There are several proponents of various geographical models postulating where the Book of Mormon took place. If the text is what it claims to be, which is the position that I personally hold, then it took place somewhere.
Statement of Neutrality
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a statement concerning the geography of the Book of Mormon in the form of a new Gospel Topics essay titled “Book of Mormon Geography.” The essay begins with this declarative statement: “The Church takes no position on the specific geographic location of Book of Mormon events in the ancient Americas. Church members are asked not to teach theories about Book of Mormon geography in Church settings but to focus instead on the Book of Mormon’s teachings and testimony of Jesus Christ and His gospel.”
I know that for many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this topic will bring forth strong opinions. My purpose in presenting these models is simply to give a brief overview (emphasis brief) to expose people to the different models proposed to determine where the Book of Mormon took place. While I am a believer in the Mesoamerican model proposed by Sorenson, Stoddard, and Allen, when I am teaching classes on the Book of Mormon text, I stay within the boundary of focusing on the spiritual message of the book in order to avoid offending those that have contrary views about the locations in the text.
A North American Setting
The Heartland Model, or the North American setting of the Book of Mormon essentially points readers to the areas around modern Ohio as the locations for many parts of the Book of Mormon. The land north would be upper Canada and the land south would be the Mississippi river system to the Gulf of Mexico. The narrow neck of land would be considered located in the Niagra Falls region. The hill Cumorah would be in New York, with the river Sidon being the Mississippi. This setting is proposed by Rod Meldrum and Bruce Porter, among others. Porter and Meldrum cite 36 clear prophecies and promises in the Book of Mormon that point to the area of the United States of America as the location of most of the Book of Mormon. 1
Wayne May, publisher of Ancient American Magazine, is a proponent of a North America setting for the Book of Mormon, and has several videos where he presents evidence to support his position. You can see several of these videos on YouTube here and here.
A Mesoamerican Setting
The Limited Geography Model, or Mesoamerican Model, is one in which the text is examined internally by scholars who have concluded that the bulk of the text occurred within a limited geographical space. John L. Sorenson and Joseph Allen (among others) have proposed that much of the events in the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica. Sorenson gives a list of possible locations for many of the places in the text on pages 46-47 of his book An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon. 2 The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is proposed as the narrow neck of land in the Book of Mormon. Joseph and Blake Allen give around 800 pages of evidence supporting the view that the events in the Book of Mormon took place in the area around the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mesoamerica. 3
A Variation of the Mesoamerican Model
Jerry Ainsworth, a proponent of the Mesoamerican Model, emphasized that while the Isthmus of Tehuantepec is around 125 miles across, it was not so anciently. Ainsworth writes:
The topography of Central America- of a land divided by the sea- agrees with the way King Limhi’s men described the land that the Jaredites had inhabited, some of which was still under water. They told about discovering numerous ruins of buildings and bones of men, which lay northward in “a land among many waters” (Mosiah 8.8, emphasis added). The expression many waters in the Book of Mormon refers to the waters of the sea (see 1 Nephi 13.10-17), as it does in the Old Testament (see mayim rabbim, “many waters,” Isaiah 17.12-13). Land being among the waters of the ocean is a precise description of this land. Sections of land were actually dispersed among the waters of the ocean. In fact, an ancient Hebraic meaning of the term ca-mr-ah is the equal mixture of land and water.
This area I have been describing, one of water-covered land or marshland extended from the city of Tampico, across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and up to the Laguna de Terminos, at the base of the Yucatán Peninsula. This area was called Tlapalco, which in the old Nahuatl language means “wet or flooded land.” This wet or flooded land extended three-quarters of the breadth of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. It was the major reason the Nephites and Lamanites alike always accessed the land northward by the way of the narrow pass, which was adjacent to the west sea. The land on the Caribbean side of the Isthmus was too wet and/or muddy to be traveled safely. Even if it was dry at times, if it were to rain during your crossing, you were “dead in the water.” An army or large group of people would never have tried to cross the Isthmus on this side.
When the Spaniards arrived in what is now called Veracruz, they named half of this wet area (from Tampico to the Isthmus) the state of Veracruz. The remaining section of wetlands (from the Isthmus to the Yucatán) was named Tabasco, which has the same meaning as in the Nahuatl language: wet or flooded land. Eighty percent of the state of Tabasco is surrounded by wetlands or water. These were the lands among the waters of the ocean, which is precisely how Mosiah 8.8 describes the land. 4
Notes
- See Bruce Porter and Rod Meldrum, Prophecies and Promises: The Heartland Model, Digital Legend Press, 2009. See also: Rod Meldrum, The Book of Mormon in America’s Heartland: A Visual Journey of Discovery, Digital Legend Press and Publishing, Honeoye Falls, New York, p. 15. The “clear prophecies” relate to Meldrum’s interpretation of the phrase “this land,” whether it is the Americas or the area covered by the United States of America. See p. 15 of America’s Heartland when he ranks each of the 18 prophecies and 18 promises. For Meldrum, these prophecies are directly related to the geographical area mostly contained within the lower 48 United States of America.
- John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, p. 1-48, essentially lay out much of his argument for a Mesoamerican setting to the text. An excellent overview of the various theories of the Mesoamerican model is Stephen L. Carr, “A Summary of Several Theories of Book of Mormon Lands in Mesoamerica.”
- Joseph and Blake Allen, Exploring the Lands of the Book of Mormon, revised edition, Covenant Communications, 2011.
- Jerry Ainsworth, The Lives and Travels of Mormon and Moroni, Peacemakers Publishing, 2000.
Further Reading: A Day and a Half’s Journey: Alma 22.32 and Helaman 4.7