What do we know about the location of the Garden of Eden?
By Bruce A. Van Orden, associate professor of Church history, Brigham Young University.
“We must remember that the whole earth was paradisiacal before the Fall. The Garden of Eden was a center place. After the Fall, there was no Garden of Eden or paradisiacal status on earth. Yet relative to the locale of the site of the Garden of Eden, the Prophet Joseph Smith learned through revelation (D&C 57) that Jackson County was the location of a Zion to be and the New Jerusalem to come. The Prophet first visited Jackson County, Missouri, in the summer of 1831. The Prophet visited Jackson County again in April and May 1832. On one of the occasions, or perhaps both, the Prophet Joseph apparently instructed his close associates, and perhaps even a general Church gathering, that the ancient Garden of Eden was also located in Jackson County.
Brigham Young stated, “Joseph the Prophet told me that the garden of Eden was in Jackson [County] Missouri.” (Journal of Wilford Woodruff, vol. 5, 15 Mar. 1857, Archives Division, Church Historical Dept., Salt Lake City.) Heber C. Kimball said: “From the Lord, Joseph learned that Adam had dwelt on the land of America, and that the Garden of Eden was located where Jackson County now is.” (Andrew Jenson, Historical Record, 9 vols., Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson, 1888, 7:439; see also Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1967, p. 219.) Other early leaders have given the same information.
Unfortunately, we do not have primary source documentation for all of Joseph Smith’s revelations or doctrinally related declarations. This is especially true for the periods when he did not have a scribe to keep a record of his daily activities. His 1831 and 1832 trips to Missouri fit into this category.
One of the early Latter-day Saint residents of Jackson County was Emily Austin. Remembering her first year there, she reminisced, “Our homes in this new country presented a prosperous appearance—almost equal to Paradise itself—and our peace and happiness, we flattered ourselves, were not in a great degree deficient to that of our first parents in the garden of Eden.” (Mormonism; or, Life among the Mormons, New York: AMS Press, 1971, p. 67.) She was reflecting a commonly held belief among the Saints that Eden was in Jackson County.
It wasn’t until May 1838 that revelation (D&C 116) identified Adam-ondi-Ahman, a site near the Garden of Eden, to be in Daviess County, Missouri, some seventy miles from present-day Kansas City. (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 4 vols., New York City: Macmillan, 1992, 1:19–20.) Other revelations referring to Adam-ondi-Ahman were D&C 78:15–16 and D&C 107:53–57.
President Joseph Fielding Smith said: “In accord with the revelations given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, we teach that the Garden of Eden was on the American continent located where the City of Zion, or the New Jerusalem, will be built. When Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden, they eventually dwelt at a place called Adam-ondi-Ahman, situated in what is now Daviess County, Missouri. … We are committed to the fact that Adam dwelt on [the] American continent.” (Doctrines of Salvation, 3 vols., comp. Bruce R. McConkie, Salt Lake City:Bookcraft, 1956, 3:74. Compare Answers to Gospel Questions, 5 vols., Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1957–75, 2:93–95, 4:19–24; and Alvin R. Dyer, in Conference Report, Oct. 1968, pp. 108–9.)
President Joseph Fielding Smith wrote,”In accord with the revelations given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, we teach that the Garden of Eden was on the American continent located where the city of Zion, or the New Jerusalem will be built. When Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden, they eventually dwelt at a place called Adam-ondi-Ahman, situated in what is now Daviess County, Missouri” (Doctrines of Salvation 3:74).
J
oseph Smith taught that Adam, just prior to his death, called Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch and Methuselah, as well as the “residue of his posterity who were righteous,’ to Adam-ondi-Ahman. It was there he “bestowed upon them his last blessing” (Doctrine and Covenants 107:53).
Apostle John Widtsoe wrote,”Since Adam called together seven generations of his descendants at Adam-ondi-Ahman, it can well be believed that there was his old homestead. If so, the Garden of Eden was probably not far distant, for it was the entrance at the east of the Garden which was closed against them at the time of the ‘fall’ (Genesis 3:24). In fact, it has been commonly understood among the Latter-day Saints, from the teachings of the Prophet, that the temple was to be built in or near the location of the Garden of Eden” (Evidences and Reconciliations, pg. 396).
