The Book of Mormon does not identify the actual location of its setting, and Mormon Church authorities have never issued an official statement to establish the location. However, the traditional belief of faithful Church members is that a major portion of the history took place in either South or Central America, an assumption that seems to have evolved from early beliefs.

Early Mormon leaders, Franklin D. Richards, James A. Little, and Frederick G. Williams, all stated that the landing place of the Book of Mormon lehite voyagers was “on the continent of South America, in Chili, 30 degrees south latitude.” One of the first ordained apostles in the Mormon Church, Orson Pratt, was also a proponent of the Chilean location. On three occasions between 1867 and 1872, Pratt speaking from the pulpit told his listeners the landing place was on the coast of Chile. According to Prau, “30 degrees south latitude was not far from where the city of Valparaiso now stands.”

Many problems surface, however, when Book of Mormon geographical descriptions are compared with the actual geography of either South or Central America. Because of these problems and because literary similarities exist between Spaulding’s Manuscript Story and the Book of Marmon, it seems reasonable to question whether or not the geographical descriptions in the Book of Mormon fit those of the Great Lakes area found in the Spaulding story.

Since there are no apparent contraditions among the geographical descriptions in the Book of Mormon, it can be assumed that the author had a definite area in mind when he wrote the story.

If Solomon Spaulding did in fact make a substantial contribution to the Book of Mormon, then the geographical account in the Book of Mormon may also have been his work. The geography in the two texts will be compared in this section of my paper.

Spaulding’s account tells of settlements existing throughout “the whole country on both sides of the Ohio River...also along the Great Lakes of Erie and Michigan..and in some part of the country which borders on Lake Ontario” (Manuscript Story pp. 20, 54). The entire area was within a five- or six-hundred-mile radius and included the present states of New York. Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

There are many place names in the Book of Mormon; only a few have good location descriptions. We know that the city of Zarahemla was on the west side of the River Sidon and that the land of Minon was on the east. We know that there was a narrow neck of land that separated the “land northward” from the “land southward” and that the lands of Zarahemla and Bountiful were in the land to the south, adjacent to the narrow neck of land. We also know that the Hill Cumorah was in the land to the north. In recent years, Mormon scholars have tried without success to confirm their belief that these locations existed in either South or Central America, but the geographical descriptions within the Book of Mormon do not support this theory.

Stories within the text give us some indication of the distance between the different locations. An example is in the story of Alma who fled into the wilderness with his people to escape the king’s men.

He fled from the land of Shilom, near the landing place of the Lehites, to the city of Zarahemla, near the narrow neck of land. This journey was made in twenty-one days (Mosiah 23:3, 24:20, 24:25).

According to George Reynolds, in his Concordance of the Book of Mormon, the land of Zarahemla was in northern Colombia. If the landing place of the Lehites was on the coast of Chile, as stated by early Mormon leaders, and the land of Zarahemla was in northern Colombia, Alma would have traveled approximately twenty-seven hundred miles in twenty-one days, averaging one hundred twenty eight miles per day. The journey would have required Alma and his party to cross the Andes Mountains and to ford many rivers while driving their flocks and conveying provisions necessary to support four hundred fifty people (Mosiah 23:1, 18:35). Because such an accomplishment seemed impossible, Mormon scholars have searched for more logical locations for these and other Book of Mormon sites, including the landing place of the Lehi party and the narrow neck of land that led to the north countries.

After explorer John L. Stephens published in 1841 his Incidents of Travel in Central America, Mormon Church leaders changed the location of Book of Mormon geography from the traditional South American area to Central America.” This changed the location of the city of Zarahemla to a new site and identified the Isthmus of Tehuantepec as the narrow neck of land of the Book of Mormon. However, this new theory also proved to be controversial. Mormon author Hugh Nibley said: “To call the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, one hundred and thirty miles wide, a narrow passage is of course out of the question.” The Book of Mormon states that the narrow passage was “only the distance of a day and a half's journey for a Nephite” (Alma 22:32). It is obvious that neither location chosen by Mormon scholars for Book of Mormon geography is compatible with the evidence within the text.

Joseph Smith, who claimed to have translated the ancient record through divine guidance, seemed also to be ignorant of Book of Mormon geography locations.

In 1836, the Prophet Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and others, found it best, on account of apostasy and bitterness, to leave Kirtland and go to Far West, Mo., where the Saints were endeavoring to establish themselves. On September 25, they passed through Huntsville, Randolph Co., and the Prophet is said to have told the brethren that that place, where a stake of Zion had been established, was ‘the ancient site of the city of Manti.’

This statement, attributed to Joseph Smith, conflicts with the Book of Mormon description of the location of Manti. Commenting on this problem in his In Search of Cumorah, David Palmer said: “There is only one city of Manti referred to in the Book of Mormon. It was by the ‘head of the river Sidon."...there is no possible way for a site up in the United States to have been the city of Manti.” If Joseph Smith had been inspired to make this statement, or if he had been the original author of the Book of Mormon, why would he have made such an error concerning the location of the Book of Mormon city of Manti? And why did he not correct the erroneous theories taught by other Church leaders about Book of Mormon geography locations?

