic locations. Information on the history of Ohio saints and churches. Includes articles on topics such as “The House of the Lord,” “Priest and Power,” and “Doctrine Development.” A webpage explaining where Joseph and Emma Smith lived in Ohio. Includes a recently rebuilt home that was completed and dedicated in 2023. This house recently won an award. An article focusing on the homes of John and Elsa Johnson in Hiram, Ohio. Information and resources on how to plan a visit to Ohio’s historic sites, including forecasts, travel information, all locations, tours, sample itinerary, accessibility and more. Visitors can plan family or group visits.
“We provide more planning content than ever before to help individuals, families and groups prepare them for a richer experience,” Dancy said.
The Church’s History Department provided these resources to help church members better understand the context of doctrine and covenant and strengthen their faith and testimony, according to Marshall Tap, product manager for the Church’s History Department.
Dancy added: “This will help us to have a deeper understanding of how doctrine and covenant revelations are interconnected through physical places, people and themes.”
Additional church historic sites websites have been created and will be released for the remainder of the year, Tap said.
