There are many differences in thought about where the Book of Mormon events happened. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not have a specific opinion. The main two ideas are, Mesoamerica and Heartland of the United States. There are over 100 other opinions that get a very small following such as Baja, South America and Peru.
The map below compares the two most followed theories and shows them side by side. You have all heard the main reason for even looking at Mesoamerica all these years most likely has to do with the Isthmus of Tehuantepec being misunderstood as the Narrow Neck of Land (Ether 10:20), which is where the “land divides the sea”, not the sea divides the land” as it says correctly in Ether. See blog here:
One Cumorah
“Because of this theory [Two Cumorah’s] some members of the Church have become confused and greatly disturbed in their faith in the Book of Mormon.” Doctrines of Salvation Vol. III by Joseph Fielding Smith (Author), Bruce R. McConkie (Editor)
I hope you have not been greatly disturbed in your faith in the book of Mormon. Which ever theory you believe this book is true. However, just as we know the Savior was from Judea, I feel comfort in knowing that the Nephites were born in North America. It just makes sense to me. Conference Tickets Now
The Forefathers of the American Indians came from Jerusalem
“I rejoice in the work that is being accomplished both at home and abroad. I rejoice in the manifestations of the Spirit of God, that come to each and every one of our elders who faithfully perform the duties devolving upon them. I rejoice in the fact that God opens the way and prepares the hearts of the honest in every land and clime, wherever this Gospel of Jesus Christ has gone. It is also a source of joy and satisfaction to me that, in all my journeys at home and abroad, wherever I go, wherever I mingle with people, I am constantly receiving additional evidence and testimony regarding the divinity of this work in which we are engaged, As I journeyed away from home, and as I mingled with people, I would feel sorrowful if I had constantly been finding objections to the plan of life and salvation, that required exertion on my part to explain away. It would be a source of regret if I were constantly finding obstacles in the path, regarding the divinity of the work of God, which we have espoused. But, I have never found any such obstacles: I have never found anything that needed to be explained away: everything points to the divinity of the work.
While listening to the remarks of Brother Ivins, referring to a book that was written by one of our enemies, in which the statement is made that there is not a particle of evidence to show that there is any trace of the Hebrew among the people who anciently inhabited this country, and that there is no evidence that would go to prove that the Book of Mormon is true. I was reminded of a little item of evidence that came under my observation while I was in the City of London. A gentleman there, to whom a very dear friend of mine, Col. Alex. G. Hawes, had given me a letter, kindly invited a number of newspaper men to his home to meet me. I am very sorry that the newspaper men declined the honor; but I had the privilege of meeting with this man and his family, and a few friends, and conversing with them. One of his friends had been a member of the British legation at Constantinople, and had spent a considerable portion of his life there. He had traveled all over the holy land, and was familiar with the people and their customs. Among other things, he said: “Mr. Grant, I was astonished beyond measure, when I visited Canada, to find there oriental patterns woven in beads, by the American Indians. They were the same patterns that were woven in rugs, in the oriental countries. I have traveled extensively, and I had never seen those oriental patterns in any part of the world except in the holy land, until I found them among the North American Indians. Those patterns have been handed down for hundreds of years, from generation to generation ; they are kept in families, and can be found nowhere else; and how under the heavens those Indians, who have no connection with the people of the holy land, should have the same patterns is a mystery to me.” “Well, mv friend,” I said, “if I were to inform you that the forefathers of these American Indians came from the city of Jerusalem, that would explain it, wouldn’t it?” He replied, “Well, of course, it would.” I asked him if he had ever read the Book of Mormon. He said, “No.” “Well, it will be my pleasure to send you a copy, and from it you will learn that the forefathers of the American Indians came from Jerusalem.” “Well,” he said, “that explains the mystery; I am much obliged for the book.” Now, the one thing for us to do, as Latter-day Saints, is to be loyal, to be true, to be patriotic, to be honest with God; then we need have no fear of what the world may say about us. We have the truth, and we know it, thank God; we know it, though the world may not know it. Let us follow the admonition of the Savior, and let our light so shine that other men seeing our good deeds shall glorify God.”