According to Heber C. Kimball, a temple block was dedicated. “While there we laid out a city on a high elevated piece of land, and set the stakes for the four corners of a temple block, which was dedicated, Brother Brigham being mouth” (Life of Heber C. Kimball, 2nd ed., pp. 208-209 as printed in BYU Studies, Autumn 1972, pg. 34).
Dr. Robert J. Matthews of Brigham Young University states,”Although the ‘temple block’ was dedicated, apparently no corner stones were laid, and no temple was built. Persecution soon forced the Saints to flee Illinois, and thus the settlement had a short existence lasting only a few months, because by November 1838 the Saints were leaving their homes and abandoning Adam-ondi-Ahman” (BYU Studies, Autumn 1972, pg. 34).
Smith also taught that Adam will once again come to visit this site. Mormon Apostle Bruce McConkie makes reference to this event and stated that a portion of Adam’s altar had remained through the ages. He wrote,
“At that great gathering Adam offered sacrifices on an altar built for the purpose. A remnant of that very altar remained on the spot down through the ages. On May 19, 1838 Joseph Smith and a number of his associates stood on the remainder of the pile of stones at a place called Spring Hill, Daviess County, Missouri. There the Prophet taught them that Adam again would visit in the Valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman, holding a great council as a prelude to the great and dreadful day of the Lord” (Mormon Doctrine, pg. 21).
In volume one of his two-volume set entitled Joseph Smith Begins His Work, Wilford Wood includes a photograph of what he calls “stones from Adam’s altar.” Heber C. Kimball also wrote of this altar. He stated that Smith led them a short distance from the temple block and said, “There is the place where Adam offered up sacrifice after he was cast out of the garden” (BYU Studies, Autumn 1972, pg. 34).
President Ezra Taft Benson also wrote how the Garden of Eden was located in America. Under the section 
“Divine Destiny” in his book The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson (pp. 587-588), he wrote,
“Consider how very fortunate we are to be living in this land of America … Many great events have transpired in this land of destiny. This was the place where Adam dwelt; this was the place where the Garden of Eden was; it was here that Adam met with a body of high priests at Adam-ondi-Ahman shortly before his death and gave them his final blessing, and the place to which he will return to meet with the leaders of his people (D&C 107:53-57). This was the place of three former civilizations: that of Adam, that of the Jaredites, and that of the Nephites.”
Notice also how Benson places the Nephites in the United States, not Central America as Mormon scholars are now insisting.
Not only have LDS leaders stated that Eden was located in what is today the United States, they have also stated that Noah built his famous ark nearby as well. On October 7, 1860, President Brigham Young declared,
“In the beginning, after the earth was prepared for man, the Lord commenced his work upon what is now called this American continent, where the Garden of Eden was made. In the days of Noah, in the days of the floating of the ark, he took the people to another part of the earth: the earth was divided, and there he set up his kingdom” (Journal of Discourses 8:195).
Before he became first counselor to Brigham Young, Apostle George Q. Cannon stated,
“Men have supposed that because the Ark rested on Ararat that the flood commenced there, or rather that it was from thence the Ark started to sail. But God in His revelations has informed us that it was on this choice land of Joseph where Adam was placed and the Garden of Eden was laid out” (Journal of Discourses 11:337).
In a sermon delivered by Orson Pratt, the LDS Apostle concurred with the aforementioned statements by saying,
“We may, however, observe, that so far as new revelation has given us information on this subject, this Continent of ours may be ranked among the first lands occupied by the human family. The very first man who had dominion on the face of the earth, under the direction of the Heavens, once dwelt on this Continent, His name was Adam” (Journal of Discourses 12:338)
Pratt continued by saying, “It was on this land where both Noah built his ark, which was blown by the winds of Heaven away to the east, and landed on Ararat” (Journal of Discourses 12:338).
Like many teachings brought about by LDS leaders, the idea that the Garden of Eden was in Missouri cannot be supported by the Bible. Mormons are really left with nothing but the claims of Joseph Smith for their “evidence.” Pratt admits this when he said, “These things are not revealed to us by the Bible, or by tradition, but by the inspiration of the Almighty through the great modern prophet who was raised up to commence this marvellous (sic) work of which you and I are now partakers” (Journal of Discourses 12:339).
