The Baja Theory—Does the River Sidon Flow North or South? Part IV – The Wilderness of Hermounts

Continuing from the last post regarding the direction of flow of the river Sidon (Alma 22:27), Rosenvall tries to confuse the placement of the head or headwaters of this river. This is because he must find a way to make Mormon’s river Sidon flow south and he does this by placing the headwaters in the Wilderness of Hermounts. As he states:

“According to the Book of Mormon account, there was not only a wilderness on the south, but wilderness areas were also located on the north, east and west of the land of Zarahemla. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, any one or more of these four wilderness areas, if they are watersheds, could be the source of the “head of the river Sidon.” Many rivers are fed from multiple upland regions. “

First, the wilderness areas to the west and east were part of the area “round about” the Land of Zarahemla—or more correctly, a way of saying that the narrow strip of wilderness curved up along both the west and east shores of the Land of Zarahemla. How far, the scriptural record does not state, but it could not have been far, since the Land of Zarahemla was the Nephite lands that “hemmed in the Lamanties on the south, that thereby they should have no more possession on the north” (Alma 22:33). As Mormon put it, “Therefore the Lamanites could have no more possessions only in the land of Nephi” (Alma 22:34).

Obviously, the head of the river Sidon was in the south wilderness. As Mormon put it, “the Lamanites will cross the river Sidon in the south wilderness, away up beyond the borders of the land of Manti” (Alma 16:6). When Rosenvall claims, “In the absence of evidence to the contrary, any one or more of these four wilderness areas, if they are watersheds, could be the source of the “head of the river Sidon.”

What more evidence does one need than Mormon’s clear and concise statement?

However, we need to take a look at Rosenvall’s claim that the Sidon River had its headwaters in the Wilderness of Hermounts. As Rosenvall states:

“We propose the wilderness of Hermounts on the west and north (Alma 2:37) as the primary source of the water at the head of the river Sidon—not because this information is in the Book of Mormon account, but because of the actual flow of the Rio San Ignacio, a river which matches all the other features of the river Sidon that are recorded in the Book of Mormon.”

Now that is really an interesting statement. He proposes the Wilderness of Hermounts “not because this information is in the Book of Mormon account” but because it matches his belief in the San Ignacio River in Baja California. Actually, nothing more need be said; however, people who think that way also ignore the scriptural record, but perhaps we should take a moment and show the relationship to this wilderness.

The Wilderness of Hermounts is mentioned only once in the scriptural record. This had to do with the Nephites battling the Amilicites who had joined with the Lamanites and were chasing the Nephites, along with their flocks, wives and children, toward the city of Zarahemla (Alma 2:25). In the battle that followed, so many Lamanites were killed that their bodies had to be cleared off the west bank of the river Sidon and thrown into the river. At this point, the Lamanites ”fled before the Nephites towards the wilderness which was west and north, away beyond the borders of the land” (Alma 2:36). And they were “met on every hand, and slain and driven, until they were scattered on the west, and on the north, until they had reached the wilderness, which was called Hermounts; and it was that part of the wilderness which was infested by wild and ravenous beasts” (Alma 2:37).

Following the battle, where “many died in the wilderness of their wounds, and were devoured by those beasts and also the vultures of the air; and their bones have been found, and have been heaped up on the earth” (Alma 2:38), there is no mention of any bodies being dumped in the river Sidon. Nor is there any mention of this wilderness being at a high elevation, nor the headwaters of the river Sidon located there, or any other river. Had the river Sidon been there, it would have been much simpler to throw the dead into the river as they did before, but instead they were left to bury those who had been slain, an amount not even counted because of the number of dead bodies (Alma 3:1).

(See the next post, ” The Baja Theory—Does the River Sidon Flow North or South? Part V,” to see how the Baja theory does not fit the simply language of Mormon in describing the land of Zarahemla, Nephi and the river Sidon)