Editing Voree plates (section)

==Allegations of forgery==
Some members of competing [[Restoration (Mormonism)|restoration]] churches have insisted that the Voree plates were [[forgery|forged]] by Strang. Isaac Scott, an ex-Strangite, wrote to [[Joseph Smith III]] alleging that he learned from Caleb Barnes, Strang's former law partner, that he and Strang had fabricated the plates from a tea kettle belonging to Strang's father-in-law as part of a [[land speculation]] scheme.<ref name = saintherald>''[[The Saints' Herald]]'' '''35''' (December 29, 1888): 831–32.</ref>

According to Scott, Barnes and Strang "made the 'plates' out of Ben [Perce]'s old kettle and engraved them with an old saw file, and ... when completed they put acid on them to corrode them and give them an ancient appearance; and that to deposit them under the tree, where they were found, they took a large auger ... which Ben [Perce] owned, put a fork handle on the auger and with it bored a long slanting hole under a tree on 'The Hill of Promise,' as they called it, laying the earth in a trail on a cloth as taken out, then put the 'plates' in, tamping in all the earth again, leaving no trace of their work visible.”<ref name = saintherald/>

[[Wingfield W. Watson]], a [[High Priest (Latter Day Saints)|high priest]] in the Strangite sect who knew Strang, vigorously challenged these allegations in an 1889 publication entitled ''The Prophetic Controversy #3''.<ref>''[http://www.olivercowdery.com/smithhome/1900s/1885Wats.htm The Prophetic Controversy, No. 3; or the Even Balances by which Isaac Scott, Chancy Loomis, and the Founders of the Reorganization Are Weighted and Found Wanting].'' In Two Chapters (Boyne, Mich.[?]: n.p. 1889).</ref> Among other things, Watson points out that the theory advanced fails to explain how the 12"x12"x3" stone covering block was placed above the case containing the plates.
 
Strang was assassinated in 1856. The Voree plates remained with his family until they disappeared sometime around 1900.<ref name=autogenerated1 /> Their current whereabouts are unknown.