Proposed Book of Mormon geographical setting

G[eorge] F. Weston, MAP OF ANCIENT AMERICA [:] LECTURE SIZE]. Independence, Missouri: [Herald Publishing House?], 1899. Image courtesy of Boston Rare Maps.

The Book of Mormon itself is the best source for understanding the geographical locations contained therein. Internal Book of Mormon geography focuses on the relationships between lands and other geographic features, independent of where they might be physically located on today's maps. The purpose of constructing unbiased internal maps is to orient major lands, seas and landmarks mentioned in the text, and estimate relative distances between them; without trying to 'fit them' into any proposed setting on a modern map. A careful investigation of the Book of Mormon's internal geography is useful to guard against bias by researchers using favored "known-world" settings and/or traditions.

The following is a brief overview of the Book of Mormon's New World[lower-alpha 4] (American) internal geography. Three groups are known to have migrated: Jaredites, Lehites and Mulekites:

• The Jaredites along with 22[11] other families landed in what was later called the "Land Northward" during the time of the building of the "great tower."[12] There is no mention of any of the other families after the landing. It is presumed that they remained with the descendants of Jared and his brother, but this is inconclusive. The Jaredites remained there until destroyed between 600 and 300 BC.[13] Their land is described as being surrounded by four "seas"[14] with a "Narrow Neck" linking to a "Land Southward" to which they never ventured except for hunting.[15] This core area does not preclude expansions into areas beyond the north, east or west seas.
• The Lehites[16] landed on the coast of the "Land Southward" around 589 BC. The term "Land Southward" seems to be used in different contexts as the Nephites gradually migrate Northward with what is possibly an explicitly-defined change in the terminology in Alma 22:31-32. The Land Southward was nearly surrounded by seas. One sea which was near the dividing line of the latter definition of the "Land Southward" from the "Land Northward" was described as the "Sea that Divides the Land."[17] The Book of Mormon does not explicitly identify the "West Sea" or the "East Sea"[lower-alpha 5] with the "waters of the great deep", "great waters" or "many waters" crossed by Book of Mormon peoples to the New World.
• The Mulekites landed in the Land Northward[18] around 587 BC[19] and proceeded southward through the Narrow Neck, founding the city "Zarahemla" which was in the heart of the land[20] along the river "Sidon."[21]

After arriving in the New World, Nephi, a son of Lehi, left the place of their first landing and traveled with his followers "many days" in the wilderness.[22] "Many" is a non-specific word that can mean anything from "three hours"[23] to "forty days."[24] This particular journey did not take Nephi and his followers beyond the territory that would later be called the land of Nephi. Numerous other travel times are mentioned within the Book of Mormon, generally just days or less. Thus the text of the Book of Mormon is often viewed by scholars as favoring a 'limited' setting of just a few hundred miles for most of its events. For example, a group ostensibly consisting of the very young and old with "their flocks" and some belongings, could travel from the land of Nephi "down" through a "strip" of wilderness to the land of Zarahemla in less than 21 days.[25]