AMERICA THE GARDEN OF EDEN Three Altars compared
From Mormon Parallels: A Bibliographic Source © 2014 Rick Grunder page1299
On pages 125-26, Priest [Josiah] describes a large hewn stump of a tree discovered by men digging a deep well near Cincinnati in 1826, eighty feet or more below the surface. It still bore marks of an axe, and a residue of rust. Priest presumes “that the tree was undoubtedly antediluvian,” p. 125, and from there he launches into painful exegesis on how Noah must have dwelt in America before the deluge. Priest calculates possible current flow for the ark toward Mt. Ararat, and ends up feeling quite content “. . . that here, perhaps in the very State of New-York, the miraculous vessel was erected, and bore away, treasured with its enormous capacity, the progenitors of the human race renewed. So that if America have not the honor of being the country where Adam was created, as is believed by some, it has nevertheless the honor, as supposed, of being the country where the ark was erected.” (p. 131)
Priest’s literal biblical credulity will not allow him to accept both honors for America, since (reasons he,) the rivers that are described in Genesis as flowing from the primeval Garden do not exist here (p. 130). This does not prevent him, however, from quoting a better mind than his own, from which he relays a delicious presumption of the American Eden itself . . . The celebrated antiquarian, Samuel L. Mitchell [sic], late of New-York, with, other gentlemen, eminent for their knowledge of natural history, are even of the opinion that America was the country where ADAM was created. In a letter to Governor De Witt Clinton, in which this philosopher argued the common origin of the people of America, and those of Asia, he says: “I avoid the opportunity which this grand conclusion affords me, of stating, that America was the cradle of the human race; of tracing its colonies westward over the Pacific Ocean, and beyond the sea of Kamschatka, to new settlements; of following the emigrants by land and water, until they reached Europe and Africa. I had no inclination to oppose the current opinions relative to the place of man’s creation and dispersion. I thought it was scarcely worth the while to inform an European, that in coming to America, he had left the new world behind him, for the purpose of visiting the old.”—American Antq. Society, p. 331. [p. 129
It was Dr. Mitchill who directed Martin Harris, with the transcript of characters from the golden plates of the Book of Mormon, to meet Prof. Charles Anthon in 1828. For further discussion of Mitchill’s preeminent authority in Americans’ minds of the earlier nineteenth century, see MP 324 (Plough Boy), section entitled “Samuel Latham Mitchill.” See also MP 113 (Devotional Somnium) and MP 252 (Mitchill, Circular). Mitchill’s opinions are quoted often by Priest in American Antiquities; see pp. 129-30, 132, 282-83, 286, 288-91, 294-96, 303-4, 333, 337 and 345. “His confidence in his expositions was not always permanent;” recalled a younger associate of Mitchill, new facts often led to new opinions; but the uncertainties of geological doctrines, not yet removed, gave him sometimes more freedom of expression than rigid induction might justify; and when he affirmed as his belief that the American continent was the Old World, and that the Garden of Eden might have originally been located in Onondaga Hollow, he imposed a tax on credulity too onerous to bear. [Francis, 94] 1300 Mormon Parallels: A Bibliographic Source © 2014 Rick Grunder
. . . But not quite so incredible to Americans of Dr. Mitchill’s generation, perhaps, as in the late 1850s when Dr. Francis wrote the reflections above. Latter-day Saints will naturally connect here with Joseph Smith’s similar doctrine which placed ancient Adam, at least shortly before his death, in what is now northwestern Missouri. What may not be evident to the casual scholar, however, is that Joseph did not declare this American Eden until Josiah Priest’s American Antiquities had gone through at least seven editions – a likely total of some thirty thousand copies or more (see bibliographic notes at the beginning of this entry). While it is true that talk of “Adam-ondi-Ahman” began in early 1832 (D&C 78:15), those words did not then positively suggest a sense of place. Dr. Robert J. Matthews shows clearly how this curious term grew gradually (Matthews, 27-30). It was enlarged upon in 1835 as a place name – the spot where Adam gathered his posterity somewhere on earth three years prior to his death (D&C 107:53, March 28, 1835). Finally, Joseph Smith designated a convenient, beautiful Mormon-owned site which he was visiting on May 19, 1838, as the place to which Adam will eventually return to greet his posterity – named, incidentally, the same as the ancient gathering place, “Adam-ondi- Ahman,” and thus presumably one and the same with either the Garden of Eden, or at least a place prominent in Adam’s later life (D&C 116; Spring Hill, Daviess County, Missouri, “named by the Lord Adam-ondi-Ahman . . .“).
