My Dad (Del DowDell) had worked to give me access to all his work before his death. I will be maintaining his blog, website and books. Working with my mother after the funeral we will be working on articles to keep his work alive. Any books ordered will be shipped now and into the future. We have access to all the comments here and his contacts. We would like to make any comment on his life, work, and death you would like to share on his memory wall at the funeral. Please send any comments and let me know if your ok with us sharing them with family and friends.

nephicode@gmail.com

You can reach me at the below:

Devon DowDell

email:devondowdell1@gmail.com

Del DowDell January 28, 1936 - January 12, 2022

 It's with a heavy heart that I report my father Del DowDell passed away about 4:00 pm yesterday, 1/12/2022. My father had many loves in his life, one of them was this blog and his work on the Book of Mormon, the other his family and wife. The many readers comments and support were cherished by my father. He had a stroke Sunday after a year and a half of poor health. His mind has always been strong, but his body was just not up to the task. Tuesday with the help of his wife, he called up all his seven kids to tell them he loved them. After the calls to his kids he told my Mother he loved her dearly. In the call he made to me on Tuesday, I asked my Dad if he wrote a blog today, he said "I don't think I'll be writing anymore blogs".  I knew at that time Dad would not be around much longer. My two brothers and I were able to go down to St. George and give him a blessing and release him from this life. Two hours later Dad took his last breath and made his journey to be with his hero's on the other side. 

My Dad in his youth was a very good Baseball player. He loved Baseball and taught us kids life through Baseball analogies. As a young kid in the late 80's, I remember my Dad telling a favorite baseball joke.

Two old men had been best friends for years, and they both live to their early 80's, when one of them suddenly falls deathly ill. His friend comes to visit him on his deathbed, and they're reminiscing about their long friendship. The friend says, "Listen, when you die, do me a favor. I want to know if there's baseball in heaven."

The dying man responds, "We've been friends for a lifetime, so yes, I'll do this for you." And then he dies.

A few days later, the surviving friend is sleeping, when he hears his friend's voice.

"I've got some good news and some bad news," it says. "The good news is: there's baseball in heaven."

"What's the bad news?"

"You're pitching on Wednesday."

Dad was called up to Pitch in heaven this Wednesday. I love him, a son couldn't of asked for a better father.  I can't help but think the lord needed my Dad on the other side to help with what's coming in the future. I'll miss you Dad, I love you!

Clarifying Points Being Questioned – Part III

Continued from the previous post of a reader who seems to delight in attacking our website, so we are taking a few articles to respond:

• Comment: About five kilometers inland from the island of Molatupu in the autonomous Guna Yala Comarca in the San Blas Islands of Panama is a broad plain once called Acla (Place of Bones) in the extinct Cueva indigenous language. 

Guna Yala, formerly known as San Blas, is a comarca indígena in northeast Panama. Guna Yala is home to the indigenous people known as the Gunas

 

Response: Gaigirgordub, called El Porvenir until July 1, 2016, is the capital of the Panamanian comarca of Guna Yala. The settlement is located on a small island and contains a landing strip, a museum, a hotel, government offices, and an artisans' cooperative—there is also a small beach. In fact, threre are some 1600 islands within the range of Panama.

Culebra Cut (Gaillard Cut): Passage across the region and through Gaillard Cut was made possible by damming the Chagres River at Gatun. It created the massive Gatun Lake wich manages the differences in the river’s rate of flow. Note the closeness of the cuts to the Panama Canal

 

Spanish conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa helped establish the first stable settlement on the South American continent at Darién, on the coast of the Isthmus of Panama. Balboa (which means “beautiful valley,”) was born in 1475 in Jerez de los Caballeros, a town in the Spanish region of impoverished Extremadura—an area which also produced other famous New World conquistadors, including Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, Hernando de Soto and Francisco de Orellana.

Balboa’s father was considered a nobleman, he was a descendant of the Lord mason of the castle of Balboa, on the borders of León and Galicia; however, the family was not wealthy, so Balboa tried farming and fell heavily into debt. Fleeing the consequence of the debt, he sought, like many of his class, to seek his fortune in the New World and stowed away on a ship which landed in Colombia.