Final Battles Took Place Near a Hill that was called Cumorah.
Brenton G. “Brent” Yorgason (May 25, 1945 in Mount Pleasant, Utah – October 28, 2016) was an American novelist and writer who used themes about members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the United States. Many of his works were written in cooperation with his brother, Blaine M. Yorgason. Wikipedia
Brent’s greatest love was teaching the youth of the Church. His training enabled him to counsel and coach countless people through difficult times. He was never too busy to respond to the needs of others. He served as Bishop twice and as 1st counselor in the Sandy Granite Stake Presidency.
Dr. Yorgason was most well-known as a prolific author and renowned speaker. As a member of the National Speaker’s Association, he was renowned as a keynote speaker. In all, he wrote and published 105 books, over 40 of which were biographies. He became one of the most popular authors ever to write for the Latter-day Saint fiction market. He enjoyed writing many books with his brother Blaine. The paintings they did together were used as the covers of many of their books. He loved to include others as co-authors, especially his wife Margaret as they laughed, wept and worked together. Bio Here
Dr. Yorgason says, “The Book of Mormon records that due to the wickedness of the Nephite civilization they were destroyed by their brothers the Lamanites. The final battles of this unholy war took place near a hill that was called Cumorah. At Cumorah, hundreds of thousands of Nephites were slain, and the prophet/historian Moroni buried the history of his people in that hill (Mormon 6:2-15; 8:1-5). Hundreds of years later, that same history was unearthed in upstate New York, by the boy prophet Joseph Smith and translated to become the Book of Mormon (Joseph Smith–History 1:51-52).
In New York State Bulletin #2 it is documented that several miles south of “Mormon Hill,” as it was then called, a site was found where flint arrowheads and spear points and many unfinished weapons were found in great abundance.” All of the above sources are cited in Brenton G. Yorgason, Little Known Evidences of the Book of Mormon, 1989, p. 10.
Study of the Prehistoric Mound Builders
In 1843–1848, he engaged in journalism in Hartford, Connecticut and then edited the Chillicothe, Ohio, weekly newspaper the Scioto Gazette. During this period, Squier collaborated with physician Edwin H. Davis on the book, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, which was issued in 1848. The work was a landmark in American scientific research, the study of the prehistoric Mound Builders of North America, and the early development of archaeology as a scientific discipline. This publication to the right is an actual reprint of the very first publication of the Smithsonian Institution with explorations in 1848.
- Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley (“Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge”, vol. 1, 1848)
- Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New York (“Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge”, vol. 2, 1849; Buffalo, 1851)
E.G. Squire said, “When Joseph Smith made his “fantastic” claims and published the Book of Mormon as an ancient history of the American Indians, some scoffed at the idea that a major battle had anciently taken place in the local vicinity. However, evidence was soon produced that documented that this region of the country did indeed once possess a heavy Indian population, and that a terrible battle had taken place in that locality.
Writing in 1851, E. G. Squier says that in the region: “Human bones of men, women, and children of both sexes were thrown together promiscuously by the thousands.” He notes large quantities of pottery, pipes, flint arrow-heads, stone hatchets and other implements were also found there. He further states that the ancient relics unearthed in the vicinity (which he estimates to be several hundred years old) showed considerable evidence of Hebrew origin.” (See E. G. Squier, Antiquities of New York, 1851, pp. 137-138.)
The Mounds throughout the Western States, which have heretofore excited so much curiosity, are the Remains of the Cities of the Nephites and Lamanites
Daniel Arlon Vogel (born 1955) is an independent researcher, writer, and author on a number of works that include Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet. and is most known for his work on early Mormon documents.
