The E. B. Grandin Building

As I said, the first stop on our trip was the Grandin Building.

It cost the church $3000 to print 5000 copies of the Book of Mormon.

Martin Harris mortgaged about 160 acres of his 320 acre farm to help pay for it.

This was quite an undertaking that took about 8 months to complete.

Every single letter in the entire Book of Mormon had to be individually placed in the type setter upside down and backwards.

The printer could print 16 pages of type at a time on one huge sheet that they then folded until it made a small booklet.

After all the booklets were glued together, and pressed flat they would shear off the edges so you could actually turn the pages.

One part of the job that took longer and made it more expensive was that all 5000 copies were bound in sheepskin, so they would last longer and be a better companion to the bible, as all bibles were bound in leather at the time.

CJ was the photographer for these pictures, and had to ask our guide, Sister Lyman to hold the book up again so he could get the picture.

This is the orginal copy that the church has on display. I couldn't use a flash on it, and the shutter takes longer without a flash, so it's a little fuzzy.

One of these original copies sold at auction not long ago for about $190,000.

There is one copy at the library at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA that you can actually hold and look through.

The Main Street in Palmyra was pretty cool too. There is a great candy and fudge shop 2 doors down from the Grandin Building. A place called Mark's Pizzaria across the street that had fabulous pizza, and a few book stores.

All in addition to the anti-mormons who stood on the sidewalk wearing t-shirts that said "Repent" and "You are not a God in embryo".

It was a fun experience all around.