“The Prophet does not tell us how or under what circumstances the Lord spoke these words to him,” wrote Sidney B. Sperry half a century ago, “but we know the channels of communication were constantly open.” (Sperry 1960, 622). Indeed, a month or so later, Joseph elaborated upon the newly-identified scene with startling precision after dedicating a temple site on a nearby hill which commanded a broad view in all directions. Heber C. Kimball described it as “one of the most beautiful places I ever beheld.” According to Kimball’s unique record, The Prophet Joseph called upon Brother Brigham, myself and others, saying, “Brethren, come go along with me, and I will show you something.” He led us a short distance to a place where were the ruins of three altars built of stone, one above the other, and one standing a little back of the other, like unto the pulpits in the Kirtland Temple, representing the order of three grades of Priesthood; “There,” said Joseph, “is the place where Adam offered up sacrifice after he was cast out of the garden.” The altar stood at the highest point of the bluff. [as presented by Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Stevens and Wallis, 1945), pp. 208-9, in Matthews, 34] Through the same, stunning facility with which, in the summer of 1834, Joseph Smith had identified the remains of warrior Zelph, follower of Onandagus. Mormon Parallels: A Bibliographic Source © 2014 Rick Grunder 1301 (MP 305 [Parker] – also associated with three ancient altars, HC 2:79), Joseph now invited the very Garden of Eden to this corner of America. There was even a hint of elegance: to Joseph’s credit, he seems not to have used the actual word “Eden” here, which I am told is a corruption of the Sumerian word, ‘den (sounding rather like “Eden” with a glottal stop), referring specifically to the area between the fertile Tigris/Euphrates valley and the desert which was still suitable for cultivation. “This world was once a garden place;” Mormons surely sang that day while dedicating their site for some future temple,
. . . And men did live a holy race,
And worship Jesus face to face,
In Adam-ondi-Ahman.
Her land was good and greatly blest,
Beyond old Israel’s Canaan;
Here fame was known from east to west;
Her peace was great, and pure the rest—
Of Adam-ondi-Ahman.
[“Adam-ondi-Ahman. By W. W. Phelps.” Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate 1:9 (June 1835), p. 144. For the local singing of this hymn in the summer of 1838, see Matthews, 33.]
Garden of Eden in EVIDENCE AND RECONCILIATIONS
John A. Widtsoe Arranged by G. Homer Durham Salt Lake City, Utah Text (c) 1960 by Bookcraft
Chapter 12 Item 4
Brigham Young, also a close associate of the Prophet, testified similarly:
In the beginning, after this earth was prepared for man, the Lord commenced his work upon what is now called the American continent, where the Garden of Eden was made. In the days of Noah, in the days of the Boating of the ark, he took the people to another part of the earth. (Discourses, p. 102)
In conversation with Orson Hyde, on March 15, 1857, President Young said: You have been both to Jerusalem and Zion, and seen both. I have not seen either, for I have never been in Jackson County. Now it is a pleasant thing to think of and to know where the Garden of Eden was. Did you ever think of it? I do not think many do, for in Jackson County was the Garden of Eden. Joseph has declared this, and
I am as much bound to believe that as to believe that Joseph was a prophet of God. (Journal History, March 15, 1857)
That is the position of the Latter-day Saints today, with respect to the much-discussed location of the Garden of Eden.
Adam, after his expulsion from the Garden of Eden, lived in the vicinity of the great Missouri and Mississippi rivers. As his descendants multiplied, they would naturally settle along the fertile and climatically acceptable river valleys. When the flood came in the days of Noah, the Mississippi drainage must have increased to a tremendous volume, quite in harmony with the Biblical account. Noah’s ark would be floated on the mighty, rushing waters, towards the Gulf of Mexico. With favorable winds, it would cross the Atlantic to the Eastern continents. There the human race, in its second start on earth,
began to multiply and fill the earth.
The location of the Garden of Eden in America, and at Independence, Missouri, clears up many a problem which the Bible account of Eden and its garden has left in the minds of students.
As we have shown, the Garden of Eden was in Missouri and the New Jerusalem will be in Missouri. Read Ether 13 below and will will fully understand this important matter. As it says in Ether 13:2 “…after the waters had receded from off the face of this land it became a choice land above all other lands, a chosen land of the Lord”
From the above we see that Adam was born in Missouri and we know his posterity was blessed in Missouri, D&C 107:53, and because of wickedness the flood swept them off of this land of Missouri, which was again being prepared for the next group of people the Jaredites. Ether 13:2. They were swept off this land of Missouri and so it makes sense the Nephites would live around this same area of Missouri.