Vogel’s scholarship on the topic [Joseph Smith] has been debated by Mormon apologists and scholars who have stated that he is critical of Mormon faith claims. He has also been criticized by ex-Mormons and anti-Mormons for not being sufficiently critical of Joseph Smith… In the LDS historical community, Vogel’s work has received significant recognition… Wikipedia
As I read Vogel he has many good insights that should be considered, but he also has a definite bias you want to be careful of. Vogel assumes Joseph Smith to be the author of the Book of Mormon and takes the position that the book may be used as a “primary source document” that represents a reflection of Smith’s own life. Events portrayed in the Book of Mormon are compared to specific events in Smith’s life to illustrate similarities and to deduce Smith’s thoughts and aspirations during these periods. As usual, read and study and let the Spirit of the Lord guide you. Below are two of his quotes.
“In the 1834 Unitarian (Boston) reported that the Mormons “Suppose the mounds throughout the western states, which have heretofore excited so much curiosity, are the remains of the cities of the Nephites and Lamanites.” Edward Stuart Abdey wrote in 1835 that “the mounds of earth, which, as they now exist in that part of the country, have given rise to so much interest and speculation, are referred to, by the preachers of the Mormon faith, as proofs of these theocratic tribes. And Mormon elder Charles Thompson added in an 1841 pamphlet that such similarities were “sufficient to show to the public that the people whose history is contained in the Book of Mormon, are the authors of these works.” Vogel, Dan, 1986, Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon, Salt Lake City
Dan Vogel writes, “that shortly after the Book of Mormon’s publication, David Marks visited the Ohio mounds and like many wondered who had built them. When he was told that the Book of Mormon gave a history of them, and of their authors, he became anxious to get a copy even though he doubted its historicity”. (Dan Vogel, Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon, SLC: Signature Books, 1986, p. 32)
Editor’s Note: How can anyone doubt Joseph, is what I say all during Vogel’s words. Many times he is just quoting a good source and giving his biased opinion, and other times he is supportive of what the newspaper or person said about Joseph. I also know with a deep conviction that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and I know how to separate bad intent that may be shared by someone who thinks the Book of Mormon is just a novel or story. Why then do I want you to read Vogel? Some members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints read Vogel and think he is a good member of the Church and get confused with his teachings at times. With a strong witness of truth most of you reading this already posses, isn’t it learning and knowledge we seek and sometimes even someone with a ton of knowledge of historical value, will surprise us and give us some nuggets that teach our spirits?
Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet
“Joseph Smith claimed that the burial mounds in the region contained the bodies of destroyed Nephites when, on 4 June 1834 during a trip through Illinois with a company of Mormons, he wrote to his wife that he and others had been “wandering over the plains of the Nephites, recounting occasionally the history of the Book of Mormon, roving over the mounds of that once beloved people of the Lord, picking up their skulls and their bones, as proof of its divine authenticity.”31 The previous day Smith made an inspired declaration about a skeleton they had unearthed from an Indian burial mound, saying it was that of “Zelph”—“a white Lamanite” and “a warrior and chieftain under the great prophet Onandagus, who was known from the Hill Cumorah, or eastern sea to the Rocky mountains. … He was killed … during the last great struggle of the Lamanites and Nephites.”32
“Truly rock-ribbed faith and uncompromised conviction comes with its most complete power when it engages our head as well as our heart… Truth borne by the Holy Spirit comes with, in effect, two manifestations, two witnesses if you will—the force of fact as well as the force of feeling… I believe God intends us to find and use the evidence He has given—reasons, if you will—which affirm the truthfulness of His work…—we still need that spiritual confirmation in the heart of which we have spoken—but not to seek for and not to acknowledge intellectual, documentable support for our belief when it is available is to needlessly limit an otherwise incomparably strong theological position and deny us a unique, persuasive vocabulary in the latter-day arena of religious investigation and sectarian debate..” The Greatness of the Evidence By Elder Jeffrey R. Holland August 16, 2017