He immediately began exploring the coast of Colombia (along the Caribbean Sea), and wrangled a sponsored by the Spanish crown. King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile sponsored Balboa during his exploration of the New World.

Hearing of gold and other riches in a wealthy Empire to the south (evidently in Peru), Balboa decided to cross Panama to get to what the Spaniards called the Mar del Sur (South Sea) and what Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, in the employ of Spain called this body of water pacific, due to the calmness of the water at the time ('pacific' means peaceful).

Magellan began his journey across the Atlantic Ocean to seek a western route to the Spice Islands via South America. After long months of battling the Atlantic Ocean, he finally entered the Pacific and found it so calm and tranquil that he named these waters pacific ('pacific' means peaceful).

Covering approximately 59 million square miles and containing more than half of the free water on Earth, the Pacific is by far the largest of the world's ocean basins—all of the world's continents could fit into the Pacific basin.

The Culebra Cut. An artificial valley along the Pacific Ocean to Gatun Lake and eventually the Caribbean Sea. Water level here is 85 feet above sea level, with Contractor's Hill on the left and Gold Hill on the right

 

In September 1513, leaving from Darién, Balboa led an expedition of some 190 Spaniards and hundreds of Indians southward across the Isthmus of Panama. He hoped that if he was successful, he would win the favor of Ferdinand, the king of Spain, and therefore gain his sponsorship.

They marched across the isthmus through dense jungles, rivers, and swamps. Finally, on September 27, 1513, after ascending a hill by himself, Balboa sighted the South Sea, or the Pacific Ocean. The journey covered 45 miles, and took three weeks to cross through the thick jungles of Panama. After hacking his way through the jungle Balboa was still not able to see the Pacific Ocean until he climbed a mountain peak—becoming the first European to see the eastern shore of the great South Sea (the Pacific Ocean), on September 13, 1513. It was several days later that he actually reached what he later called San Miguel.

While he is often erroneously credited for naming this sea, it was actually named by Magellan during his circumnavigation of the globe. Magellan named it as such because its waters seemed so calm in comparison with the Atlantic Ocean that he named it Pacifica (meaning peaceful).

Balboa claimed the Pacific Ocean and all its shores for Spain, which delighted the Crown—an act which brought fame to Balboa as well as a sponsorship of the Spanish king.

This one act opened the way for Spanish exploration and conquest along the western coast of South America, giving Spain a solid foothold in this region of the world. It was through Balboa's conquest of this region and the information he gained through exploration that conquests further south could be made, such as that over the Incas.

Some days later he reached the shore of the Pacific at the Gulf of San Miguel and took possession of the South Sea and the adjacent lands for Spain.

At this time, Acla was a Spanish colonial town founded by order of the Governor of Castilla de Oro, Pedrarias Dávila, in 1515. It was located on the central coastline of the modern-day Kuna Yala, to the northeast of Panamá. 

The ground was strewn with bones

 

The town's name means “bones of men” in Acla, the indigenous language. The name comes from the large number of bones strewn about the nearby plains, which supposedly came from the conflicts between two indigenous brothers who fought to become chiefs of the region.

The town was established principally to be the Caribbean anchor of a trail that was planned to lead to a future town on the Gulf of San Miguel on the Pacific Ocean, which had recently been discovered by Balboa. This town is mostly famous because it was the site of the judgement and decapitation of Balboa in 1519 at the hands of Governor Dávila.

Due to the unhealthy nature of the climate and terrain surrounding the town, and especially after the founding of Panama City and Nombre de Dios a few months later, it was slowly abandoned until it was left totally deserted in 1532.

Comment: In the north end of the plain is a 500 feet tall hill, which is small compared to the nearby mountains. Beneath the soil and occasionally on the soil surface, thousands of human bones extend for as far as the eye can see. Five-hundred years ago, Balboa passed across this plain and wrote of these bones during his expedition to the Pacific side of the isthmus. He recorded that skulls and other parts of human skeletons filled the plain. The Cueva tribesmen with his expedition…explained that the name "Acla" comes from the large number of human bones strewn about the plain, which supposedly came from a time when two mighty nations destroyed each other in a great battle of mutual annihilation.

