The North America Model for the Book of Mormon: From Jerusalem to Cumorah

By William Peter Midgley

HAVE YOU EVER WANTED TO?

Sit at the edge of the waters of Mormon

Cross the river Sidon at the city and valley of Gideon

Climb mount Antipas

Follow the path Coriantumr used to attack the city of Zarahemla

Journey to the city of Judea in Manti with the 2000 stripling soldiers

Explore the land of the Nephite kings, Zeniff, Noah and Limhi

Stand where king Benjamin spoke to the people from the tower

Visit the shores of the east sea and west sea at the narrow neck

Waters of Mormon - NC Mount Antipas - NC East sea near the narrow neck - NY

You can now. The search for the lands of the Book of Mormon has been an object of interest and conjecture ever since it was published in 1830. Many serious and well researched studies have been conducted for locations from South America, to Central America, to North America and beyond. Substantive theories have been generated and extensive academic treatises and books have been written and websites created to promote a wide range of models attempting to address the sites and locations of where the events took place. Each model has its proponents and its detractors, and each has credible scriptural, scientific and archaeological evidence to support elements of each model.

The North America Model for the Book of Mormon, From Jerusalem to Cumorah, locates events, not just generally, but with specificity in many cases. It is based on the contemporarily written word, the preferred source for historical research. Since the Book of Mormon is true, what better source would there be? It is time to unravel the geography of the Book of Mormon from Jerusalem to Cumorah that has been hidden in plain sight since 1830.

The North America Model indicates how close the historical and geographical footprint of the wars, contentions and travels of the Nephites and Lamanites may have facilitated the actual founding and preservation of the United States of America in the prophesied land of promise through the paths and trails that the ancient peoples who inhabited the land created and which were used not only by the colonists during the Revolutionary War but also in the course of the Civil War. The legacy of the Book of Mormon is more intimately intertwined with the United States of America, the promised land of liberty, than originally thought.

Miamisburg Mound, Ohio - Hopewell Mound Builder Culture 1000/200 B.C. to 4-500 A.D.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9781682134801

Book preview

Content

Prologue

The North America Model for the Book of Mormon

FROM JERUSALEM TO CUMORAH, A GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF MORMON

Follow the journeys of Lehi, Mulek, and Jared to the land of promise. Discover which seas they traveled as well as where they landed and grew into thriving but warring peoples. Find out where the lands of Zarahemla and Nephi were and how they related to the river Sidon, the river that served as the wilderness boundary that separated them. Learn about places like the lands of Manti, Desolation, Bountiful, Jershon, Antionum, the city of Zarahemla, and the city and valley of Gideon. Find where land grants, battles, and migrations took place. And learn how the Jaredite and Nephite cultures met their destruction in and around the same place in upstate New York - many years apart - near the hill Cumorah.

Where is the ‘narrow neck of land’, the ‘small neck of land’, the ‘narrow neck’, the ‘narrow pass’, and the ‘narrow passage’? Are they all the same location, two locations, or more? Where can you cross a river from west to east and be in the south wilderness? Find out how up can mean south and down can mean north.

The North America Model for the Book of Mormon is the result of the author’s personal coalescing of years of familiarity with Book of Mormon stories; the work of many others who have researched and documented discoveries and scientific expeditions not available until recently that are significant in support of locations and travel movements in the Book of Mormon; a systematic review of all Book of Mormon scriptures(18) related to movements, directions, and relationships; and relying on emerging technologies(8) that allow meaningful scrutiny of earth geography, not only from above but at ground level. It is time to unravel the geography of the Book of Mormon from Jerusalem to Cumorah that has been hidden in plain sight since 1830.

For those familiar with the Book of Mormon - The North America Model for the Book of Mormon provides a visual framework for a memorable recollection of the spiritual messages in the Book of Mormon. You will follow the same journey the author took in unraveling its geographic mysteries.

For those not familiar with the Book of Mormon - Besides reading the Book of Mormon in its entirety, it may be well to review Part 4 – History and Geography of the Book of Mormon – Base Model for a summary and graphic representation of the Book of Mormon geography. The appendices are included to address geography with more specificity. While the names and places in the Book of Mormon may not be familiar, the geography will be.

Miamisburg Hopewell Mound – The Ohio Historical SocietyPhoto by Gregory Midgley

Image 6

Introduction

Having been an on-and-off again student of the Book of Mormon since before I was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the age of nine shortly after World War II in 1946, I have always known that it was true in accordance with the promise made in Moroni 10:4-5. (v. 4) "And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. (v. 5) And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."

I also accepted the reality of the migrations of Lehi’s and Mulek’s families to the land of promise. I had no doubt that the written record of their descendants over the next 1000 years, as well as those about the family of Jared who preceded them from the Tower of Babel, was the record that was hid up in the hill Cumorah (Mormon 6:6) in upstate New York to eventually be delivered to young Joseph Smith by the prophet, Moroni, in the 1820’s and translated by the power of God pending the restoration of the Gospel in 1830.

