The H38 Map of the Land of Promise – Part III – The Ancient Watershed and Lake Tonawanda

The first ten points of how the map of Arlin Nusbaum. who developed his critical and extremely flawed H38 Virus concept, runs contrary to the list of numerous scriptural references appeared in the last two posts. Following are the additional points, and most importantly, the fallacious idea of a Lake Tonawanda at the time of the Jaredites.

11. Overflowing Watershed. As long as Nasbaum is going to use the ancient watershed area of Tonawanda (see the earlier post: “Great Lakes Theorists’ Ripliancum, Land Northward and the East Sea – Part II) as his Sea South and Sea East, let us look at the actual ancient watershed of the Great lakes region. This watershed basin covers parts of eight U.S. states—Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, and also the Canadian province of Ontario. Note the arrow on the map showing that Nasbaum’s entire Land of Promise would be underwater at the time Lake Tonawanda existed.

The dark area (left) denotes the extent of the present Great lakes Watershed formed and the ancient water coverage when Lake Tonawanda existed. This watershed, in ancient times, was the expanded region of the Great Lakes area, that covered a considerable distance, including (arrow right) the entire area of Nasbaum’s Land of Promise.

12. In addition, Nasbaum has written that the area of the Land of Promise cannot extend beyond the U.S. Government controlled lands—yet, the western shore of Lake Erie, his West Sea, where the “Land of First Inheritance” was located (Alma 22:30) is within the Canadian province of Ontario and, therefore, does not even meet his own criteria.

13. Another problem is that to the west of the Niagara River (the farthest west of his Land of Promise, a point now considered to be the current Welland Canal, finished in 1829) is the Canadian lands through which an attacking Lamanite army could circumvent the narrow neck of land and attack the Land Northward from the west, or could also circle around the East Sea and the ancient Lake Tonawanda and attack the Land Northward in the east. Thus, his Land of Promise does not meet the criteria Mormon indicated when he wrote: “the Nephites had inhabited the land Bountiful, even from the east unto the west sea, and thus the Nephites in their wisdom, with their guards and their armies, had hemmed in the Lamanites on the south, that thereby they should have no more possession on the north, that they might not overrun the land northward. Therefore the Lamanites could have no more possessions only in the land of Nephi, and the wilderness round about. Now this was wisdom in the Nephites -- as the Lamanites were an enemy to them, they would not suffer their afflictions on every hand, and also that they might have a country whither they might flee, according to their desires. (Alma 22:33-34)

14. And lastly, the ancient Lake Tonawanda and adjoining wagershed is shown in a BLM diagram and there is no area shown that could be construed as a narrow neck of land. The ancient lake ran from the Niagara River eastward, separating a series of land or islands (the area of Nasbaum’s Land Northward), and shows no area in between the area to the south and the area to the north that connected to two lands (alma 1122:32)/

Thus, Nasbaum’s touted H38 Virus idea, and his western New York model for the Land of Promise, has met a considerable number of stumbling blocks. It is not that he can probably explain away some of these problems, but when added together, they show a complete disregard for the scriptural record. It is as though he has centered his entire map, ideas, and beliefs on one single scripture—Helaman 3:8—to the exclusion of so many others that disagree with his ideas. Rather then the Book of Mormon, he has chosen to accept comments from Church leaders on the geography of the Book of Mormon, despite there being numerous other such statements that disagree with them. Men, even church leaders, when speaking as men and expressing their individual opinions, are not going to be more accurate than the scriptures themselves. Only when men, including church leaders, when speaking with the spirit and speaking from the positions to which they have been called, are going to be correct and, in such cases, are going to be consistent with the scriptures.

(See the next post, “The H38 Map of the Land of Promise – Part IV,” Nasbaum’s highly touted Internal Map and how his matches his claim)