Vogel continues, “It was, in fact, in the vicinity of Manchester, New York, that the last stand of the Nephites was said to have taken place about A.D. 385, according to Smith. In 1835, under Smith’s supervision, Oliver Cowdery included in his account of early Mormon history a description of the Manchester hill from which Smith took the gold plates, including the following: “At about one mile west rises another ridge of less height, running parallel with the former … [and] between these hills, the entire power and national strength of both the Jaredites and Nephites were destroyed. … [Mormon] deposited … all the records in this same hill, Cumorah.”33 In 1842, Smith described his interviews with the angel on the hill’s summit as “Glad tidings from Cumorah!” (D&C 128:20). Similar statements from his associates indicate that Cumorah was located in western New York, not in Central America as some have suggested.34 Despite the long distance between Panama and New York, neither Smith nor his followers saw this as a problem until 1885 when the Reverend M. T. Lamb made it an issue.35 Hemispheric geography had come part and parcel with Smith’s adaptation of the mound builder myth, including the assumption that the South American and Mexican ruins were built by the same white-skinned agriculturalists who had built the earth works in North America and who destroyed by the ancestors of the Great Lakes tribes.36
Hemispheric Model
“Evidence indicates that early members of the Church did not pay a great deal of attention to Book of Mormon details about distances.[p] The “Hemispheric” or “Two-Continent” model proposes that Book of Mormon lands stretch many thousands of miles over much of South and North America. There is no first hand, verifiable statement by Joseph Smith endorsing this view. One of the earliest advocates of a hemispheric setting was the young missionary Orson Pratt, who as early as 1832 publicly promoted the idea that Lehi “crossed the water into South America”.[88] For some who read the Book of Mormon, with maps of the Western Hemisphere in view, the Isthmus of Panama seems an easy fit for the Book of Mormon’s “narrow neck of land”. Pratt claimed that the “running battle”, culminating in the destruction of the Nephite nation, started at “the Isthmus of Darien” (Panama) and “ended at Manchester” (western New York).[89] Pratt never attributed his geography (or one like it) to Joseph Smith. Pratt in fact, indicated that the South American landing idea was supposition, not revelation.[90] Pratt’s geographic views were published in the 1879 edition of the Book of Mormon, but retracted from later editions.” Hemispheric Models Wikipedia
Today not one of the maps representing all the various geography of the Book of Mormon believe in the Hemispheric Model. Not even the Mesoamericans or the Heartlanders believe the Hemispheric Model any more because the vast distance in miles make it impossible to say all of North America is where the Nephites lived and and the Lamanites lived in South America.” Some contemporaries of Joseph Smith described a hemispheric model. There was quite a bit of speculation about where the Book of Mormon events took place, but very little speculation about any site for Cumorah other than New York. They insist that most of the events in the Book of Mormon took place in Central America. Therefore, they reason, a New York Cumorah means a hemispheric model; All Theorists today believe in a Limited Model whether in North or South America. Editor
Letter VII
“The only thing Letter VII establishes is that Cumorah–the Cumorah of the final battles, the Cumorah of Mormon 6:6, etc.–is the hill in New York where Joseph obtained the plates.
It’s true that some contemporaries of Joseph Smith described a hemispheric model. There was quite a bit of speculation about where the Book of Mormon events took place, but zero speculation about any site for Cumorah other than New York. The 1879 Orson Pratt footnotes are a perfect example. I have a separate post on that scheduled for later this week.