In the intervening years, the locations of events related to Lehi’s journey and those of his descendants in the land of promise, including the wars and contentions, seemed to be inconsequential. The description of travels and places related to them were too general to seriously consider. They seemed to be only transitional observations to connect the spiritual messages and to describe how the various peoples responded to them and how their responses apply to us today.

Eventually, a paradigm of thought arose that focused on southern Mexico and Central America, known as Mesoamerica, as the likely location for Book of Mormon events. That was in spite of the fact the plates describing those events were found in an obscure hill in upstate New York thousands of miles away. This paradigm was bolstered by expeditions like the Kontiki raft built by Thor Heyerdahl that sailed across the Pacific Ocean in 1947 from South America to the Polynesian Islands which showed the ability of the transmigration of large bodies of water, and which focused on the connection of the west coast of the Americas with the Far East and further.

Other developments included intense archaeological research in the latter half of the 20th century into the ancient Olmec, Maya and Aztec ruins that seemed to have connections to Mideast architecture in their design and sophistication. Being an architect by training, that appealed to my aesthetic sensibilities. There were other paradigms to consider such as New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon and Colorado’s Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellers, but these post 500 A.D. cultures never rose to the level of Book of Mormon consideration.

The Mesoamerica area became the source for artist’s depictions, including when Christ appeared to the people in the western hemisphere after his ascension, even though there remained lots of difficult questions, like how did the plates end up in New York. The simplistic idea that they were carried there by Moroni who was being chased by the Lamanites across the land was sufficient to allay concerns for geographic certitude. Also, research focused on individual geographic features and relied on ocean migrations traveling from west to east to landfall on the west coast of the American continents, even with the familiar artist’s depiction of the boat on which Lehi and his people were sailing was drawn in the visual representation of sailing east. Never mind that many ancient Mesoamerica sites are dated post-Book of Mormon era (A.D. 421+) such as the Palenque ruins in Chiapas, Mexico (A.D. 225-800), Temple I at Tikal in Guatamala (A.D. 732), or El Castillo at Chichen Itza in Yucatan, Mexico (A.D. 900-1200) as examples. In fact, the Book of Mormon does not describe cities constructed primarily of stone such as are found in Mesoamerica dated both pre and/or post A.D. 421.

In addition, I engaged in apologetics dialogue in the mid-1990’s with others who focused on what they felt were inconsistencies within the Book of Mormon. One that they pointed to was that there is no continually running river of water, the river Laman, anywhere on the west coast of Arabia into the Red Sea, and everybody knows it. At the time, I was satisfied that a river of some kind could not be discounted by my own discovery on an Atlas of a blue line leading into the upper end of the Gulf of Aqaba, which gulf is referred to in 1 Nephi 2:9 as the fountain of the Red Sea.

Even though the Book of Mormon stands on its own without any physical evidence, that is not to say that evidence does not exist now, and that it cannot, nor may not, be discovered in the future. All evidence regarding geography described in the Book of Mormon is welcome. It would also facilitate a more memorable recollection of the Book of Mormon messages as one internalizes the total narrative by association with a cogent and persuasive geography.

Part of the motivation to pursue this topic is my experience gained over 55 years in the profession of architecture, including as an architecture student at the University of Michigan, where I received a gift of the Sigfried Giedion book Space, Time and Architecture for academic achievement, a book which dealt with the complex history of contemporary architecture and urban planning. The practice of architecture deals with the identification of diverse and complex space and function programs that need to be organized in logical and orderly arrangements to serve the interests of the ultimate users. From the identification of such complex programs that at first seem impossible to arrange, to assembling them into a cogent whole that speaks of simplicity and the obvious, the process of design is one of finding order in the theoretically complex, something that I did since 1960 on large and complex projects throughout the Midwest. The challenge is finding the design key that is unique to each project and applying it to achieve a satisfying whole. What would be more satisfying than unraveling the long and complex geography of the Book of Mormon that was written by multiple ancient writers over expansive space and time? Therefore, the challenge is part of the motivation, in addition to a natural curiosity for the Book of Mormon narrative background.

Fast forward to 2013. With the passage of time and recently documented scientific expeditions and discoveries, as well as new technologies such as Google Maps(8) unavailable until recently, there were five awakenings that caused me to look into the geography of the Book of Mormon from the time Lehi and Mulek left Jerusalem and Jared left from Babel, until Moroni placed the last of the records in the hill Cumorah. They all were major contributors to the genesis of the five-part Base Model in The North America Model for the Book of Mormon. While this work addresses all of these catalytic factors to one degree or another, it is useful to check out the referenced material for more in-depth information. Otherwise, this work focuses for the most part on the written word of the Book of Mormon.