None of these hills match what Mormon wrote about the hill Cumorah where the final battle took place

 

Response: First, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, there are an estimated100,000 missing persons, people’s whose bodies have not been found. Second, no doubt there are hundreds of such incidents where nations, that is paranoid and narcissistic leaders of two groups of people who fought to the death of everyone—we see two of these in the Book of Mormon (“Over 100,000 missing people is a global crisis, says Red Cross,” India Today Magazine, New Delhi, 2018,

The issue is that the information should match Mormon’s description of the events, which the battles at Acla simply do not.

(See the next post for more information about this battle Mormon mentions and the lack of connection to the hill at San Blas)

Clarifying Points Being Questioned - Part II

Continuing from the previous post regarding a reader’s critical evaluation of some of our posts and our responses.

• Comment: About 87 kilometers south of the isthmus, is a narrow strip of mountain wilderness composed of the northern limit of the Andes with summits above 17,000 feet. South of the Andean wilderness is a plain extending from Venezuela into Colombia. While this area presently produces most of the corn, rice and cereal grains in Venezuela and Colombia, in colonial times Venezuela shipped more than 1,700,000 quintals of wheat from this region to Mexico. Today, very little.”

Response: Today Venezuelan farmers in this area produce no wheat or barley but 700 thousand tons of corn (Zea mays) and 170 thousand tons of rice. This region is known as the "bread basket" of Venezuela.

Producing on the Colombian side of the border, 1.18 million tons of corn, 20 thousand tons of barley, and 4.4 thousand tons of wheat. These Nephite crops yield well in this part of South America.

Left: Wheat; Center; Barley; Right: Quinoa

 

In addition, there is the super grain called Quinoa (Keen-wa): Chief growing areas for the world’s quinoa crop are in Peru and Bolivia, with Ecuador, Colombia and Argentina represented to a lesser degree. Altogether this area produces 117 million pounds of quinoa annually, about a third of which is organic.

Small family farms—70,000 just in Bolivia—grow virtually all of this quinoa, without irrigation, in a desert-like landscape. Fortunately for these subsistence farmers, world-wide interest in quinoa is skyrocketing.

The so-called “gold of the Incas,” Quinoa was the food of choice for Andean warriors who needed to boost their stamina. Now, it’s the “it” food of the moment in much of North America, Europe and Asia. With high levels of protein, fiber, iron, magnesium, lysine, manganese and vitamin B12 as well as zinc, copper, and potassium, its classification as a superfood is very much deserved. What’s more, quinoa’s sky-high fiber levels can help reduce cholesterol and prevent heart disease. Grown in the high Andes, quinoa is usually boiled just like a grain, though it’s actually a seed from a plant related to wild spinach.

In the U.S. alone, imports more than doubled from 2006 to 2008, then doubled again, to 22.3 million pounds, from 2008 to 2010. This has translated into a major jump in the local economy, with many farmers’ incomes doubling in recent years, enabling their communities to build schools and otherwise improve their standard of living. In the U.S. and Canada, quinoa is now being grown in areas of the Rocky Mountains, from Colorado to Saskatchewan, mostly at elevations of 7,000 to 10,000 feet. South America Quinoa has an enormous genetic range, including cultivars that can thrive from sea level to about 13,000 feet in altitude. As for his comment that “

• Comment: But not in the Andes, where wheat, barley, corn and cotton do not grow. 

Wheat was once a major production in the Andes. Now South America has switched to quinoa

 

Response: At one time, wheat grew profusely in the Andes. Today, wheat is a minor crop in Peru with most of the production concentrated in the temperate, southern highlands. Grown at 9,185 to 11,480 feet above sea level, production remains limited only by geography as well as current economics. The Peruvian farmer cultivates only about two hectares of wheat, on average.