D&C 107:53 “Three years previous to the death of Adam, he called Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, and Methuselah, who were all high priests, with the residue of his posterity who were righteous, into the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman, and there bestowed upon them his last blessing.”
Moses 6:17 “And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan. And Enos and the residue of the people of God came out from the land, which was called Shulon, and dwelt in a land of promise, which he called after his own son, whom he had named Cainan.”
In Elder McConkie’s book “Mormon Doctrine“, he states: “One of the greatest spiritual gatherings of all the ages took place in the Valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman some 5,000 years ago…. At that great gathering Adam offered sacrifices on an altar built for that purpose. A remnant of that very altar remained on the spot down through the ages. On May 19, 1838, Joseph Smith and a number of his associates stood on the remainder of the pile of stones at a place called Spring Hill, Daviess County, Missouri. There the Prophet taught them that Adam again would visit the Valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman, holding a great council as a prelude to the great and dreadful day of the Lord…”
Brigham Young
“In the beginning, after this earth was prepared for man, the Lord commenced his work upon what is now called the American continent, where the Garden of Eden was made. In the days of Noah, in the days of the floating of the ark, he took the people to another part of the earth: the earth was divided, and there he set up his kingdom. Did they receive his kingdom? No; they rejected it. Afterwards he called a man, and ordained him, and showed to him the inhabitants of the whole earth, and gave to him a promise that his offspring should be the people of God. He spoke to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their children, as his covenant people. The Jews rejected Jesus Christ, who came to redeem the world. They cried—“Crucify him, crucify him! Let his blood be upon us, and upon our children!” God has removed the kingdom from Jerusalem again to Zion, and here he will wind up the scene. Righteousness will go forth, and the wickedness upon the earth will be swept from it. Will I prophesy evil? No; let us prophesy good. But the justice and mercy of God must have their demands. Let everything have its place and its just due, both the good and the evil; and we will not curse the wicked, for they are already cursed; the wrath of the Almighty does not slumber upon their track; their condition is lamentable. They live and flourish, and may have a few days of prosperity, as the enemies of the Prophets did anciently. They flourish like a green bay tree, and may so flourish for a few days; but they will become withered and dried and prepared to be cast into the fire, while the kingdom of God will stand; and if we do not remain faithful, others will take our places.” JD 8:195-6 Brigham Young
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, “Temporarily, we call it America. But it began with the single, primeval continent of Genesis, and the miracle of millennial healing will bring that unity again…
The most sacred of places, then, will always be those locations which God has designated for holy and eternal purposes, locations where he is the “doer of the deed.” These places are revered forever by his faithful children wherever they may be.
America is such a place, but of course it wasn’t always called America nor has it always been identified by a distinctive continental shape. Originally it was simply a portion of that large, single land mass which God in his creative process called “Earth” and which, when completed, was pronounced “good.” (Gen. 1:10.) Whatever its name and geographical configuration, however, it was from the beginning a land of divinity as well as a land of destiny.
The choicest part of this earthly creation was a garden “eastward in Eden” where God placed our first parents, Adam and Eve. This resplendent place filled with paradisiacal glory was located on that part of the land mass where the city Zion, or the New Jerusalem of the earth’s last days, would eventually be built… After Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden, they dwelt at a place called Adam-ondi-Ahman, located in what is now Daviess County, Missouri. In that region this first family lived out their days, tilling the soil, tending the flocks, offering sacrifices, and learning the gospel of Jesus Christ from on high. There Adam prophesied concerning all the families of the earth and, three years before his death, called together the righteous remnant of his posterity and bestowed upon them his last blessing. The Lord appeared unto this faithful group and Adam’s family rose up “and blessed Adam, and called him Michael, the prince, the archangel… Never before had one spot of earth been favored with such a meeting, nor provided the stage for such sacred scenes from the drama of man’s ultimate destiny.
But even as such sacred manifestations and proclamations were recorded, the land was being polluted with unrighteousness. The willful Cain had already made his covenant with Satan and taken the life of his younger brother, Abel…
Two generations later the Lord was so pained by that generation “without affection” (Moses 7:33) that he opened the windows of heaven and cleansed the entire earth with water. Thus, the “everlasting decree” (Ether 2:10) was first taught that he who will not obey the Lord in righteousness will be swept from his sacred land. The lesson would be tragically retaught in dispensations yet to come.