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Sea East and Sea West

Most of the Book of Mormon story setting was in or near the land of Zarahemla, which was adjacent to both the sea east and the sea west. Of the fourteen references to these seas in the Book of Mormon, none suggests that the sea east was the Atlantic Ocean or that the sea west was the Pacific. Yet this assumption is a common belief among members of the Mormon Church. The Lehites reached their “land of promise” after crossing the “waters of the great deep.” For the next three hundred and twenty years they lived near their landing place (Omni 1:15). During that time, the seas east and west were not mentioned in the record. It was only after Mosiah and his people migrated to the land of Zarahemla that these seas were introduced into the story. This suggests that these were inland seas, near the land of Zarahemla, and not the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. If the Great Lakes area of the Spaulding story was part of the intended setting for the Book of Mormon story, Lake Ontario would have been the sea east and Lake Erie the sea west (Figures 1 and 2).

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Lines of Fortification

Several lines of fortification were described in the Book of Mormon. The first is spoken of in Alma 22:32. It was called the “line Bountiful” and its length was “a day and a half’s journey” across the narrow neck of land from the east to the west sea. Apparently the Nephites gathered their armies to this line because it was a natural line of fortification. A seemingly inconsistent description of the line Bountiful is given by Helaman fifty years later in the story. He describes it as being “a day’s journey for a Nephite on the line which they had fortified” (Helaman 4:7). The writer of the Book of Mormon apparently had Helaman retreat to the narrowest part of the neck of land to make another line of fortification. The proposed “narrow neck of land” between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario narrows in width from about thirty miles (a day and a half’s journey) to about twenty miles (a day's journey). It was used as a natural fortification line between the United States and Canada in two wars-the French and Indian War and the War of 1812.

After driving the Lamanites southward, the Nephites built a different line of fortification to separate the two nations. That lineran from the west sea past the headwaters of the River Sidon (Alma 50:11) and, at that time, formed the southernmost boundary of the Nephite country. If Book of Mormon geography were placed in the context of Spaulding’s Manuscript Story, this line of fortification would extend from Lake Erie (the west sea), east past the headwaters of the Genesee River. In his Geography of New York State, J. H. Thompson says that sixty-seven ancient fortified earthworks have been found in an area extending from Lake Erie past the headwaters of the Genesee River and on into the Oneida Indian country.

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City of Teancum

Teancum, a Book of Mormon city located in a land called Desolation, within the north country, was “in the borders by the seashore” (Mormon 4:3). It was named after Teancum, who fought and died in the land Desolation while helping the Nephite military commander, Moroni, contain the Lamanites who were trying to gain access to the “land northward” (Alma, Chapters 50-62).

‘The modern city of Tecumseh is located in Canada (the land to the north), by the borders of Canada and the United States, and by the seashore. It was named after the great Shawnee Indian chief, who fought and died as a military commander under the British in the War of 1812, while helping their forces contain the Americans, who were trying to gain access to British territory in Canada.

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TRAVELS OF SOLOMON SPAULDING

It is interesting to consider the influence that Spaulding’s travels seemed to have had upon his writings. During his lifetime, he lived in several different locations.

In 1782, at age twenty-one, Spaulding left his birthplace in Connecticut to attend Dartmouth College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While there he became acquainted with Reverend Ethan Smith, who may have influenced Spaulding's interest in the origin of the American Indians. Based on information provided by Ethan Smith's grandson, an article was printed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, in the 1880’s, in which Ethan Smith was said to have written a manuscript based on the theory that the American Indians were descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel. The article also stated that he had shared his ideas with Solomon Spaulding while they were attending Dartmouth. In 1823, Ethan Smith published a book dealing with the same subject entitled, View of the Hebrews.

After completing his training at Dartmouth, Spaulding lived in Hanover, New Hampshire, before moving to Windham County, Connecticut, where he finished his preparation for the ministry in 1787 and served as a licensed preacher for eight or ten years. One of his first writing efforts was a story entitled, “The Frogs of Windom,” based on the actual happening in the area.

Cherry Valley, New York, was Spaulding’s next home. For a short period, while living there, he served as principal of the Cherry Valley Academy. According to John Sawyer’s History of Cherry Valley (1898), “It was during this time that the Rev. Solomon Spaulding...wrote the biblical romance, which afterwards fell into the hands of Joseph Smith, and was adopted by him as the basis of the Mormon bible.” Spaulding may have only begun his biblical story at this early date, since it was said that he worked on it from time to time until at least 1812.

From Cherry Valley, he moved to Richmond, New York, and then on to Conneaut, Ohio, where he entered into business with his brother, Josiah. The known route of travel from Richmond to Conneaut, at that time, followed the old Indian trails that skirted around the mountains and rivers that lie between the two cities. It took the traveler around the north end of the Finger Lakes, across the Genesee River to the Niagara area, then along the shoreline of Lake Erie to Conneaut, Ohio.

After failing in business at Conneaut and experiencing deteriorating health, Spaunlding devoted most of his time to finishing the novel which he called “Manuscript Found.” In 1812, he moved from Conneaut to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he attempted to get his writings published. Failing in this endeavor, he moved to Amity, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1816.

When Spaulding’s travels are tracked on modern maps, they encompass nearly all of my proposed Book of Mormon geographical locations. He had opportunity to obtain firsthand knowledge of ancient fortified earthworks, Indian place names, Biblical place names, and geographical locations that influenced his writings.