Geography
Overview
The Geography for a Book of Mormon setting in North America is primarily based on the personal writings of Joseph Smith, Jr. and journal entries by his scribes and companions as they journeyed across America. Also, close attention is paid to the archaeological data in North America which parallels the Nephite occupation and compare it with the indigenous group called “Hopewell” from the archaeological data. Hopewell’s sphere of occupation matches the timeline and landmass of the Nephites Promised Land occupation and their rise and fall. Dates for both cultures are very close in comparison. I follow Joseph Smith, Jr. and the archaeological record to show this striking resemblance of the two groups and seek out the oral histories of the Native Americans who are here today. Learn more about the geography in the Author's books....
• Western New York is the location for Book of Mormon “Hill Cumorah”.
• Manti is in Northern Missouri just to the west of Huntsville, Missouri, as Joseph so stated and recorded by several men in their journals. These very men were the same who would become our next leaders after the exodus into the Utah Territory.
• Book of Mormon places the Waters of Mormon (the great fountain) in a southward direction from Manti. Today we have the largest fountain of water in the U.S. almost straight south of Manti in southern Missouri located west of the city of Van Buren, Missouri, spilling forth millions of gallons of pure water everyday.
• Joseph Smith, Jr. crosses the midwestern plains from Kirtland, Ohio to the banks of the Mississippi River and proclaims he and his companions have walked on Nephite lands, on their burial mounds, and picking up their parched bones and archaeological remains.
• Joseph identifies the Eastern Sea as Lake Ontario which lies north of Cumorah, and declares the lands of the Nephites reach from there
to the Rocky Mountains. This gives us our east and west borders.
The lands of the Nephites run horizontally east to west, not north and south.
• Joseph identifies the battle mound on the banks of the Illinois River and by revelation identifies the man who is buried on the top of that mound as “Zelph” a righteous Lamanite warrior who fought for the Nephites during the last great struggle. In 1950’s, Illinois archaeologists excavate the mound and validate Josephs claim by dating this earthwork to 250AD near the end of the Nephite and Hopewell timeline which is 400AD for both cultures.
This
information is just a start for the general outline of the map here
showing the locations for Book of Mormon Lands in North America.
Wayne N. May
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