The traditional and most frequent method of consumption of Wheat production is lightly roasted, ground grains which produce a pleasant flour called cañihuaco. This is consumed on its own, in cold or hot drinks, or in porridges. Over 15 different ways of preparing the whole grain and cañihuaco are known (as entrees, soups, stews, desserts and drinks). In the bakery industry good results have been achieved by adding 20 percent of cañihuaco to wheat flour, which gives the product (bread, biscuits) a pleasant characteristic color and flavor. Cañihuaco also has medicinal uses: it counteracts altitude sickness and fights dysentery while the ashes of its stem can be used as a repellent against insect and spider bites.

However, in recent years the economics of crop growth is being directed by ministers who are moving the Peruvian farmer into quinoa and kiwichi production, of which Peru has millions of tons of each that could be produced. It is a slow process to gear up and become successful, but some companies are already achieving exceptional growth results.

Corn: As for corn (maize), it was grown and eaten by people living in the Andes in Peru at least 1,000 years earlier than previously thought, researchers said: “They show on-site processing of maize into flour and provide direct evidence for the deliberate movement of plant foods by humans from the tropical forest to the highlands

Barley. As for barley, planted in zones above 9,850 feet and up to 16,400 feet, where adverse climatic conditions do not allow other crops to be grown, barley is the main food security component for the 3 million native Peruvians living off subsistence agriculture in the Peruvian Andes. In the midst of these high mountains, quinoa is a staple food that surpasses wheat and corn in nutritional value.

Cotton. As for cotton, Peru has optimal growing conditions for pima cotton. The northern coastal valleys of Peru are pima cotton's ideal home, due to the region’s rich soil and perfect temperatures, which results in the cotton having an unbelievably soft hand and beautiful luster. Thanks to ideal growing conditions hand harvesting, and extra-long staple length, Peruvian Pima cotton is the world's finest, prized for its unusual durability, softness and brilliant shine. It is softer and more absorbent as compared to other kinds of cotton.

Truck Containers once brought wheat to the Americas from Peru, now it is quinoa

 

Quinoa. High in the Andes of South America, quinoa grows on land where one might be surprised to find anything flourishing—let alone a crop as nutritious and versatile as quinoa. In summer the sun blazes down mercilessly through the thin atmosphere, while winter is characterized by frigid blasts. The soil is thin and rainfall scarce—yet, quinoa not only grows but thrives on the altiplano, or high plains. Chief growing areas for the world’s quinoa crop are in Peru and Bolivia, with Ecuador, Colombia and Argentina represented to a lesser degree.  Altogether this area produces 117 million pounds of quinoa annually, about a third of which is organic.

Anciently, the quinoa is a food plant which was extensively cultivated in the Andean region by pre-Columbian cultures some 5000 years ago and was used in the diet of the settlers both of the inter-Andean valleys. which are very cold high areas, and of the high plateaus. After maize. it has occupied the most prominent place among Andean grains. Today, ministers want to make quinoa the grain of the world, replacing wheat and corn.

• Comment: In Venezuela there is a narrow neck of land that runs north and south connecting the mainland to a huge, desolate desert peninsula that is so hot and dry with soils so salty that agriculture is impossible. This narrow neck of land is the Isthmus of Médanos, and the peninsula is the Peninsula de Paraguaná (Desolation in the extinct Mariche indigenous language). The peninsula and its connecting isthmus are part of the Venezuelan semi-arid coastal state of Falcon.

Response: The Médanos Isthmus is a sandy isthmus in Venezuela that connects the Paraguaná Peninsula with the rest of Falcón State. The isthmus is approximately 4 miles wide and 17 miles long. It is the site of the Médanos de Coro National Park, and is a Venezuelan national park occupying the sandy Isthmus of Médanos, which connects mainland Venezuela to the Paraguaná Peninsula in the Caribbean Sea, that covers an area of more than 35 square miles.

