Another Look at the Hill Cumorah - Part I

According to Andrew H. Hedges, co-editor of the Joseph Smith Papers, and associate professor of Church History and Doctrine at BYU, the idea that the Nephite-Lamanite history depicted in the Book of Mormon ranged over the whole of North and South America is totally inaccurate. While this is true regarding the actual events outlined in the Book of Mormon, it is inaccurate to imply that Nephites and Lamanites were not in these multiple regions as depicted by those who went in Hagoth's ships to a “land which was northward” (Alma 63:4,5,7). At the same time, it should also be noted that the geographical location of Lehi’s isle of promise, as illustrated in the Book of Mormon, covers a much smaller area that the entire Western Hemisphere, even much smaller than an entire continent.

Hedges also notes that “in recent years, many scholars (and we would add “theorists”) of geography of the Book of Mormon’s Land of Promise have claimed that the events in the scriptural record have taken place in Mesoamerica—repudiating the earlier widespread assumptions that the narrow neck of land, which figures so prominently in the book’s geography, was the Isthmus of Panama,” and replaced the western hemisphere model with that of Mesoamerica—a small area from central Mexico to Honduras, including Guatemala, Yucatan and Belize. This has created a “Limited Geography Model,” which its adherents claim established a restricted geography “around the Isthmus of Tehuantepec that provides the best setting for the book’s geographical events as mentioned and implied in the book itself” (Andrew H. Hedges, “Cumorah and the Limited Mesoamerican Theory,” Religious Educator, vol.10, no.2, BYU Religious Studies Center, Religious Education, 2009).

On the other hand, their beliefs, opinions, and models are often in direct conflict with the scriptural record and Mormon's clear and precisede descriptions he provides. As an example:

1. The Land of Promise runs north and south (Alma 22:29-33); however, Mesoamerica runs east and west;  

2. “The Nephites had inhabited the land Bountiful, even from the east unto the west sea” (Alma 22:33), which at least provides for a West Sea; They did not head them until they had come to the borders of the land Desolation; and there they did head them, by the narrow pass which led by the sea into the land northward, by the sea, on the West and on the East” (Alma 50:34). Obviously, the Land of Promise had a sea on the West and a sea on the East, but Mesoamerica has only a sea on the North (Gulf of Mexico) and a sea on the South (Pacific Ocean).

The Nephites had a sea in all of the four cardinal directions—one might say it was surrounded by water. Jacob did

 

3. The Land of Promise was surrounded by seas, “they did multiply and spread, and did go forth from the land southward to the land northward, and did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the Sea South to the Sea North, from the Sea West to the Sea East” (Helaman 3:8). However, Mesoamerica has only two seas (North and South, which, ironically they refer to as the Sea East and the Sea West).

4. The Land of Many Waters was near the Land of Desolation—after all, people coming from the Land of Nephi in the Land Southward, would not have traveled very far into the Land Northward before turning back; and Morianton’s attempted flight to a region in the Land Northward “which was covered with large bodies of water” (Alma 50:29) suggests a similar location.

Two points here: a) the desire to stay on the trail looking for Zarahemla would have been sufficient to dedicated men in a “live free or be a slave” situation for themselves, their families, and their people. B) The case of Morianton provides no clue as to where the many waters were but beyond the narrow neck.

On the other hand, Mormon tells us that the Land of Many Waters “bordered upon the land which they called Desolation, it being so far northward that it came into the land which had been peopled and been destroyed (Alma22:30). Also, when the Nephites were driven north (ch 5), away from the Narrow Neck of Land, which had been the dividing line of a treaty (Mormon2:29), and continually being pressed by the advancing Lamanites, Mormon writes: “we did march forth to the land of Cumorah, and we did pitch our tents around about the hill Cumorah; and it was in a land of many waters, rivers, and fountains; and here we had hope to gain advantage over the Lamanites” (Mormon 6:4).

Zin this last “do or die” confrontation with the Lamanites, Mormon had led his people in retreat for quite some time, always moving northward before the Lamanites who advanced from the south. Thus, the Land of Many Waters would have been “so far northward” as Mormon first stated.

Another point of error is found in the Mesoamericanist belief that the “geographical descriptions provided in the text itself require that the final battles of the Jaredites and Nephites took place relatively close to both peoples’ centers of civilization near the narrow neck of land.” This is based solely on the the small group of men king Limhi sent from the Land of Nephi to the City of Zarahemla to enlist the Nephites’ aid against the Lamanites, who were holding the people of Limhi in bondage. 

King Limhi’s 43-man expedition sent to find Zarahemla

 

Unsure of the route, or even where Zarahemla was located, Limhi’s men found what could only be described as the final battleground of the Jaredites”—causing Limhi’s men to report upon their return that they found “a land which was covered with bones of men, and of beasts, and was also covered with ruins of buildings of every kind” (Mosiah 8:8). Supposing this to be the remains of Zarahemla and the Nephite population, Limhi’s men returned to the land of Nephi (Mosiah 21:26).

This event demonstrates to theorists that the final battle of the Jaredites had taken place close enough to Zarahemla for travelers from Nephi to confuse the two sites. On the other hand, Limhi’s expedition had been charged with the importance of finding Zarahemla and enlisting them in their aid to overthrow their Lamanite oppressors. Since this condition had been going on for some time, it would be only natural for Limhi to choose the best, brightest, and strongest, as well as the most dedicated, to fill the ranks of his expedition and charge them with the importance of finding Zarahemla—their only hope of overthrowing the Lamanite control.

While theorists claim Limhi’s men would not have traveled far, they miss the point of those in the expedition—dedicated men whose special mission was to find Zarahemla and seek Nephite aid. How far they traveled would not  have been a consideration—these men would not have, and did not, quit in their most important quest until they found what appeared to them to be the dead of Zarahemla and the city itself demolished.

It should also be noted that this group was “lost in the wilderness,” had no firm idea of where Zarahemla might be, and upon unknowingly passing it by, continued on, criss-crossing the land, hoping to find the Nephite city and people to help them.

Another erroneous point is that the hill where Joseph Smith found the plates is the same hill as that in the Book of Mormon’s descriptions of where the final battles took place. It is the same hill of the scriptural record in New York. According to Matthew P. Roper, a Mesoamericanist and resident scholar and research assistant for the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, “while the Book of Mormon text may not require a particular reading, we may rightly judge one possibility to be more plausible, more compelling, and more probable than another.”

Roper also claims that “the final battles of the Jaredites and the Nephites, including those at Cumorah, best make sense as having taken place near a narrow neck of land, believed by most contemporary researchers on the Book of Mormon to be in southern Mexico, and why the alternative of a far distant location of a hill in New York does not make sense (Matthew P. Roper, “Plausibility, Probability, and the Cumorah Question,” Religious Educator vol.10, no. 2, 2009, pp135–158).

While there is agreement with the point that the hill in New York where Joseph Smith obtained the plates is not the same hill as the one in the Book of Mormon, there is no agreement on the belief that the hill Cumorah of the scriptural record is in Southern Mexico.