.

A vision of the sacred engravings and other items, in a depository cave in a hill called Cumorah.

Evidence indicates that after the Book of Mormon plates were translated and given back to Moroni.  They were then put in a depository cave which was filled with many other "sacred engravings”.  (Mormon 1:3)

<<Mormon abridging records. © By Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

"And now I, Mormon, make a record of the things which I have both seen and heard, and call it the Book of Mormon.  And about the time that Ammaron hid up the records unto the Lord, he came unto me... and Ammaron said unto me: I perceive that thou art a sober child, and art quick to observe; Therefore…go to the land Antum, unto a hill which shall be called Shim; and there have I deposited unto the Lord all the sacred engravings concerning this people.

And behold, ye shall take the plates of Nephi unto yourself, and the remainder shall ye leave in the place where they are...."  (Mormon 1:1-4)  About 322 AD

----------------------
 

 

 

 

 

1855

William Horne Dame, 1819-1884, wrote the following in his Diary dated, 14 January 1855.
"Attended meeting a discourse from W. W. Phelps. He related a story told him by Hyrum Smith which was as follows: Joseph, Hyrum, Cowdery & Whitmere went to the hill Cormorah. As they were walking up the hill, a door opened and they walked into a room about 16 ft square. In that room was an angel and a trunk. On that trunk lay a book of Mormon & gold plates, Laban’s sword, Aaron’s brestplate."  (William Horne Dame Diary, 14 January 1855)

----------------------

1856
Heber C. Kimball gave a talk in which he gave information about a vision that "Joseph [Smith] and others had".  This vision gave information to them about a cave in which was stored "all the sacred engravings" or as was seen in this vision, "more records than ten men could carry".  
Heber C. Kimball gave a talk in Salt Lake City in September 28, 1856 In response to a Brother Mills’s statement about the handcart pioneers, Heber C. Kimball said, part of which is as follows:
 “…the vision that Joseph [Smith] and others had, when into a cave in the hill Cumorah, and saw more records than ten men could carry…. There were books piled up on tables, book upon book. …they are events that I heard Joseph speak of, time and time again.   (Journal of Discourses Vol.4, Page 105)

 ----------------------

Brigham Young gave additional information concerning this vision and the cave inside the "Hill Cumorah".

 
 1867 "President [Heber C.] Kimball talked familiarly to the brethren about Father Smith, [Oliver] Cowdery, and others walking into the hill Cumorah and seeing records upon records piled upon table[s,] they walked from cell to cell and saw the records that were piled up...."   (Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 5 May 1867)
 

 1877
Brigham Young stated Brigham Young stated at a special conference held at Farmington in June 17, 1877:
 “Oliver Cowdery went with the Prophet Joseph when he deposited these [Book of Mormon] plates.  When Joseph got the plates, the angel, [Moroni], instructed him, [when his work of translating the plates was done], to carry them back to the hill Cumorah, which he did.  Oliver says that when Joseph and Oliver went there, the hill opened, and they walked into a cave in which there was a large and spacious room.  He says he did not think, at the time, whether they had the light of the sun or artificial light; but that it was just as light as day.  They laid the plates on a table; it was a large table that stood in the room.  Under this table there was a pile of plates as much as two feet high, and there were altogether in this room more plates than probably many wagon loads; they were piled up in the corners and along the walls.  The first time they went there the sword of Laban hung upon the wall… I tell you this as coming not only from Oliver Cowdery, but others who were familiar with it and who understood it just as well as we under- stand coming to this meeting. . . . [Don] Carlos Smith was a young man of as much veracity as any young man we had, and he was a witness to these things. Samuel Smith saw some things, Hyrum saw a good many things, but Joseph was the leader.”   (Journal of Discourses Vol.19, Page 38)

  ----------------------

1869
Wilford Woodruff recorded in his journal, what he had heard Brigham Young say about the cave:
"President Young said in relation to Joseph Smith returning the Plates of the Book of Mormon that He did not return them to the box from [whence] he had Received [them]. But He went [into] a Cave in the Hill Comoro with Oliver Cowdry & deposited those plates upon a table or shelf. In that room were deposited a large amount of gold plates Containing sacred records & when they first visited that Room the sword of Laban was Hanging upon the wall & when they last visited it the sword was drawn from the scabbard and [laid] upon a table and a Messenger who was the keeper of the room informed them that that sword would never be returned to its scabbard until the Kingdom of God was Established upon the Earth & until it reigned triumphant over every Enemy. Joseph Smith said that Cave Contained tons of Choice Treasures & records."  (Wilford Woodruff Journal, 11 December 1869)
 ----------------------
1873
 Elizabeth Kane although not a member of the church, strong in her Presbyterian religion, Elizabeth Kane lived in St. George, Utah. Elizabeth Dennistoun Wood Kane, the wife of Major General Thomas L. Kane, a Pennsylvania hero of the Civil War and benefactor of the Mormons in the mid-1800s.  
Elizabeth Kane recorded a conversation that she had with Brigham Young as follows:
"I asked where the plates were now, and saw in a moment from the expression of the counte- nances around that I had blundered. But I was answered that they were in a cave; that Oliver Cowdery though now an apostate would not deny that he had seen them. He had been to the cave. . . . Brigham Young’s tone was so solemn that I listened bewildered like a child to the evening witch stories of its nurse. . . ."    (Elizabeth Kane Journal, 15 January 1873)
 ----------------------
1874
 Jesse Nathaniel Smith, heard Brigham Young speak in Cedar City, Utah, and recorded the following:
"I heard him [Brigham Young] at an evening meeting in Cedar City describe an apartment in the Hill Cumorah that some of the brethren had been permitted to enter. He said there was great wealth in the room in sacred implements, vestments, arms, precious metals and precious stones, more than a six-mule team could draw."  (Jesse Nathaniel Smith Journal, February 1874)