Set along the Isthmus of Médanos, on the northern (Caribbean) coast of Venezuela, the National Park is made up of three zones:

• an alluvial plain, formed by the delta of the Mitare River and some smaller streams

•an aeolian plain, composed of three types of dunes

• a littoral plain with a belt of mangrove swamps

The Médanos Isthmus is a sandy isthmus in Venezuela that connects the Paraguaná Peninsula The only extensive area of sand dunes in South America

 

Médanos de Coro National Park protects part of the Paraguaná xeric scrub ecoregion. It covers 35 square miles of desert and coastal habitat, including salt marshes. Flora consists of little more than thorny shrubs. The park is an Important Bird Area with some 21 species including Yellow-shouldered amazon. Other fauna is scarce; the park is home mainly to lizards, rabbits, anteaters and foxes.

It should be noted that this isthmus is in the Paraguaná xeric scrub ecoregion and has no bearing on anything Mormon wrote.

The isthmus is approximately 4 miles wide and 17 miles long. It is the site of the Médanos de Coro National Park, and is a Venezuelan national park occupying the sandy Isthmus of Médanos, which connects mainland Venezuela to the Paraguaná Peninsula in the Caribbean Sea, that covers an area of more than 35 square miles.

(See the next post for more information regarding this peninsula)   

Clarifying Points Being Questioned – Part I

 We have received a lengthy set of comments from a reader whose antagonism is quite obvious, but totally uncalled for:

• Comment: First, there are a couple of things that bolster your wrong-headed notion that the Nephites colonized Chile and Peru. The only places in the Western Hemisphere that Book of Mormon names for landmarks and towns dating to ancient times is South America. In northern South America, there is a Rio Moron in a land of Moron and a city of Moron on the Caribbean coast of Venezuela.

Response: First the Nephites were never in Chile after Nephi left to colonize Peru. As for the name Morón, there are 16 cities or locations world-wide given the name Morón, including including ones in Greece, France, Switzerland, Argentina, Buenas Aires, Cuba, Haiti, Mongolia, Philippines, Taft, Spain and Alaska. In addition, there are varius people world-wide named Morón, and several dishes, including Filipino cuisine, or rice cake similar to Sumin, and called Morón.

In addition, there are the Book of Mormon names found all over the Great Lakes, such as Angola; Jerusalem; Alma, Lehigh for a Lehi; Ogath for Agath; Moron for Morin, Onidah for Oneida, Ramah for Rama; Kishkumen for Kiskiminetas; Jacobugath for  Jacobsburg; Shilom for Siloh.

• Comment: Second is the verifiable and reliable history of chickens. In 2007, American archaeologist Alice Storey and colleagues identified chicken bones at the site of El Arenal (south of Sntiago and Concepcion) on the Arauco Peninsula on Chile's coast. C14 dating place the bones hundreds of years before the arrival the the first Europeans. 

Peruvian chickens (these are roosters). Note the much higher and skinner legs, with an upright stance—different than typical chickens

 

Response: Europeans arriving in the Americas found a continent teeming with native turkeys and ducks for the plucking and eating. Some archaeologists believe that chickens were first introduced into Polyesia by people who reached the western plains of South America. Others believe the opposite—that Polynesians introduced chickens to South America. Still others believe that the Jaradites brought the chickens with them and filled the land when Lehi arrived to a land abounding with chickens in the semirural location that is sort-of country but that is not officially considered country—an out-of-town suburb near farm country is an example of a neighborhood that would be described as semirural. It can be described as the landscape interface between town and country, or also as the rural free-ranging chickens were often found in periurban communities (between high populated urban and low populated rural or developing areas such as Peru, especially in homes of migrants from rural areas

In Mitochondrial DNA sequencing, 12 of the 37 ancient samples and identified markers identical to Polynesian and Southeast Asian chickens. Could it be that Lehi picked up chickens in his travels and brought chickens with them to Chile.

• Comment: The Book of Mormon says that the city of Moróni was by the sea. There also are the Arroyo de Mormon (Stream of Mormon) and the Rio Moróni, which has its headwaters on the Guyana Plateau.

