The Roads of Ancient North America – Part I

Has anyone noticed that the Heartland and the Great Lakes theorists ignore the scriptural record that describes the Nephite roads? In truth, has anyone seen a description of roads in all of ancient North America? Nor have we seen much mention of Mesoamerica theorists mention roads—though there were a few roads anciently in that region.

The fact is, theorists seldom place much emphasis on points of the scriptural record that do not support their models, and treat them as if they do not exist—some make an attempt to change the scriptural meaning to agree with them. This is seen in the Heartland and Great Lakes models regarding mountains—there are none in their Land of Promise locations, and in the entire region east of the Mississippi none are over 4,000 feet, with a couple of peaks at 6,000.

 Part of the 24,000 miles of highways and roads in Andean Peru

 

Another area that Theorists tend to ignore is that of the amazing Nephite roads since their models, other than Peru and Mesoamerica, do not have roads to comment about. But Mormon tells us about these roads: “And there were many highways cast up, and many roads made, which led from city to city, and from land to land, and from place to place” (3 Nephi 6:8).

“From land to land,” suggests an extensive system of roads that ran through the Land of Promise, from distant lands to other distant lands. Also, highways suggest a main road, especially one connecting major towns or cities. Webster in 1828 New England defined highways as a public road open to all and providing communication from one city or town to another.

On the other hand, a “road” is a wide way leading from one place to another, especially one with a specially prepared surface which did not wash away like a dirt path.

Also “from city to city, place to place, and land to land” suggests an intricate series of highways and roads that covered the countryside, directing travel from one city to another, or extended highways from various lands (lands of Nephi, Zarehemla, Bountiful, and the myriad of smaller lands, like Gideon, Manti, Sidom, Ishmael, Minon, Mormon, Melek, Ammonihah, etc).

Now, since the Roman roads still exist, some in very good condition, as do the roads in Mesoamerica and Andean Peru, one might conclude that roads or their imprints should be found today where ones were built anciently.

However, there are no such roads found anywhere in North America, other than ancient dirt paths. Does that cause the Heartland or Great Lakes theorists a problem? One might expect that it would.

Yet, it does not. Such theorists merely ignore the lack of scriptural record support and at best, claim all such evidences were destroyed under existing cities and their extended development. Keep in mind that at no time in recorded history is there any indication of such a road system in North America.

 The Blackfeet Trail through arid landscape, heavy forests and mountainous valleys along the Rockies from Canada to Mexico

 

In fact, the longest road in North America of nearly 2,000 miles from Canada to Mexico, forged by the Blackfeet is little more than a trail over which they traveled by foot and runs down through the Rockies—not anywhere near the Heartland or Great Lakes lands of promise. Referred to as “The Old North Trail,” it is just that—a trail that took the Blackfeet four years to go from end to end on trips to trade, make sacred journeys, or find a wife. Another North American road was the King’s Highway built by King Charles II of England that ran along the coast from Boston to Charleston, South Carolina, with the furthest inland point at Fredricksburg, Virginia. However, it was not built until 1650 AD (and never in the land of promise models and was nothing more than a dirt trail—the first paved road in what is now the United States was not built untl 1909, though paved roads date back more than 2000 years in Andean Peru).

A thousand years ago, Chacoan people built multi-story buildings and engineered roads in the high desert of New Mexico. Before them, were the Anasazi (Ancestral Pueblo) from 100 – 1600 AD. They lived in Four Corners area (New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona—neither of which are in the Heartland land of promise area. Around 850 AD, the Anasazi, who were superb engineers and builders began constructing huge stone building complexes in Chaco Canyon, which became the ancient center of a culture linked by a network of eight roads extending 180 miles, and over seventy settlements many miles away. The monumental architecture and straight roads of Chaco are unique in the ancient Southwest. Their building complexes, called great houses, have hundreds of rooms, a central plaza, and kivas, circular-shaped underground chambers.

As for the roads in Andean Peru (Ecuador, Peru, western Bolivia and central Chile), the conquistadors claimed they were as good as the Roman roads in Europe, with which they were quite familiar.

It is interesting that stone roads and bridges were well known in Mesopotamia and the Middle East long before Lehi left for the Land of Promise. In fact, the oldest constructed roads discovered to date are in the area of Mesopotamia, and date earlier than 2000 B.C. in Ur and Babylon. These paved roads were meticulous laid by artisans with brick-making skills that formed identical mud bricks for building. After drying they would set them in place with bitumen, which is the natural sticky black substance in asphalt. It would be many centuries later before asphalt was used in Europe and later America.

While both Ur and Uruk in Mesopotamia had stone-pave streets, as did the Indus Valley cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, it is even more surprising to find cobbled streets in the much earlier Halaf Culture village at Tell Arpachiyah in northern Mesopotamia, and at the village of Choirokoitia in Cyprus.

Top: 3000-year-old Greek road as it ascends one of their many hills; Bottom: From the rising of the Romans in the 8th century BC, they built roads that eventually connected all parts of their empire

 

On the other hand, Roman roads were built during the last millennia BC, with an uncovered road in Pompeii dated to 600 BC. As for the Greeks, they built sturdy roads where there was need for one, and many of the roads they built in the vicinity of cities and major religious sanctuaries were well constructed—these roads were used by rich people who could rent or own horses for travel, but poor people rode donkeys or walked from place to place. Oxen were used for heavy loads, while horses pulled light loads. Farmers typically transported their goods short distances to town on mules. 

All of this would have been known to Lehi who interacted with the camel caravans that traveled from Oman to Egypt and up to Syria, providing the exchange of information as well as trade goods.

(See the next post, “The Roads of Ancient North America-Part II,” for more on the ancient roads in America and the lack of actual roads in North America, let alone highways)