Holy Scripture records that “after the waters had receded from off the face of this land it became a choice land above all other lands, a chosen land of the Lord; wherefore the Lord would have that all men should serve him who dwell upon the face thereof.” (Ether 13:2.) Such a special place needed now to be kept apart from other regions, free from the indiscriminate traveler as well as the soldier of fortune. To guarantee such sanctity the very surface of the earth was rent. In response to God’s decree, the great continents separated and the ocean rushed in to surround them. The promised place was set apart. Without habitation it waited for the fulfillment of God’s special purposes.
With care and selectivity, the Lord began almost at once to repeople the Promised Land. The Jaredites came first, with stories of the great flood fresh in their memories and the Lord’s solemn declaration ringing in their ears… (Ether 2:8.) Despite such counsel, however, the Jaredite civilization steadily degenerated into a violent society which forced a man to keep “the hilt of his sword in his right hand” (Ether 14:2)…
But even as the last light flickered on Jaredite civilization, a bold new sun rose to illuminate a thousand years of Nephite-Lamanite experience on the same soil. Despite periods of war and rebellion, these people nevertheless had great moments of power and purity, including the personal ministry of the resurrected Christ, who walked and talked and prayed with these New World inhabitants for three indescribable days. There in the meridian of time the land enjoyed three generations of peace and perfection, which it would not know again until the Master’s millennial reign.
But the lessons of history, if not learned well, are certain to be taught again, and a lone father with his son lived to see the self-destruction of these people of promise. The Nephite-Lamanite morality descended from “sorceries, and witchcrafts, and magics” (Morm. 1:19) into rape, murder, and cannibalism…
A thousand years after God had given such choice land to their fathers and a thousand years before he would attempt to do it again, Mormon wrote to his son Moroni: “O the depravity of my people! They are without order and without mercy…
In spite of such grief and despair the Lord of the vineyard determined to “spare it a little longer” (Jacob 5:50) long enough for one final attempt, long enough for one more dispensation, long enough for one final experiment focused on the Promised Land.
So, after a thousand years of preparation, the Spirit of God rested upon a young Italian [Columbus] sailing under the flag of Spain, and, as Nephi had seen in vision, “he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the Promised Land.” (1 Ne. 13:12.) This “Christian of almost maniacal devoutness”… was not to be denied…
As Elder Paul H. Dunn recently declared to a Church-wide audience: “(Joseph) grew up toward adolescence just like the new land. He fitted it. He was young, clean, unspoiled—a lad without a past, kneeling in a grove. This pristine land—this innocent young man—and thus the Lord reached out and kept his promise. He established his conditions over centuries; you see, God has time. His plan made it possible for the holy priesthood and the Church to be restored upon the earth—the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ—but only in America…The purpose of America was to provide a setting wherein that was possible. All else takes its power from that one great, central purpose.” (Ensign, Nov. 1975, p. 54.)
Elder Holland continues, “Thus in one final moment worthy men and righteous principles came together for the restoration of heavenly things. With his center stake in America, God began stretching the cords of his tabernacle to all the world… “And the land of Jerusalem and the land of Zion shall be turned back into their own place, and the earth shall be like as it was in the days before it was divided.” (D&C 133:23–24.)
These two cities, Zion (the New Jerusalem) and the ancient city of Jerusalem, will be those capitals out of which both the word and law of the Lord shall go forth and to which all nations shall flow. (See Isa. 2:2–3.)