Response: First the word “Aroyyo” does not mean river or stream. Also, the “River Moroni” is actually referred to as an Arroyo, not a river—and there is a specific meaning of “aroyyo.” The confusion arises out of the fact that the Maroni river flows well in the winter months, but dries up in the summer months. The word “arroyo” has a specific meaning in Spanish—it is a steep-sided gully formed by the action of fast-flowing water in an arid or semi-arid region, found chiefly in the southwestern U.S. An arroyo, also called a wash, is a dry creek, stream bed or gulch that temporarily or seasonally fills and flows after sufficient rain. Flash floods are common in arroyos following thunderstorms. 

The Maroni River flowing along as a border between Suriname and Frenh Guyana

 

The “Maroni” River (correct spelling) or “Marowijne,“ pronounced “My-ro-bag-gen,” is the name the river is known by and through which its grants of study have been conducted—it is rarely referred to as the Maroni River other than when it is necessary to separate the three or four waterways emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. It is a Dutch name (Nederlands, Netherlands), and forms the border between French Guyana (Guiana) and Suriname—it is also known as the Lawa, which is formed by the confluence of the Litani and Malani rivers. Downstream from its confluence with the Tapanahon, it is called Maroni. The Maroni runs through the Guianan moist ecoregion. Pronounced “Nā-dross” it originates in the Tumuk Humak Mountains and forms the (disputed) border between France’s region of French Guiana and Suriname. 

In its upper reaches—close to its source, it is known as the Litani. The total length of Litani, Lawa, and Maroni is 380 miles—with the Latani as its source and the Lawa as its mouth and the Maroni in between at about 90 miles in length (Jan Shipper et al., "Northern South America: Guayana, Suriname French Guiana, northern Brazil and eastern Venezuela," Vol.3, The Americas, Foundación Vida Silvestre, Argentina, IUCN Publications Unit, Cambridge, UK).

The Maroni is the most extensively covered arroyo in Suriname

 

Though a secondary level arroyo that is dry in the summer months, the Maroni flows significantly in the winter months, and is the most extensively studied of all the flowing waters in Suriname. In the 16th century, there were already ships exploring the estuary, captained by Lawrence Keymis, Thomas Masham and Antonio de Berrio (Walter Raleigh. Joyce Lorimer (ed.). Sir Walter Ralegh's Discoverie of Guiana, Ashgate Publishing, Surrey, England, Released by Bedford/Saint Martin's Press, 2007, p360).

In the 18th century more extensive excursions took place, by Mentell, Patris, Le Blond and Heneman and in the 19th century by Zegelaar, Jules Crevaux Coudreau, Ten Kate, Joost and others. Of importance in the 20th century were the Gonini and Tapanahony expeditions, and the Tumuk Humak and Southern Border Expeditions. From these arose the research of the Geologisch Mijnbouwkundige Dienst and the Centraal Bureau voor Luchtkartering.

It might be of interest to know that the Minister of Labor, Claudio Omar Moroni, of Argentina is currently serving in that government position—the name Moroni is not limited to rivers. Approximately 26,292 people around the world have this as their surname, and is one of the most common surname in the world that is most prevalent in Italy. It is very popular in the U.S. and certain states in South America, including Brazil, Argentina and Chile.

(See the next post for more information regarding a reader’s critical evaluation of our articles)

 

Lehi’s Landing According to Nephi (not Williams) – Part II

While Nephi claims there was a huge forest near their landing site, there is no forest per se above ground covering any area close to a landing site at Apalachicola, Florida. Nor is there anything matching the scriptural record found at the Great Lakes area.

Under the Köppen Climate Classification Jerusalem has a (Csa), "dry-summer subtropical" climate referred to as "Mediterranean" Climate, with a zone averaging temperature above 50 °F in their warmest months, and an average in the coldest between 64 to 27 °F. 30º South Latitude, in central Chile, has a Mediterranean Climate. Coquimbo Bay, Chile, where Lehi landed, has a warm and temperate climate—the rain falls mostly in the winter, with relatively little rain in the summer. According to Köppen and Geiger, this climate is classified as Csc. The average annual temperature is 59.5 °F. The annual rainfall is 13.2 inches. 