• The land of Zarahemla is north of the land of Nephi.[26] The lands of Zarahemla and Nephi are near an east and a west sea. A narrow strip of wilderness divides the land of Zarahemla from the southern land of Nephi. The region of Zarahemla features the nearby river "Sidon" - the only river named in the localized New World setting.[27] The shallow (it could be crossed on foot) river Sidon originates in highlands to the south[28] of the city of Zarahemla, near a land and city called Manti which is at the head of the river Sidon.[29]
• The land of Bountiful lies far north of the land of Zarahemla.[30] A fortified line between the land of Zarahemla and the land of Bountiful could be crossed in a single day from the west sea to the east [sea].[31][lower-alpha 6] There is explicit reference to a "sea" east of the land of Zarahemla, as far north as the southern borders of Bountiful.[33] A sea east of Bountiful seems to be implied.
• The land of Desolation is north of Bountiful.[34] The border between the land of Bountiful and Desolation is also described as a "line" running from "the east to west sea". This "line" could be traversed by a Nephite in "only" a day and a half, presumably by boat,[35] because the vicinity of Desolation was a "place where the sea divides the land".[17] A "narrow pass" or "passage" ran northward near the Bountiful/Desolation border which is mentioned in context with the nearby east and west seas.[36] In contrast to the breadth of the Desolation / Bountiful border,[37] the entrance to "the narrow pass which led into the land northward" is described as a "point".[38] Elsewhere in the Book of Mormon, a "narrow" or "small neck of land", by the border of the land Bountiful and the land Desolation is described connecting "the land northward and the land southward".[39] Serving as the entrance to "the land south", this pass, or perhaps the whole "narrow neck of land", appears to have been narrow enough to be blocked by a "poisonous serpents" epidemic.[40]
• The land northward is covered "with large bodies of water and many rivers."[41] The land is bordered in each of the cardinal directions by bodies of water called seas.[14] There are limits to how far north the land extends.[42]
• Cumorah situates in "a land of many waters, rivers, and fountains", south of a particularly "large" body of water called "Ripliancum"[43] and east of the Jaredite Land Northward.[44] The land of Cumorah was the decisive gathering place of both the Nephite and earlier Jaredite armies.[45] The Jaredite King Omer and his family settled east of the place where the Nephites nation would be destroyed.[44] Lands south of Cumorah, where a "few" Nephites had temporarily escaped destruction, are referred to as the "south countries".[46] This "country southward" may have been beyond the borders of principal Book of Mormon lands frequently mentioned in the text.[47] A Jaredite land of "many waters" and Zarahemla were near enough to each other, that travelers from the land of Nephi in the south could confuse the general region where the Jaredite nation was destroyed with the land of Zarahemla.[48]

Numerous other details in the Book of Mormon indicate principal lands that are quite localized, generally negating the possibility that the Book of Mormon settings cover major parts of both North and South America.

Published articles in the Times & Seasons newspaper (of which Joseph Smith was the editor) indicate that Book of Mormon peoples, or their descendants,[lower-alpha 7] migrated from "the lake country of America" to Mexico and Central America.[50] In 1841 Joseph Smith read Stephens' Incidents of Travel in Central America. Smith held Stephens' work in high regard and recommended it.[51] However, Stephens' bestseller did not change Smith's position that Book of Mormon events took place in northern America, in lands primarily occupied by the United States.[lower-alpha 8]

In the Wentworth Letter Joseph Smith wrote the following[53] regarding his interview with the angel Moroni:

I was also informed concerning the aboriginal inhabitants of this country', and shown who they were, and from whence they came; a brief sketch of their origin, progress, civilization, laws, governments, of their righteousness and iniquity, and the blessings of God being finally withdrawn from them as a people was made known unto me: I was also told where there was deposited some plates on which were engraven an abridgment of the records of the ancient prophets that had existed on this continent ...

In his "AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES" editorial of July 1842, the Times & Seasons newspaper corroborates wars described in the Book of Mormon with archaeological finds in northern America. It is not certain as to which articles in the Times & Seasons signed "-ED" were authored by Joseph Smith, approved by Joseph Smith, or otherwise handled by editorial assistants since Joseph Smith was frequently absent and only the nominal editor.

The Times & Seasons quotes Josiah Priest's American Antiquities statement that "Weapons of brass have been found in many parts of America, as in the Canadas, Florida, &c., with curiously sculptured stones, all of which go to prove that this country was once peopled with civilized, industrious nations ..."[54]

The Times & Seasons associates earth, timber and metal works found in northern America (presumably artifacts of mound builder societies) with implements and constructions described in the Book of Mormon.[55] As much as Joseph Smith approved of Stephens' work, the Times & Seasons only makes minor mention of it, and then only to conclude in the "American Antiquities" editorial, that the peoples of Central America are tied historically to the Book of Mormon. Regarding the peoples of Central America, the Times & Seasons concludes:

Stephens and Catherwood's researches in Central America abundantly testify of this thing. The stupendous ruins, the elegant sculpture, and the magnificence of the ruins of Guatemala, and other cities, corroborate this statement, and show that a great and mighty people-men of great minds, clear intellect, bright genius, and comprehensive designs inhabited this continent. Their ruins speak of their greatness; the Book of Mormen [Mormon] unfolds their history.-ED.[56]

