This twenty-first question is directed to Phyllis Carol Olive and her Great Lakes Theory and to Rod L. Meldrum and his Heartland Theory.
The question to ask is quite simple and strictly scripturally based:
22. “Where is all the ore found all over the Land of Promise in the scriptural record, and more importantly, where is all the precious metals found in your Great Lakes land of promise, such as Gold and Silver?” (1 Nephi 18:25; Jarom 1:8; Mosiah 4:19; Alma 1:29; 4:6; 15:16; Ether 10:23).
Gold was
discovered in 1829 in Dahlonega, Georgia, in the heart of the northern Georgia
Mountains, twenty years before the great California Gold Rush. By 1861, the
boom was over and the mines closedFirst, the largest gold mine ever discovered east of the Mississippi River was in the township area of Dahlonego, Georgia, north of Gainsville, and 66 miles north of Atlanta. This area, of course, is neither in Meldrum’s Heartland nor Olive’s Great Lakes lands of promise. During the 32 years of mining operations only six million dollars was taken out of the ground—compare this with 2 trillion dollars taken at Sutter’s Mill in Califonria.
Second, the Piedmont Gold Belt, covering part of the Dahlonega belt and located from Alabama to North Carolina and even Virginia. In addition, there was gold discovered in Maryland, and even as late as 1901, six gold mines were in actual operation within walking distance of the Capital at Washington D.C.; however, it should be noted that these areas are hundreds of miles from both Meldrum’s Heartland model and Olive’s Great Lakes model.
Yellow dots show where gold has been found
and mined in the United States. The closest areas to the Great lakes is in
Virginia and eastern Pennsylvania and New York, more than 200 miles away from
Olive’s Great Lakes land of promise; and Georgia/Alabama is as close as gold has
been found to Meldrum’s Heartland land of promise, some 200 miles awayThird, small amounts of silver were found in Massachusettes and New Jersey, North and South Carolina, and Dutchess County, in eastern New York (near the Connecticut border), and later in Worchester County, New York, just West of Albany—all of which is far from the Great Lakes area, and far to the east of Olive’s Sea East.
Fourth, the Cobalt Silver Rush of 1903 on the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway near the Mile 103 post created a Silver rush that by 1905 was in full swing and saw the establishment of the town of Cobalt, Ontairio, which served as its hub. By 1908 Cobalt produced 9% of the world's silver, and in 1911 produced 31,507,791 ounces of silver.
However, the "good ore ran out fairly rapidly," and most of the mines were closed by the 1930s. In total, the Cobalt area mines produced 460 million ounces of silver (averaging 17 million ounces a year). By comparison, in one year, Peru produces 118 million ounces of silver, Bolivia 41 million and Chile 39 million ounces (by comparison, Guatemala only 10 million). A single mine in Peru, the Antamine, has reported reserves of 285 million ounces. In fact, Peru has three of the largest silver producers in the world (7th, 8th, and 10th), producing 53.9 million ounces a year (Canada 55.6), Mexico (54.9), Poland (41), Australia (39), and Russia (26.5).
Fifth, By 1850, it was estimated that 99 out of every 100 silver dollars then in use in the United States were of Mexican or Peruvian metal. Not until gold and silver mines in the western United States began to produce precious metals did the U.S. become a producer of gold and silver.
Sixth, by way of comparison, Peru produces 150 ton of gold per year, Mexico 100, Chile 55; Peru produces 3,854 tons of silver per year, Mexico 3,554, Chile 1,301, U.S. 1206 (almost all west of the Mississippi), Guatemala 128. Chile produces 5,360,800 tons of copper per year, Peru 1,549,933, U.S. 1,150,000, Mexico 129,042. In the U.S., the leading producer states are: Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, and Montana. Some minor copper production came from Alaska, Idaho and Missouri. The U.S. has to import 35% of its copper needs annually, from Chile, Canada, Peru, and Mexico.
Seventh, to show the lack of perception beyond preconceived ideas, John Lund stated: “Four separate mining areas possessing gold, silver and copper are required in order to quality as the lands of the primary events in the Book of Mormon. Where are those criteria met? The answer is in Mesoamerica, southwestern United States, the northern Rockies, and Western Canada. However, there is no single place east of the Mississippi River, including all twenty six states, where one can find gold, silver, and copper together in one location in abundance, much less four separate locations. This single fact alone is a nail in the coffin of the Great Lakes advocates.” Not that his comment is inaccurate, however, in the Western Hemisphere, the largest deposits of Gold, silver and copper are not found in the United States, but within the area of Andean South America—Peru, Chile, Ecuador, and Bolivia.
Eighth, Chile and Peru produce 6,410,733 ounces of copper, which is a little more than 35% of the world's copper production. The next nearest country is the U.S., at 1,220,000 ounces (Mexico has a dismal 129,042 ounces) and Guatemala only 597 ounces). It is hardly likely that Nephi's descriptions of copper ore and the copper ore that is mentioned throughout the scriptural record came from southern Mexico or Guatemala, who, combined produce a little over 100,000 ounces annually).
So we ask the question again, “Where is all the ore found all over the Land of Promise in the scriptural record, and more importantly, where is all the precious metals found in your Great Lakes land of promise, such as Gold and Silver?"
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