One of the largest rainforests in the world is located next to La Serena, Chile

 

However, in Chile, at Coquimbo and El Serena is one of the largest rain forests in the world, called the Fray Jorge National Park, which is a nationally important remnant of a once more extensive Valdivian Temperate Rain Forests or cloud forest, with a tree line at about 7,875 feet altitude in central Chile, descending to 3,280 feet in the south of the Valdivian region.

In entering the forest, it takes you from semi-arid desert to dripping wet forest in a short space, due to the mist rolling in from the Pacific. This water-loving hydrofillic forest and the very nice abrupt change from the pre-forest to the actual park something not to be missed.

It is quite bizarre to come across a large rainforest on the edge of a semi-arid desert! However, because it gets moisture from the clouds, Fray Jorge park is a unique mix of biospheres, abundance of wildlife and wild mist burning off the mountains—which is all very unique in Chile. Like all national parks here, it is low key by North American standards—but do not miss what makes this Park unique. As an example, there is a large green patch of forestry in the top of a very dry hill that the mist that comes from the sea every day is responsible for watering and creating this wonder. That is the beauty of the place.

Once you reach the cloud forest you will see olive trees, cinnamon trees, and various herbs. you will see some birds, and animals like foxes and the chinchilla rat, with plenty of llama and alpaca with guanaco and vicuña in the distance, including tapirs, marsh deer, white-tailed deer, spectacled bear, the leopard and the jaguar.

The point is it is a huge forest with wild beasts and ferile animals living within it as Nephi stated.

 Ultisols, commonly known as red clay soils, are one of twelve soil orders in the United States Department of Agriculture soil taxonomy.While the term is usually applied to the red clay soils of the Southern United States--You can have all the best plants and the best tools but it won’t mean a thing if you have clay-heavy soil and don’t take steps to amend the soil before planting.

  

• The soil of the Heartland is the red clay soils of the southeastern United States, which are examples of Ultisols (leached red or reddish-yellow acid soil with a clay-rich B horizon (subsoil), occurring in warm, humid climates), which is the dominant soil of much of the southeastern United States and occupies about 9.2% of the total U.S. land area.

• The Great Lakes soil is grouped as upland loams, plains sands, sandy loams and sands.

• The soil of Guatemala (Land Southward in the Mesoamerican Land of Promise) sandy loam texture, acidic pH, low available phosphorus (P) reflecting high phosphate sorption coefficient, low exchangeable calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg), and high exchangeable potassium (K).

• On the other hand, Jerusalem has a series consisting of very deep, well drained soils with moderately slow permeability that formed in colluvium from granitic rocks.

 

A reddish-brown residual soil found as a mantle over limestone bedrock, typically in the karst areas around the Adriatic Sea, under conditions of Mediterranean-type climate. Also spelled: terra rosa. Etymol: Italian, red earth.

 

• In the transverse valleys of north-central Chile, fertile alluvial soils have developed on fluvial deposits, while between the rivers soils are dry and infertile. Within the Central Valley the alluvial soils have developed over fluviovolcanic deposits, which is the reason for their mineral and organic richness. The alluvial (clay, silt, sand, gravel, or similar detrital material deposited by running water) deposits from the numerous Andean rivers in central Chile have provided mineral-rich soils that support the flourishing Mediterranean-type agriculture of the Central Valley of the intermediate depression.

As for the food products each area specialized in producing;

• The main food products produced in Guatemala (Mesoamerica) are maize, sugarcane, banana and coffee;

• In the Heartland it is: corn, sorghum, barley, and oats.

• In the Great Lakes: corn, soybeans, wheat, animal fodder;

• In Jerusalem: wheat and barley, of vines, figs, and pomegranates, a land of olives and honey;

• In Chile: Corn, Quinoa, Kiwichi, wheat and barley, figs, and pomegranates, olives and honey.

Even in the simple matters of the scriptural record, the matches are maintained—the Heartland, Great lakes and Mesoamerica simply do not match Mormon, Nephi, Jacob or Moroni’s descriptions. And no amount of changes, alterations, fudging or re-defining statements are going to change that!