The article does not actually say that Book of Mormon lands are to be found in Central America. This assertion came later in several unsigned newspaper articles, published in the Fall of 1842. The use of first person plural ("we" and "us") indicates that the articles may have been a collaborative effort.[57] A recent "word-print" stylometry study of the unsigned articles concluded that they contain Joseph Smith's vocabulary and average sentence lengths.[58] One LDS apologist, however, argues that the statistical word-print analysis cannot identify everything that was edited in the articles and by whom. Without an endorsing signature we cannot tell the extent to which Joseph Smith agreed with the opinions expressed in the unsigned articles.[59]

In the March 15, 1842 edition of the Times and Seasons, Joseph Smith informed readers that he would endorse his articles with his signature.[lower-alpha 9] W. Vincent Coon argues that the unsigned 1842 articles contradict each other.[61] One of the articles in question mentions "Joseph Smith" in the third person. This same article alleges that Lehi "landed a little south of the Isthmus of Darien" which would place Lehi's landing on a western shore of South America.[62] The 1842 Times and Seasons editorials, written by Joseph Smith, are readily identified as they end with his "ED".[lower-alpha 10] Joseph Smith had found it necessary to go into hiding for much of the Fall that year.[64] Though he was still official editor of the Times and Seasons, it is doubtful that he was acting editor at the time inasmuch as he was keeping a low public profile and had been in hiding, as Doctrine and Covenants 127:1 and 128:1 attest. LDS Church History Scholars believe that John Taylor may have served as "the acting editor for the Times and Seasons" in Joseph's absence.[65] In November 1842, Joseph Smith officially resigned as editor, explaining that, "The multiplicity of other business that daily devolves upon me, renders it impossible for me to do justice to a paper so widely circulated as the Times and Seasons." John Taylor was then made official editor of the newspaper.[66]

Published in the same issue as the unsigned "ZARAHEMLA" article (October 1842) with its anachronistic claims about the ruins of Quirigua, is a signed epistle to the church from the Mormon prophet in hiding. In Joseph Smith's letter (canonized as the 128th section of the LDS Doctrine and Covenants) the Book of Mormon land Cumorah is referenced among other locations of significance near the Finger Lakes.[lower-alpha 11][lower-alpha 12][lower-alpha 13]

Several earlier statements by Joseph Smith, indicate that events described in the Book of Mormon took place in lands occupied by the United States of America. In an 1833 letter to N.C. Saxton, he wrote:

The Book of Mormon is a record of the forefathers of our western tribes of Indians; having been found through the ministration of an holy angel, and translated into our own language by the gift and power [of] God, after having been hid up in the earth for the last fourteen hundred years, containing the word of God which was delivered unto them. By it we learn that our western tribes of Indians are descendants from that Joseph that was sold into Egypt, and that the land [of] America is a promised land unto them, and unto it, all the tribes of Israel will come, with as many of the Gentiles as shall comply with the requisitions of the new covenant. But the tribe of Judah will return to old Jerusalem.[70]

The expression, "our western tribes of Indians" refers to Indian tribes who lived west, or were pushed west from the east coast of the United States by European expansion. LDS missionaries were sent to these peoples in the early days of the Church. Latter-day scripture refers to these peoples as "Lamanites".[71] Several passages in LDS scripture associate these native peoples with peoples of the Book of Mormon.[72] LDS scripture teaches that the land of their Book of Mormon ancestors (presumably the territories now occupied by the United States of America) was ordained to become a land "free unto all ...".[73] The ancient land of their inheritance is, according to LDS scripture, associated with the land of "New Jerusalem.".[74] New Jerusalem, "the city of Zion" is, according to LDS scripture to be built in northern America.[75]

Some scholars argue that Joseph Smith came to believe that the Maya ruins on the Yucatán Peninsula discovered in the late 1830s, offered evidence in support of the Book of Mormon's authenticity. A more recent inclusion in History of the Church proclaims the ruins were likely Nephite or belonging to "the ancient inhabitants of America treated of in the Book of Mormon".[76] In view of the position that ancient peoples migrated from the north into Mexico and Central America, the linking of Mesoamerican artifacts with "ancient inhabitants ... of ... the Book of Mormon" is not inconsistent with Joseph Smith's statements placing Book of Mormon lands in northern America. The History of the Church statement was inserted under the date June 25, 1842 and is not taken from any holograph writing of Joseph Smith or records kept by his clerks. The date, in fact, is only a few weeks prior to the publication of the AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES editorial, citing northern American evidence of Book of Mormon history. The inclusion in History of the Church reads as follows:

