Could the Great Lakes be the Narrow Neck of Land? – Part II

In the last post we discussed Alan C. Miner’s location of the narrow neck of land in the area between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, where the present-day Niagara Falls is located. Here we will look at another placement of the narrow neck of land along a very narrow raised path through the ancient area of Lake Tonawanda, promoted by W. Vincent Coon, using in part Phyllis C. Olive’s 1996 Map. 

The Narrow Neck of Land dividing ancient Lake Tonawanda from an unnamed northern body of water that supposedly was the Genesee River called the East Sea, which is halfway between Lake Erie and the Finger Lakes
    According to geologists, the ice receded north to the Barre moraine, Lake Tonawanda formed with the Barre moraine at its northern edge. According to Brett and Calkin, during its early existence, Lake Tonawanda was a shallow extension of the upper Niagara River and early Lake Erie, and at its highest level near Niagara Falls the lake was approximately 58 miles long and 30 feet deep. The flow from early Lake Erie probably fluctuated greatly, so the erratically flowing waters from Lake Tonawanda spilled into glacial Lake Iroquois to the north, when the ice eventually retreated north of the Niagara (Lockport) Escarpment.

The 1988 E. H. Muller and P.E. Calkin drawing of the geologic ancient depression referred to as the Tonawanda Basin. The map shows the Basin and the Holley Embayment, with grey patches between Albion Moraine and Barre Moraine being eskers (a ridge caused by a glacial stream)
    Multiple Lake Tonawanda outlets eventually formed along the Niagara Escarpment in response to the highly fluctuating Lake Erie outflow into Lake Tonawanda, which waters emptied northward into Lake Iroquois, which later became Lake Ontario. The outlets, from west to east were Lewiston (Niagara River), Lockport, Gasport, Medina, and Holley—the latter being the drainage to the northeast of Tonawanda Basin through which the Lake drained northward into Lake Iroquois/Ontario.

The glacial waters of ancient Lake Tonawanda drained to the northeast, through the area today known as Lake Genesee, and into the area sometimes referred to as Lake Iroquois, which today is Lake Ontario. At a later point, a rise in the depressed ground that one time was beneath the heavy glacier rose and closed off most of this drainage area, leaving a small pond area about four feet deep to the east of the Batavia moraine
    Greater isostatic rebound to the northeast gradually caused abandonment of the eastern outlets and shifted the main flow toward the Niagara River (Lewiston outlet), which according to radiocarbon ages on wood from the Lockport area indicates that the main discharge had shifted from Lockport to Lewiston by about 8900 B.C. The rise of the Batavia moraine, cutting off the eastern portion of Lake Tonawanda from the major western portion, eventually created a trapped and shallow small body of water along the eastern edge of the Tonawanda Basin.

The Batavia Moraine (red arrow) cut off the eastern portion of the Basin, which drained to the northeast into Lake Iroquois/Ontario, leaving a small pond along the east of this rise. To the west was Lake Tonawanda, which eventually drained into the Niagara River, which flowed northward
    It is important to keep in mind that when looking at these maps or any map of the area, that rivers and waters to the south of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, all flow north into the lakes—they do not flow to the south as would first be assumed.
    According to Great Lakes Theorists, the area between the ancient Lake Tonawanda and Lake Ontario was the Book of Mormon Land Northward, a very small area about 2 miles by 60 miles. It would be hard to imagine anyone believing that the entire Land Northward as described in the scriptural record could fit in this tiny area—1200 square miles—about the same as the distance of a 20 mile wide corridor down I-15 from Ogden to Sale Lake City (or Draper to Spanish Fork) where about 1 ½ million people reside. However, there were at least 5-10 million Jaredites in the Land of Promise.

Ancient Lake Tonawanda, drained northward into Lake Iroquois which eventually receded into Lake Ontario as well as to the northeast through the Genesee River basin
    In addition, these theorists claim a land bridge existed at the end of the ancient Lake Tonawanda and some unnamed body of water to the east; however, any body of water to the east of this area would flow northward into Lake Iroquois/Ontario. And in the case of Lake Tonawanda, this flow emptied out the entire eastern area of Tonawanda except for a small pond that eventually settled into the basin aquifer. This area to the east, today called the Genesee River Gorge, is actually a narrow area cut into the hills and ground that was never nothing more than a river and still is, other than being a drainage spillway in the time of Lake Tonawanda.

The Theorists’ East Sea was actually ancient Genesee River Gorge cut during the Devonian period and considered to be the East River; anciently it flowed north and emptied into the Ontario River, now Lake Ontario
    In addition, these theorists’ East Sea was really just a river, and not a large one as shown by the image above in which the river cut down into the deeper soils, but was restricted to the narrowness of the river bed shown. Called a rock gorge in the Devonian period, this is the Genesee River—what the theorists call their “East Sea.” The original valley here was thought to be that of Irondequoit Creek and Bay, but the most likely westward path originally followed the river. During this period the river flowed north and emptied into the Ontario River (now Lake Ontario). The rivers also in this era were merely tributary rivers to the original Ontario River. It would be hard to say that in the time under discussion, the geological findings show this area to have small rivers and Lake Ontario was merely a river. Most of these areas, now covered by lakes, rivers, etc., were empty glacial moraines that formed valleys and small riverlets.
    In fact, the actual geologic depiction of this lake and the land between it and the claimed Lake Iroquois of the period, shows a broken land divided into four parts by fairly good-sized water ways where the ancient lake drained into the lake to the north. This in turn, reduced Lake Iroquois as the waters of Lake Ontario subsided, the water receding to its basic present position. Thus, in the time the theorists’ claim Lake Tonawanda existed, providing their so-called land bridge or narrow neck, the land northward was broken up into areas totally inconsistent with the Book of Mormon description of the Land Northward.
    If Great Lakes theorists are going to use Lake Tonawanda as a separation of waters in Book of Mormon times, then they also have to use the original descriptions of the time—that is, valleys and small rivers, and no Lake Ontario. At this time the Niagara River was wider, but still just a river, not what would be called a “Sea.” The area of Niagara Falls dates back to at least 6,000 to 7,000 years ago, and was even then located in the present area of Niagara Glen, Foster Flats, Wintergreen Flats and Wilson Terrace. At this point the water flows at 25-miles per hour—a speed that would be awe-inspiring to ancient man and one would think worthy of some mention in the area of the narrow neck of land, the narrow passage and narrow pass. But not a word in the Book of Mormon about it, nor about numerous other points of the Great Lake Theorists’ Land of Promise and narrow neck of land as shown in western upstate New York.
(See the next post, “Could the Great Lakes be the Narrow Neck of Land? – Part III,” for more on this claim regarding the narrow neck of land being a very narrow path across ancient Lake Tonawanda)