It is good that the historical celebration of the United States bicentennial allows us to focus on a land in which God has done so much of his work. It has not always looked the same geographically nor has it always been governed the same politically. But that all seems appropriate since the meaning of America, in its most theological sense, is something more than borders and boundaries, something above nativism and nationalism. It is an ideal, a thing of the spirit… As with temple sites, missionary service, and area general conferences, gospel experience transcends the borders—and, if necessary, the flames of nationalism…” Selected portions of a talk titled, “A Promised Land”, by Jeffrey R. Holland June 1976 Ensign
THE FAR WEST
Evening and Morning Star Vol. 1 No. 5 October 1832 Page 71
The far west, as the section of country from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains may justly be styled, is not only distant from the Atlantic States, but different. Its principle river, running rapidly from the 48th to the 39th degree of north latitude, is always rily, always wearing away its banks and always making new channels: It is rightly named Missouri; for in plain English, it looks like the waters of misery,-or troubled water:-even as the sea which the prophet said, Casts up mire and dirt. With the exception of the skirts of timber upon the streams of water, this region of country is one continued field, or prairie, (as the French have it, meaning meadows,) and there is something ancient as well as grand about it, too; for while the eye takes in a large scope of clear field, or extensive plains, decorated with here and there a patch of timber, like the orchards which beautify the farms in the east, the mind goes back to the day, when the Jaredites were in their glory upon this choice land above all others, and comes on till they, and even the Nephites, were destroyed for their wickedness: Here pause and look to the east, and read the words of the prophet: Wo to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which is on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine! Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.-The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet: and the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up. In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people, and for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
To return: this beautiful region of country is now mostly, excepting Arkansas and Missouri, the land of Joseph or the Indians, as they are called, and embraces three fine climates: First, like that of New-York; second, like Missouri, neither northern nor southern; and third, like the Carolinas. This place may be called the centre [center] of America; it being about an equal distance from Maine, to Nootka sound; and from the gulf of St. Lawrence to the gulf of California; yea, and about the middle of the continent from cape Horn, south, to the head land at Baffin’s Bay, north. The world will never value the land of Desolation, as it is called in the book of Mormon, for any thing more than hunting ground, for want of timber and mill-seats: The Lord to the contrary notwithstanding, declares it to be the land of Zion which is the land of Joseph, blessed by him, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath, and for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon, and for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, and for the precious things of the earth and fulness [fullness] thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush: let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren. His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together from the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.
When we consider that the land of Missouri is the land where the saints of the living God are to be gathered together and sanctified for the second coming of the Lord Jesus, we cannot help exclaiming with the prophet, O land be glad! and O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord: For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou [Jerusalem] shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land [Zion] any more be termed Desolate; but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married, [joined together] so that the land of Zion, and the land of Jerusalem will be one, as they were before the days of Peleg: For in his days the earth was divided or separated to receive the oceans, on account of wickedness. Peleg died 305 years after Noah’s flood: Abram’s father was born 210 years after the flood, and Abram 288 after, which brings to mind Joshua’s words unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor, and they served other gods. The building of Babel was wickedness, and serving other gods was wickedness: so that dividing, or opening the earth to let in the waters, which were in the beginning gathered unto one place, is one of the Lord’s great miracles, and shows to the world that them that look for signs among the wicked, have them to their own condemnation in all ages.
But, reader, stop and pause at the greatness of God; and remember that even Moses, when on the top of Pisgah, lifted up his eyes and looked westward first, to view the promised land.
Vol. 1 No. 5, October 1832
http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/NCMP1820-1846/id/28104
Evening and Morning Star Vol. 1 No. 5 October 1832 Page 71
Levi Hancock (Journal, Handwritten): The longest and most detailed near-contemporaneous account of Zelph’s discovery was written by Levi Hancock, later one of the Presidents of the Seventy. He makes no mention of the Hill Cumorah or of Onandagus’s wide fame but does write that Zelph was a white Lamanite:
On the way to Illinois River where we camped on the west side in the morning, many went to see the big mound about a mile below the crossing, I did not go on it but saw some bones that was brought with a broken arrow, they was layed down by our camp Joseph addressed himself to Sylvester Smith. “This is what I told you and now I want to tell you that you may know what I meant; this land was called the land of desolation and Onendagus was the king and a good man was he, there in that mound did he bury his dead and did not dig holes as the people do now but they brought there dirt and covered them untill [sic] you see they have raised it to be about one hundread [sic] feet high, the last man buried was Zelf, he was a white Lamanite who fought with the people of Onendagus for freedom, when he was young he was a great warrior and had his th[igh] broken and never was set, it knited [sic] together as you see on the side, he fought after it got strength untill [sic] he lost every tooth in his head save one when the Lord said he had done enough and suffered him to be killed by that arrow you took from his brest[sic].” These words he said as the camp was moving of[f] the ground; as near as I could learn he had told them something about the mound and got them to go and see for themselves. I then remembered what he had said a few days before while passing many mounds on our way that was left of us; said he, “there are the bodies of wicked men who have died and are angry at us; if they can take the advantage of us they will, for if we live they will have no hope.” I could not comprehend it but supposed it was all right. (Levi Hancock Diary, LDS Church Archives Spelling not corrected)
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