Messrs. Stephens and Catherwood have succeeded in collecting in the interior of America a large amount of relics of the Nephites, or the ancient inhabitants of America treated of in the Book of Mormon, which relics have recently been landed in New York.[77][lower-alpha 14]

Stephens brought to New York hundreds of artifacts from Mayan sites, including sculptures and architectural remnants. Shortly after arriving in New York, most of these relics were lost when the building that housed them was destroyed by fire.[79]

According to Mormon 6:5, Nephite civilization came to an end near the year 384 A.D., with only a few Nephites surviving,(Mormon 6:11) of which some or all were "hunted until they were destroyed" by the surviving tribal civilization. The Copan and Quirigua, sites in the Yucatan visited by Stephens and Catherwood, contain artifacts that date more recent than Book of Mormon times. It has not been shown that any of Stephens' artifacts date to Book of Mormon times, and Joseph Smith does not make this assertion.

The first history of the Church was written in 1834 and 1835 by Oliver Cowdery, as a series of articles published serially in the Church's Messenger and Advocate. In this history, Cowdery stated that the final battle between the Nephites and the Lamanites occurred at the "Hill Cumorah," the very same Hill Cumorah in New York, where Joseph Smith said he obtained golden plates and other artifacts which were used to translate the Book of Mormon. These plates and artifacts were shown to only a few witnesses and never to the general public. The plates were later claimed to have been returned to the angel, Moroni.[80][lower-alpha 15] Oliver Cowdery also identified the Jaredites' final battle as occurring in the same area as the Nephite/Lamanite final battle. Since Smith was an editor of the Messenger and Advocate and approved the history, all but proponents of limited South American and Mesoamerican geography theories believe it conclusively demonstrated Joseph Smith's belief as well. In any case, evidence appears to show that Smith did not subscribe to the limited Mesoamerican or South American geography theories promoted by some LDS today.[81] Joseph Smith clearly advocated a northern American setting (near the Finger Lakes) for the Book of Mormon land Cumorah, hence Doctrine and Covenants 128:20.

Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph Smith's mother, in her account of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, says that the divine messenger called the hill where the plates were deposited the "hill of Cumorah" meaning "hill of" the Book of Mormon land "Cumorah". In another account, she said that young Joseph referred to the hill using this description.[82] Joseph Smith's preeminence as an authority on the Book of Mormon is evinced by the following account given by his mother:

During our evening conversations, Joseph, would occasionally give us some of the most amusing recitals that could be imagined. He would describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent, their dress, mode of traveling, and the animals upon which they rode; their cities and buildings, with every particular; their mode of warfare; and also their religious worship. This he would do with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life among them.[83]

Efforts to associate Joseph Smith with the geographic notions of his contemporaries remain speculative. A note in the handwriting of Frederick G. Williams, a scribe and counselor to Smith, asserts that Lehi's people landed in South America at thirty degrees south latitude.[84] Early LDS church leader, Orson Pratt also speculated that the Nephite landing site was on the coast of Chile near Valparaiso, but Pratt indicated that this hypothesis was arrived at by supposition, not divine revelation.[85] There is no proof that Williams' unsigned, undated writing represents a revelation given to Joseph Smith. In 1938 an article in the Church magazine The Instructor discouraged Church members from making too much of the Williams document.[86]

Evidence indicates that early members of the Church did not pay a great deal of attention to Book of Mormon details about distances.[lower-alpha 16] 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.

There was no consensus of opinion among early Mormon leaders on the topic of Book of Mormon geography. The hemispheric setting of Apostle Parley P. Pratt, for instance, differed from that of his brother Orson. Strongly influenced by John Lloyd Stephens' 1841 bestseller, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Parley Pratt set various Book of Mormon lands (including, apparently, the narrow neck) farther north and west of Panama.[91] As early as 1842, Apostle John E. Page published a more limited, non-hemispheric setting for the Book of Mormon. Page originally placed the narrow neck at the Bay of Honduras; and by 1848 appears to have relocated the narrow neck more to the northwest.[92] [lower-alpha 17] Other LDS, in 1842, figured all of Central America to be the narrow neck.[93] Prior to the influence of John Lloyd Stephens' popular book, some church members placed the southernmost Nephite land of Manti well within the boundaries of United States territory.[94]

In the 1850s the following unsigned statement was circulated among Latter-day Saints:

The course that Lehi traveled from the city of Jerusalem to the place where he and his family took ship, they traveled nearly a south, southeast direction until they came to the nineteenth degree of North Latitude, then, nearly east to the Sea of Arabia then sailed in a southeast direction and landed on the continent of South America in Chili [Chile] thirty degrees south latitude.

