How Do We Know Where Lehi Landed? - Part II

Continued from the previous post regarding the continuation of the list of descriptions Nephi gave us a complete list of the area where he landed and  a comparison between of the scriptural record and the various theories of that location. Picking up below with the third point on the list of descriptions Nephi left us:

Red Circle: Western Hemisphere; Red Areas: Mediterranean Climate

3. Climate. Since Jerusalem has what is called a Mediterranean Climate, and specifically a soil type referred to as terra rossa, which is predominant across the Mediterranean Basin, a similar soil and climate would need to exist in the Land of Promise for Lehi's seeds to "grow exceedingly; wherefore, we were blessed in abundance" (1 Nephi 18:24).
    A Mediterranean Climate has mild wet winters and warm and dry summers and is comparatively unique among the climates of the world. The Köppen Climate types show only five places outside the Mediterranean Sea region where such climates exist in the world. They are: 1) South Africa; 2) South east tip of Australia; 3) South west peninsula of Australia; 4) Southern California, and 5) La Serena, Chile.
• Heartland theory: Humid Continent Climate
• Great Lakes theory: Humid Continent Climate; Hot-Summer Continental Climate
• Mesoamerica theory: Tropical Climate; tropical Savanna Climate; Tropical Monsoon climate
• Baja California theory: Tropical and Subtropical Desert Climate
• Florida theory: Sub-Tropical Climate.
• Andean South America: Mediterranean Climate.
    Once again, the Mediterranean climates are considered “the best” because they are very comfortable and have low humidity and little rain and mild winters. They are not deserts, which are more arid and which have more extreme temperatures, and they still have four distinct seasons.
    As can be seen, none of the various theories have a climate conducive to plant “seeds brought from Jerusalem” except Andean South America

Wild Animals of Andean South America: LtoR: Specaled Bear, Puma and Jaguar

4. Animals. Nephi mentions both domestic or feral animals (cow and the ox, the ass and the horse, and the goat), as well as all manner of wild animals.
• Heartland theory: bison, deer, elk, and antelope, bobcats, and wolves.
• Great Lakes theory: black bear, elk, white-tailed deer, moose, gray wolf, Canada lynx.
• Mesoamerica theory: puma, jaguar, deer, ocelot, ape.
• Baja California theory: mule deer, mountain lion, bighorn sheep, bobcat, and antelope.
• Florida theory: White-tailed deer, bobcat, Florida panther.
• Andean South America: speckled bear, guanaco, llama, alpaca, jaguar, and the largest area of puma in the Western Hemisphere.
One of the wild animals Nephi mentioned is the wild goat (1 Nephi 18:25), an animal that is indigenous to the Middle East and found in Andean South America. 

The Land of Promise where Lehi landed, within a forest there was found “all manner of wild animals”

5. Forests. Nephi tells us that there were forests in the place they landed (1 Nephi 18:25). These forests would have been large enough for both wild and domesticated (feral) animals to survive alongside one another.
• Heartland theory: The area around Pensacola is full of forests, however, these are mostly thickly treed, and not conducive to big cat wild animals.
• Great Lakes theory: Western New York has numerous old growth forests around lakes Erie and Ontario. However most of these are patches of forest in small areas.

Mesoamerican coastline where Lehi is claimed to have landed. There isn’t a forest anywhere in sight.

Along the slope of the Pacific coast where Lehi is supposed to have landed

• Mesoamerica theory: Where the east coast along the Caribbean Sea, the Pacific Ocean coastal area  this area is covered in wetlands and mangrove swamps
• Baja California theory: The only forests in Baja California are pine-oak forests, and none exist along the southwestern coastal area of the peninsula. Most of the southern part of Baja is made up of dry-thorn scrub land, along with large cactus and succulent plants.
• Florida theory: The Crystal River Preserve State Park is a forest. Interspaced with estuaries wetlands, scrub, pinewood and hardwood forests, as well as salt marches and mangrove islands. This combination is generally not conducive to true wild animal habitats, especially big cats, bears, and predators other than crocodiles and alligators.
• Andean South America: Just south of La Serena, Chile, along the coast is the 62-square mile Bosque de Fray Jorge National Park—a forest that has existed for many thousands of years, and the last vestigial survival of the last glacial period. Being very dense, the forest grows in one of the regions that form the north of Chile, a desertic coast that contrasts to the natural climate of a forest, and is part of the Valdivian temperate rain forest. In the past, the de Fray Jorge forest was much larger.