It is because of this unanimous and universal understanding about the New York Cumorah that I say Cumorah is a pin in the map. It’s the touchstone between our modern world and the world of the Nephites and Jaredites. It’s the one sure thing we can rely on, and it was given to us unambiguously and definitely by Joseph and Oliver in Letter VII.” Jonathan Neville
Not Utterly Destroyed
Vogel continues, “Returning to Mormon’s account, one learns that some Nephites “dissented over unto the Lamanites” (6:15), which contradicts the previously unqualified predictions that they would be “utterly destroyed”(Mosiah 12:8; Alma 9:24; Hel. 7:24; 15:17). Later, Smith corrects this where, in dictating the replacement portion of the book, he has Lehi tell his son Joseph that his “seed shall not utterly be destroyed” (3:2-3).37
When Mormon closes his account, he reminds latter-day Indians that they are Israelites, that they must repent, and that they “must lay down [their] weapons of war, and delight no more in the shedding of blood, and take them not again, save it be that God shall command you” (7:2-4; emphasis added). Of course, the possibility that latter-day Indians might take up arms is left open, but it would be appropriate only if instructed to by God through Smith. Mormon states that he has made his record so that the Indians might more easily believe in the Bible and thereby accept the gospel of Jesus Christ (v. 9). After declaring that the Indians are “a remnant of the seed of Jacob” and of the “first covenant,” Mormon promises that it will be well with them on judgment day if they submit to baptism (v. 10). With this, his account concludes, and he turns the record over to Moroni.
“Abundant Evidence of the Truth of that which is Written in the Book”
“When…first commanded to testify of these things they [The Three Witness] demurred and told the Lord the people would not believe them for the book concerning which they were to bear record told of a people who were educated and refined, dwelling in large cities; whereas all that was then known of the early inhabitants of this country was the filthy, lazy, degraded and ignorant savages that were roaming over the land. The Lord told us, in reply that he would make it known to the people that the early inhabitants of this land had been just such a people as they were described in the book, and he would lead them to discover the ruins of great cities, and they should have abundant evidence of the truth of that which is written in the book…” – David Whitmer, Interview with James H. Hart (Richmond, Mo., 21 August 1883), as printed in Deseret Evening News, Salt Lake City, Utah as published in Annotated Book of Mormon by David Hocking and Rod Meldrum page 560.
Vogel continues, “For reasons not entirely clear, Moroni waits sixteen years before finishing the history (8:1, 6). When he finally writes, he says he intends to be brief, declaring: “I have but few things to write, which things I have been commanded by my father” (v. 1). He complains that there is little room left for writing on the plates and that he has no means of making more plates (v. 5). Yet, he continues for another fifty-five pages (first edition pages), finishing his father’s record and adding two more books: the Book of Ether, which is a history of the Jaredites, and his own book. Concerning the final battle and the death of his father, Moroni writes:
“And now it came to pass that after the great and tremendous battle at Cumorah, behold, the Nephites who had escaped into the country southward were hunted by the Lamanites, until they were all destroyed. And my father also was killed by them, and I even remain alone to write the sad tale of the destruction of my people. … And whether they will slay me, I know not. Therefore I will write and hide up the records in the earth; and whither I go it mattereth not. … I am alone … I have not friends nor whither to go. (8:2-4)
Vogel says, “Smith may have identified with this situation. His brother Alvin had died, his family was divided over religion, former friends had become enemies, and he was living with his in-laws, who disapproved of him, as did the Methodists and others in Harmony. Smith may have become alienated from his own feelings and realized that he did not have any real connection to other people. His secret mission to save his family and the world and to assume the prophetic mantle insured that his feelings of “otherness” and “aloneness” would continue.
The remainder of Mormon’s section of the Book of Mormon (8:14-9:37) consists of Moroni’s closing exhortation, including a statement to future readers that seems well suited to those who had attempted to steal the gold plates: “The plates thereof are of no worth, because of the commandment of the Lord. For he truly saith that no one shall have them to get gain; but the record thereof is of great worth” (8:14). To those who threatened Smith with physical harm, saying “show unto me [the plates], or ye shall be smitten,” Moroni warns that there are consequences to seeking what is “forbidden of the Lord” (8:18-20).
The fact that Smith withheld the plates from public view was a point of contention in Harmony. Isaac Hale said that in that case, the plates should be removed from the house—which is to say that the box should be removed from the house—and that “if he did not, I was determined to see it.”38 Others in Harmony said that Smith promised to show them the plates and then changed his mind.39 If Smith did make any such statements, it could have been diversionary because he seemed to have had no intention of showing his enemies the plates.