The original is in the handwriting of early church leader Frederick G. Williams, who held a definite opinion on the subject of Book of Mormon geography. The statement was partially rewritten by church authorities Richards and Little and published as a "Revelation to Joseph the Seer" - a statement which the original did not contain.[95] The Chilean landing site, promoted in the Williams document, matches Orson Pratt's geography. Prominent LDS would later call into question the statement's authority;[96] but before this would happen, church leaders publicly attributed (without verification or proof) features of Orson Pratt's geography to Joseph Smith.[97] The idea that Lehi landed on the coast of temperate Chile,[lower-alpha 18] thousand of miles south of Panama's narrow neck, and that tropical Colombia's thousand mile long Magdalena River is the River Sidon, were presented by church scholars as mainstream, majority views in the LDS community.[100]

It has been claimed in recent years, that within the Mormon community, more scholars have gravitated toward this general group of geographic scenarios than any other group of theories. While there are disagreements about where the "narrow neck of land" resides, e.g. southern Mexico, Honduras, the Isthmus of Rivas between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, Panama, the following list of theories can all be categorized as Central American based.

Early LDS became engrossed with John Lloyd Stephens' 1841 bestseller, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. Despite Stephens' own published conclusion that the marvelous stone ruins which he and Frederick Catherwood documented were not of "great antiquity",[101] some LDS nevertheless, placed much importance on matching these stone ruins to Book of Mormon cities.[lower-alpha 19] For some, this endeavor had higher priority than looking for the narrowest and correctly oriented Mesoamerican isthmus. In time, more Mormon scholars came to realize that the New World Book of Mormon lands were quite localized.[103]

The earliest, most limited Central American models were posited by members of the RLDS Church.[104] In one detail, none of these proposed settings are exactly limited geographically: they all require Moroni to have transported the plates and other articles thousands of miles to western New York.

LDS apologist Vincent Coon cites non-LDS archaeologist Salvatore Trento, who posits the possibility that Joseph Smith actually discovered buried metal tablets engraved with "weird markings".[105] Trento notes comparable discoveries in Northeastern America which Coon points out are not likely the result of a singular ancient individual traveling thousands of miles from Central or South America.[106] Such finds are consistent with the 19th century "Mound Builder" literary setting in which the Book of Mormon is classed by mainstream American History and Literature specialists.[107]

The "Heartland" Model or "Heartland Theory" of Book of Mormon geography states that the Book of Mormon events primarily occurred in the heartland of North America.[108] The Hill Cumorah in Ontario County NY is the hill where Joseph Smith found the Golden Plates and is the same hill where the civilizations of the Nephites (Cumorah) and the Jaredites (Ramah) fought their last battles. Oliver Cowdery with the assistance of Joseph Smith wrote "... Here, between these hills, the entire power and national strength of both the Jaredites and Nephites were destroyed. By turning to the 529th and 530th pages of the Book of Mormon, you will read Mormon's account of the last great struggle of his people, as they were encamped round this hill Cumorah.  In this valley fell the remaining strength and pride of a once powerful people, the Nephites—once so highly favored of the Lord, but at that time in darkness, doomed to suffer extermination by the hand of their barbarous and uncivilized brethren. From the top of this hill, Mormon, with a few others, after the battle, gazed with horror upon the mangled remains of those who, the day before, were filled with anxiety, hope, or doubt."[109]