----------------------
1877
In Edward Stevenson book, 'Reminiscences of Joseph, the Prophet, and the Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon', Edward Stevenson relates an interview with David Whitmer in 1877:
"It was likewise stated to me by David Whitmer in the year 1877 that Oliver Cowdery told him that the Prophet Joseph and himself had seen this room and that it was filled with treasure, and on a table therein were the breastplate and the sword of Laban, as well as the portion of gold plates not yet translated, and that these plates were bound by three small gold rings, and would also be translated, as was the first portion in the days of Joseph. When they are transated much useful information will be brought to light. But till that day arrives, no Rochester adventurers shall ever see them or the treasures, although science and mineral rods testify that they are there."  (Edward Stevenson, Reminiscences of Joseph, the Prophet, 1877)
----------------------
1878
 David Whitmer, in an interview with P. Wilhelm Poulson, David Whitmer gave another account of the cave:
[Poulson]: Where are the plates now?
[Whitmer]: In a cave, where the angel has hid- den them up till the time arrives when the plates, which are sealed, shall be translated. God will yet raise up a mighty one, who shall do his work till it is finished and Jesus comes again.
[Poulson]: Where is that cave?
[Whitmer]: In the State of New York.
[Poulson]: In the Hill of Comorah?
[Whitmer]: No, but not far away from that place.
(Deseret Evening News, August 16, 1878)
----------------------
1882
 Orson Pratt;
"But the grand repository of all the numerous records of the ancient nations of the western continent, was located in another department of the hill, and its contents put under the charge of holy angels, until the day should come for them to be transferred to the sacred temple of Zion."
(Orson Pratt, The Contributor, September 1882)
 
1873  A Discourse by Orson Pratt;
“Will these things be brought to light? Yes. The records, now slumbering in the hill Cumorah, will be brought forth by the power of God, to fulfill the words of our text, that ‘the knowledge of God shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the great deep." “When these plates, now hidden in the hill Cumorah, are brought to light we shall have the history of the Old Testament much more fully, with the addition of a great many prophecies that are not now contained in the record.”  “the prophecies of Joseph in Egypt . . . [and of] Neum, a great Prophet who prophesied concerning Christ; also those of Zenos and Zenock, and others of which only bare reference is given.”   (A discourse delivered by Orson Pratt at the tabernacle in Ogden on May 18, 1873)
----------------------
Summary:
1.  The Prophet Joseph Smith gave the Book of Mormon plates back to Moroni- into a depository "cave".  (Joseph Smith History 1:60)
2.  Oliver Cowdery, Hyrum Smith, (David Whitmere,-?, Don Carlos Smith-?, Samuel Smith-?, "Father Smith" [Joseph Smith Sr.]), were with the Prophet Joseph Smith when he gave back the Book of Mormon plates and saw what was in this cave. 
3.  There were many other "sacred engravings", "a pile of plates as much as two feet high, and there were altogether in this room more plates than probably many wagon loads; they were piled up in the corners and along the walls", in this depository "cave".
4.  This depository cave was in a hill called "Cumorah".  [But there was and is, more than one hill called "Cumorah".  And where that hill is, is in question.]
5.  There were other items in the cave: A "table" or "tables", "Laban's sword", "Aaron's breastplate", and other "sacred implements".
6. This event was described as a "Vision" by Heber C. Kimball.  Note: (1 Nephi 11:1)
----------------------

In 1844, Oliver Cowdery in a Letter to W.W. Phelps, describing his feelings about the Hill Cumorah, Cowdery wrote the following:  “In my estimation, certain places are dearer to me for what they now contain than for what they have contained” (Latter-day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate, October 1835, Vol.2: page 196)

----------------------

The Prophet Joseph Smith records that the plates were "in his, [Moroni's] charge", or Moroni was the caretaker of the Book of Mormon plates.  Joseph Smith was told upon receiving the plates, that he would take them back and give them to Moroni, when the work of translation was finished. 
 “…by the wisdom of God, they remained safe in my hands, until I had accomplished by them what was required at my hand. When, [the translation of the Book of Mormon was finished], according to arrangements, the messenger called for them, I delivered them, [the Book of Mormon plates] up to him; and he has them in his charge until this day, being the second day of May, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight."     

(Joseph Smith History 1:60)

 

 ----------------------
Additional Information 

Cumorah's Cave, by Cameron J. Packer

Where is the Location of the Hill Cumorah?   by Book of Mormon Central/KnoWhys #489 (4:06 min.)