(1) The Valley of Lemuel and the River Laman ‐ This includes a viable discovery of the valley of Lemuel and the river Laman in 1999 by George Potter,[1] and as confirmed by S. Kent Brown in his review of other options for the valley of Lemuel.[2] Other discoveries on the Arabian peninsula that are important to this work are the definitive location for Nahom by S. Kent Brown[3] and the location called Bountiful in Arabia as reported by Warren P. Aston.[4]

(2) The Phoenicia Ship Expedition ‐ The circumnavigation of Africa in 2009‐2010 by a replica of a 600 B.C. Phoenicia ship that sailed around Africa from east to west on its way to returning to the Mediterranean Sea, as presented by the History Channel and further reported on by Rodney Meldrum of the FIRM Foundation,[5] was significant.

(3) The Hopewell Culture in the Midwest ‐ Historical data on the Hopewell Culture, the Mound Builders, located throughout the Midwest of America, including Ohio and surrounding states, and reported on by the Ohio History Central website, researched and written by the staff of the Ohio History Society,[6] as being a large and significant culture that existed from around 1000-200 B.C. to eventually disappear around 400 A.D. is undeniably relevant.

(4) Scriptural References to the Promised Land ‐ Scriptural evidence of the United States of America being the principal object of the Book of Mormon prophecies related to the land of promise, and as reported by Rodney Meldrum through his FIRM Foundation,(7) does not go unnoticed regarding the Garden of Eden, Adam-ondi‐Ahman and the future home of the New Jerusalem - all of which this native-born member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‐day Saints from Jackson County, Missouri, is acutely aware. Refer to Appendix D for context with this model.

(5) The River Sidon ‐ The identification of one of the more significant features mentioned multiple times in the Book of Mormon which can provide a clue to where the other lands and many of the events took place (i.e., the river Sidon) was the final catalyst to the model.

The methodology focuses on all verses in the Book of Mormon[18] related to Lehi’s journey, the river Sidon, the various lands, and the travels and battles that were waged from land to land. A picture then emerges that is not based on verses taken alone but in context with the larger narrative. It also relies on actual discoveries not known earlier like the river Laman, the direction of sea travel to the land of promise, and scenarios which support the reasonable assumption that the hill Cumorah, the land of Desolation, and the related ‘narrow neck’ or ‘small neck of land’ are in one location only, in and around the present state of New York. The Base Model is divided into five parts:

Part 1 - Lehi’s Journey From Jerusalem to the Land of Promise

Part 2 - Book of Mormon Migrations by Ocean to the Land of Promise

Part 3 - River Sidon

Part 4 - History and Geography of the Book of Mormon – Base Model

Part 5 - Scriptural Analysis of The North America Model Geography

The Base Model, and the Appendices as tests to the Base Model, covers the entire narrative of the Book of Mormon from beginning to end, in which places and events can be visualized. I do not profess that all assumptions and conclusions are the final word, or that they come from divine inspiration, just a logical and straightforward evaluation of the scriptures taken in totality along with persuasive evidence not understood, nor available, until recently.

Part 1: Lehi’s Journey From Jerusalem to the Land of Promise

Many of the geographic descriptions and travel concepts for Lehi’s journey through Arabia and to the land of promise by sea come from material referred to in the Introduction above and as outlined in References on page 129. This is especially true of the description and location of the river Laman, the location of Nahom, the location and description of Bountiful and the feasibility of Lehi’s journey to the Americas by the circumnavigation of Africa from east to west. However, aerial views available through Google Maps[8] were a significant resource for testing geography in Arabia, as were aerial and ground level views available through Google Maps for initial research into The North America Model base geography in the land of promise, the United States of America.

Part 1 follows Lehi’s journey from Jerusalem to the land of promise, providing new insights and commentary regarding the details. It also contributes to a complete narrative of the Book of Mormon, confirming credibility as to its historicity from start to finish for all who may have lingering questions about geography considering the many models that have been promoted and published in search of the truth. Refer to Appendix E - Lehi in the Borders for more details in Arabia.

The following summary of Lehi’s journey reviews all verses that mention travel movements(*) in each segment of the journey, of which it takes only 23 verses (4%) out of the 616 verses in 1 Nephi to cover the entire eleven-year journey from Jerusalem to the promised land. That is a surprisingly small number of verses considering the extent of detail sufficient to track Lehi’s movements while taking into account actual geographic features and historical perspectives not commonly known in the 1800’s. There are no missing gaps in the narrative. Other scriptures are included for context in the overall narrative. Throughout the Base Model and the Appendices, all scriptures are printed in blue along with reference to chapter and verse and related commentary printed in black.

Jerusalem to the River Laman and the Valley of Lemuel – Refer to the map on page 12

*1 Nephi 2:4 (About 600 B.C.) - Leaving Jerusalem, Lehi … departed into the wilderness. The exact direction and path is not suggested by any text, but travel from Jerusalem to the Red Sea was well established and it matters not which path Lehi took. Any more detail is only hypothetical guesses and irrelevant. It is enough that they ended up