Among its proposals are that Mound Builders, including the Hopewell and the Adena, were among those peoples described in accounts of events in Book of Mormon books such as Alma and Helaman. The ancient city of Zarahemla is near Montrose, Iowa. (D&C 125:3). The Mississippi River is identified as the River Sidon, and the Springs of Northern Georgia just south of Chattanooga, Tennessee are identified as possibly being the Waters of Mormon. The Niagara Falls Peninsula has been described as the "narrow neck of land" mentioned in the Book of Ether. In addition, the Appalachian region of Tennessee is most likely to be the Land of Nephi.[110] It is also proposed that Lehi's journey sailed west after going around Africa which would be a much shorter voyage than across the Indian and Pacific Oceans (as demonstrated by the path of the modern-day "Phoenician" ship's experimental circumnavigation voyage around Africa in 2010 by Philip Beale followed by an Atlantic crossing in 2019-2020). They propose that Lehi and his family landed somewhere near Florida, that the land of Nephi was in Tennessee and that the Mulokites and Jaredites settled the land after traveling along the great lakes river system into Ohio valley and then the proposed Zarahemla site near Montrose, Iowa.

In recent years, this theory, which challenges the traditional paradigm of Central America as a primary location for Book of Mormon geography, has become a "movement"[111][112] among many active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Proponents see this new model as a way of better supporting the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon.

In the Joseph Smith Papers, Joseph Smith had a vision that was written down by Wilford Woodruff, Heber C. Kimball, George A. Smith and many others. "On the top of the mound were stones which presented the appearance of three altars having been erected one above the other, according to the ancient order; and the remains of bones were strewn over the surface of the ground. The brethren procured a shovel and a hoe, and removing the earth to the depth of about one foot, discovered the skeleton of a man, almost entire, and between his ribs the stone point of a Lamanitish arrow, which evidently produced his death. Elder Burr Riggs retained the arrow. The contemplation of the scenery around us produced peculiar sensations in our bosoms; and subsequently the visions of the past being opened to my understanding by the Spirit of the Almighty, I discovered that the person whose skeleton was before us was a white Lamanite, a large, thick-set man, and a man of God. His name was Zelph. He was a warrior and chieftain under the great prophet Onandagus, who was known from the Hill Cumorah, or eastern sea to the Rocky mountains. The curse was taken from Zelph, or, at least, in part-one of his thigh bones was broken by a stone flung from a sling, while in battle, years before his death. He was killed in battle by the arrow found among his ribs, during the last great struggle of the Lamanites and Nephites."[113]

A few days after the open vision, the Prophet Joseph Smith in a letter to his wife Emma on June 4, 1834 near Atlas, Illinois on the Mississippi River said the following: "The whole of our journey, in the midst of so large a company of social honest and sincere men, 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 & their bones, as a proof of its divine authenticity ... During our travels we visited several of the mounds which had been thrown up by the ancient inhabitants of this country-Nephites, Lamanites, etc.[114]

A dubious, unsigned document in the handwriting of early church leader Frederick G. Williams alleges that Lehi landed 30 degrees South of the equator, in what would be modern day Chile.[lower-alpha 20] There are several theories that try to confirm this. Many people who support this group of theories believe that part of South America was under water, and that the continent rose up during the major earthquakes mentioned in the Book of Mormon during Christ's crucifixion in the Old World.[116]

Proponents of the Great Lakes theory adhere to the teachings of LDS Church leaders,[119] official church history,[120] and church canon[121] that identify the hill in Palmyra, New York as the Hill Cumorah of the Book of Mormon, the place of the final Nephite battle. Great Lakes theories differ in that they incorporate the land of Palmyra, New York as the place of the final Nephite battle and the place where the Jaredite Omer walked.[122]

Some people believe that the Book of Mormon took place in areas outside of the Americas.

• Origin of the Book of Mormon
• Historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon
• Archaeology and the Book of Mormon

• Ludlow, Daniel H., ed. (1992), Encyclopedia of Mormonism, New York: Macmillan Publishing, ISBN 0-02-879602-0, OCLC 24502140
• Sorenson, John L. (1992), The Geography of Book of Mormon Events: A Source Book (Rev. ed.), Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, OCLC 35363524

• Ash, Michael R. (2001), "Lehi of Africa (Review)", FARMS Review of Books, 13 (2): 5–20, archived from the original on 2015-11-05, retrieved 2014-02-19
• Hamblin, William J. (1993), "Basic Methodological Problems with the Anti-Mormon Approach to the Geography and Archaeology of the Book of Mormon", Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, 2 (1): 161–197, archived from the original on 2014-09-27, retrieved 2014-09-29