With the LDS Church's focus this year on founder Joseph Smith's 200th birthday, church members anticipate a recollection of many events in early church history during this weekend's 175th Annual General Conference, which begins today.

Many Latter-day Saints can readily recount what happened in places like Palmyra, N.Y., or Nauvoo, Ill. — where the church has spent millions in the past decade building temples and reproducing historic buildings — but others are fuzzy on what occurred in Harmony, Pa.

But that historical obscurity likely won't last much longer.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is progressing with plans to rebuild what is believed to be the only home Joseph Smith and his wife, Emma, ever owned, along with a visitors center and a new LDS meetinghouse. Joseph Smith said he translated most of the faith's signature canon — the Book of Mormon — in Harmony. Church spokesman Dale Bills on Thursday declined specific questions about the project, saying "discussions are under way, and the project is in the planning stages."

Locals familiar with happenings on the site know the church is working on the project, but local stake president Keith Dunford referred specific questions about it to leaders in Salt Lake City.

Archaeological excavation work has already been undertaken at the site, according to Dan Janda, president of the church's Susquehanna Branch. Penn State University researchers have combed through what was left after the house burned to the ground in 1919.

The church has amassed about 150 acres on Route 171, he said. Holdings include a purchase three years ago of 25 acres needed to rebuild the Smith home and eventually improve access to the Susquehanna River several hundred yards from the home site.

When the church purchased the 25-acre parcel, there were significant environmental concerns because railroad tracks run through the site, which is between the existing monument and the river.

Since the purchase, significant environmental mitigation has occurred on the property, Janda said, adding there has been public discussion of how to deal with increased traffic on Route 171 once the site is developed.

Janda said that two years ago an LDS missionary couple were assigned to count the people visiting the site. Using their numbers and estimates that came from a guest register, he said more than 10,000 people visited during the summer and early fall of 2003, with several thousand more during the rest of the year.

The home was originally constructed near the home of Emma's parents — Isaac and Elizabeth Hale — who first became acquainted with both Joseph Smith and his father, Joseph Sr., in 1825 when the two boarded with the Hales while they working under contract in the area then known as Harmony, Pa. The younger Smith became fond of the Hales' young daughter, and though Isaac Hale disliked their budding romance, the two were married in January 1827.

The new couple spent most of the time between December 1827 and August 1830 living in Harmony, where the young prophet translated the bulk of the Book of Mormon, with Emma Smith, Martin Harris and Oliver Cowdery serving as scribes.

Now known as Oakland township, both the Smith and Hale homes' former foundations reside close to a marker the LDS Church has erected there. Sculpted by Avard Fairbanks, it describes what Latter-day Saints believe occurred along the banks of the Susquehanna River, a few hundred yards from the former Smith home.

On May 15, 1829, Joseph Smith recorded that he and scribe Oliver Cowdery were visited by John the Baptist, who conferred the priesthood of Aaron on them — which included the authority to baptize — before directing them to baptize each other in the river. The event was a precursor to the formal establishment of the LDS Church in 1830 — the 175th anniversary of which is also being celebrated this year.

E-mail: carrie@desnews.com