The huge forest adjacent to La Serena, Chile: Top: Along the coast; Bottom: Inland

This particular phenomenon finds its explanation mainly in the influence of the Humboldt Current and its winds that provoke condensation in the coastal fog; the commonly known “camanchaca,” or marine stratocumulus cloud banks that form on the Chilean coast create thick fog banks. This fog runs along the coast and falls over the forest, which creates a humid environment that allows the development and survival of its flora and fauna.
6. Gold, Silver and Copper. Nephi says they found these ores while they “journeyed in the wilderness“ (1 Nephi 18:25). Contrast that with the statement of the Jaredites who did “dig it out of the earth and cast up mighty heaps of earth to get ore of gold and of silver and of iron and of copper” (Ether 10:23).
   To find gold, silver and copper while walking about would require those ores to be visible to the casual glance. After all, Nephi described along with and directly after they landed that they found the precious ore. First, they planted their seeds, second they investigate the land about their landing site, and third saw a forest about them and visible ores of gold, silver and copper in the wilderness around them.
    In fact, they found all manner of ore, that is, they saw the apex of intrusive outcrops and rock formations that visibly held such ores and were not covered by soil or water. The color of rock, such as light colored granitic rocks, or extrusive rocks rocks from lava flows.

Nephi and others journeying in the wilderness where they found gold, silver and copper

Thus, Nephi happened upon a copper vein and a gold or silver deposit that was obvious to him. In order for this to exist, a region would have large amount of precious and non-precious ores.
• Heartland theory: Gold is not found in northern Florida, i.e., the three different landing sites of the Heartland theorists. What is mined in Florida is sand, gravel, crushed stone, clay (fuller's earth and kaolin), lime, phosphate rock, staurolite, titanium mineral concentrates (ilmenite), and zirconium mineral concentrates. Gold, silver and copper are not found there.
• Great Lakes theory: Copper is found in Minnesota and Michigan, with the vast majority of copper being mined in the west with Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada the largest states. Gold is mined almost exclusively in the western states with the most in Nevada. In the east only in Wisconsin, Michigan, Tennessee, Virginia and North and South Carolina and Georgia—with most found in Georgia. Silver in the U.S. is found mostly in Nevada.
• Mesoamerica theory: In gold production, Mesoamerica does 56,536, while Andean South America does 563,178, or ten times more. Mesoamerica is not in the top twenty regions, while Peru is 2^nd, Chile 7^th, Bolivia 8^th. Peru and Chile are first and second in copper production, while southern Mexico is 16^th and no other Mesoamerican country even listed.
• Baja California theory: Old maps show that gold-bearing districts in that territory lying in the north along a direct line between San Diego and the mouth of the Colorado River, and due east of the Ensenada. None is shown in the southwest of the peninsula where they claim Lehi landed. Copper is found only in the southeast, quite some distance from where they claim Lehi landed, along with some gold and silver.

The three landing sites of the Florida theorists, none of which had much in the way of gold, silver or copper

• Florida theory: Little gold or silver is found in Florida, especially in the north and along the Panhandle. Copper even less.
• Andean South America: Peru is the biggest gold producer in Latin America, and third largest in the world, with Chile the seventh largest in Central and South America; Peru is the second largest producer of silver in the world, with Chile seventh; Chile is the largest producer of Copper in the world, with Peru second, meaning these two countries produce about 40% of the world’s copper.
    There can be no doubt that Andean South America has by far more gold, silver and copper than any other regional theory location. As Mormon recorded, “They did have an exceeding plenty of gold, and of silver, and of all manner of precious metals, both in the land south and in the land north” (Helaman 6:9, emphasis added), and also “there was all manner of gold in both these lands, and of silver, and of precious ore of every kind” (Helaman 6:11).
There can also be no doubt that only Andean South America matches these descriptions that Nephi described about his landing site in the Land of Promise.