Moroni describes what America will be like when the Book of Mormon appears, offering several predictions. First, “it shall come in a day when it shall be said that miracles are done away. … Yea, it shall come in a day when the power of God shall be denied, and churches become defiled and [will] be lifted up in the pride of their hearts” (8:26, 28). True, Smith lived in a day when miracles were denied by deists, skeptics, and rationalists; but it was also a time when revivalists were experiencing visions, speaking in tongues, and healing the sick. Smith likely referred to the rejection of a specific kind of miracle—the coming forth of new revelation.” Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet by Dan Vogel Chapter 21 Mormon and Moroni–The Final Struggle
Quotes about Cumorah’s Location and the Cave
1. “At one time a fierce battle was fought near where Buffalo, N.Y., now stands, wherein two million were lying strewn upon the earth, slain in battle and no one to bury them, till the stench drove them southward to the Hill Ramah, which was called Cumorah by the Nephite race.” Reminiscences of Joseph the Prophet, by Edward Stevensonm1893
2. “It was at this time that Mormon deposited in the Hill Cumorah all the records that had been entrusted to him except a few plates that he gave to his son Moroni. (See Mormon 6.) About A.D. 420, Moroni placed these plates with those his father, Mormon, had already deposited in the hill. (See Moroni 10:1-2.)” A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, p. 73. By LeGrand Richards
3. “This Book, which contained these things, was hid in the earth by Moroni, in a hill called by him, Cumorah, which hill is now in the State of New York, near the village of Palmyra, in Ontario County.” Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, p. 43.
4. “[Joseph] 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… Joseph Smith said that cave contained tons of choice treasures & records.” Wilford Woodruff Journal, 11 December 1869
F. “Joseph and others… went 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. Those records this people will yet have, if they accept of the Book of Mormon and observe its precepts, and keep the commandments.” Heber C. Kimball
NOTES
31. Joseph Smith to Emma Smith, 4 June 1834, in Dean C. Jessee, ed., The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, 2nd. ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co.; Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2002), 345-46.
32. Joseph Smith Jr., History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. B. H. Roberts, 7 vols., 2nd ed. rev. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1948), 2:79-80 (cf. Times and Seasons 6 [1 Jan. 1846]: 1076). Onandagus is no doubt inspired by the Onondaga Indians of central New York State. Kenneth W. Godfrey argues that those who refer to the Zelph incident as evidence against the Limited Tehuantepec Theory of Book of Mormon geography do so “on inconclusive grounds” (Kenneth W. Godfrey, “The Zelph Story,” Brigham Young University Studies 29 [Spring 1989]: 31-56). Godfrey’s oft-cited essay, however, contains many inaccuracies, not the least of which is his suggestion that Smith’s history was emended to exclude references to “the Nephites” and “the Hill Cumorah,” possibly at Smith’s instigation (47). However, these alterations were made sometime after publication of the Zelph story in the Times and Seasons in 1846 and, hence, without Smith’s participation. His assertion that “the earlier accounts do not expressly identify Zelph with the Nephites, as do the later accounts” (42) is equally false. Within months of the return of Smith and his men to Kirtland, Ohio, E. D. Howe reported that after disinterment of the bones, “Smith made a speech, prophesying or declaring that they were the remains of a celebrated General among the Nephites, mentioning his name and the battle in which he was slain, some 1500 years ago” (E. D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed [Painesville, OH: E. D. Howe, 1834], 159). Godfrey equivocates about every key word in the Zelph accounts, but his questioning of “the plains of the Nephites” in Smith’s letter to Emma is especially strained. “Evidently these plains were in some respect associated with, or comparable to, the battlefields of the Nephites,” Godfrey argues, “but beyond this it is unclear what Joseph meant by this expression” (46). The balance of the sentence, that they were standing on the mounds of that “once beloved people of the Lord” and “picking up their skulls and their bones” as “proof” of the Book of Mormon’s “divine authenticity,” makes it abundantly clear that Smith intended “the plains of the Nephites” to be understood literally.
33. Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate 1 (July 1835): 158 (EMD 2:449).
34. One of the speculative apologists is John L. Sorenson, who has written that Cumorah was located about eighty-five miles northwest of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the Tuxtla Mountain chain near Tres Zapotes in south-central Veracruz (John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; and Provo, UT: FARMS, 1985], 347-50). This suggestion is problematic. Mormon describes the region around Cumorah as “a land of many waters, rivers, and fountains” (Morm. 6:4). Helaman 3:4 describes it as a land with “large bodies of water and many rivers,” stating that it is located “an exceeding great distance” into the land northward. Traditionally, these two passages of the Book of Mormon have been thought to point to the Great Lakes Region. By comparison, Tres Zapotes is not “an exceeding great distance” from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Some writers have proposed two lands of many waters and lakes: one the land of Cumorah—which they say is the Papaloapan Lagoon System just west of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec—the other farther west and north in the Valley of Mexico (Ibid., 267). The Book of Mormon gives no indication that such a division was implied. If this were the case, one would expect Mormon, the editor, to explicitly distinguish the area of many waters in Helaman 3:4 from the more famous “land of many waters” of Cumorah. David A. Palmer argues that “it would be fruitless to argue over how far an ‘exceeding great distance’ was to a Nephite” (In Search of Cumorah: New Evidences for the Book of Mormon from Ancient Mexico [Bountiful, UT: Horizon Publishers, 1981], 79). But if eighty-five miles or so to Tres Zapotes is “an exceeding great distance” to a Nephite, then what about the 120 miles across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, which the Book of Mormon describes as “only the distance of a day and a half’s journey for a Nephite” (Alma 22:32)? Or what about the 155 miles from Kaminaljuyu (Nephi) to Santa Rosa (Zarahemla), spoken of as being a short distance apart? Along with the two-Cumorah theory comes the problem of explaining how the plates (not to mention the entire Nephite library) came to be in New York thousands of miles from their supposed location in Central America. (For the story of Smith, Cowdery, and others seeing the Nephite library inside the New York hill, see EMD 3:379-82.) John A. Widtsoe suggested that the plates could have been “moved from place to place by divine help” (John A. Widtsoe, “Is Book of Mormon Geography Known?” Improvement Era 53 [July 1950]: 547). But the more popular explanation is that “Moroni carried the plates by himself to the Palmyra, New York area and buried them there” (Palmer, In Search of Cumorah, 20; and Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, 44). This explanation is problematic because Moroni makes it clear that he buried the plates in the vicinity of the Nephites’ destruction, not 2,000 miles away in some remote region. When Moroni begins writing sixteen years after the Nephites’ destruction, we learn that he remained in the area to observe the activities of the Lamanites, at risk of being captured (Morm. 8:1-13). Uncertain about his future, Moroni buries the plates (8:3-4). When he returns twenty years later, he observes the “exceedingly fierce” wars among the Lamanites and declares: “I make not myself known to the Lamanites lest they should destroy me” (Moro. 1:1-2). After writing his final exhortation, he bids farewell: “And I seal up these records … I soon go to rest in the paradise of God” (10:2, 34). Thus, Moroni is old and ready to die when he hides the plates in the same hill around which the Nephites were destroyed. On these and other difficulties facing the new geographers, see Earl M. Wunderli, “Critique of a Limited Geography for Book of Mormon Events,”
35. See M. T. Lamb, The Golden Bible; or, The Book of Mormon. Is it from God? (Salt Lake City: Salt Lake Herald, 1885), 96-106, 205-6, 308-16. See also Vogel and Metcalfe, American Apocrypha, viii-ix.
36. See chapters 8 and 17.
37. See chapter 25.
38. “Mormonism,” Susquehanna Register, and Northern Pennsylvanian 9 (1 May 1834): 1 (EMD 4:286).
39. See the statements of Alva Hale, Nathaniel Lewis, and Joshua McKune in ibid. (EMD 4:291, 294, 325).
