Various locations have been proposed as the geographical setting of the Book of Mormon, an 1830s work that purports to be a miraculously-delivered record of pre-Columbian America. While some people accept the narrative's historicity as an article of faith, mainstream views hold that the book is a creation of the 19th century, which was dictated, edited, and published by Joseph Smith.

Early readers and believers both concurred that the book's climactic scene, the final battle resulting in the destruction of the Nephites, was set in Palmyra, New York, at a hill Joseph Smith called Cumorah. As early as 1830, some readers felt the book's setting extended to both North and South America. By the 20th century, some followers suggested there were "two Cumorahs", with a second Cumorah located somewhere in Mesoamerica.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has no official position on the Book's geographical setting.

Background

According to Joseph Smith, an angel named Moroni told him "there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang." According to Latter Day Saint scripture, the narrative in the Book of Mormon came to an end in the ancient land called Cumorah, where Moroni, in 421 AD, deposited storied golden plates prior to his death. Many believers claim the Cumorah in the Book of Mormon narrative to be the same land containing the modern "Hill Cumorah" near Joseph Smith's home in Palmyra, western New York, from whence the gold plates of the Book of Mormon were retrieved. Others view the modern "Hill Cumorah" to be distinct from the original and simply to have been named after it, thus adding no information to the question of the location of the lands described in the Book of Mormon.

In the Book of Mormon narrative, three groups of people are stated to have migrated: Jaredites, Lehites (later divided into Lamanites and Nephites), and Mulekites. The Jaredites landed in what was later called the "Land Northward" during the time of the building of the "great tower". The Jaredites remained there until being destroyed between 600 and 300 BC. Their land is described as being surrounded by four "seas", with a "Narrow Neck" linking it to a "Land Southward" to which they never ventured except for hunting. The Lehites landed on the coast of a "Land Southward" around 589 BC. Seas nearly surrounded the Land Southward. One sea, which was stated to be near the dividing line of the latter definition of the "Land Southward" from the "Land Northward", was described as the "Sea that Divides the Land". The Mulekites landed in one "Land Northward" around 587 BC and later founded the city "Zarahemla", which was in the heart of the land, along the river "Sidon".

Many other geographic particulars are mentioned by the Book of Mormon, including travel times (generally days or less); lands and some references to their relative locations (for example, Zarahemla is north of the land of Nephi);Alma 49:10; 51:11; 53:10 bodies of water, including an east and a west sea; a narrow strip of wilderness dividing the land of Zarahemla from the southern land of Nephi; and others. Authors of different proposed geographical settings generally attempt to use (at least some of) these particulars when constructing their models.

Proposed geographies

Great Lakes setting

Mormons and non-Mormons initially agreed that the Book of Mormon narrative was set in the Great Lakes region, with its final battle at the Hill Cumorah in Palmyra, New York.Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1956, vol. 3, pp. 232-243.LATTER DAY SAINTS' MESSENGER AND ADVOCATE, Volume I. No. 1. KIRTLAND, OHIO, OCTOBER, 1834, pp. 12, 157–58]D&C 128:20 In the text, Cumorah is situated within the "land of many waters"—in this setting, the Finger Lakes. The Niagara Falls Peninsula has been described as the "narrow neck of land" mentioned in the text. +Great Lakes settingBook of Mormon NameSupposed placeCumorahPalmyra"narrow neck of land"Niagara PeninsulaSea WestLake ErieSea EastLake Ontario

The first history of the LDS Church was written in 1834 and 1835 by Oliver Cowdery, a close associate of Smith's, as a series of articles published in the LDS Church's official periodical, the Messenger and Advocate. In his history, Cowdery unambiguously identified the final battle between the Nephites and the Lamanites as having occurred at the "Hill Cumorah" in New York, where Joseph Smith said he obtained golden plates and other artifacts used to translate the Book of Mormon. Cowdery also identified the Jaredites' final battle as occurring in the same area as the Nephite/Lamanite final battle. (Smith edited the Messenger and Advocate and approved the official church history.)

Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph Smith's mother, in her account of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, says that the divine messenger called the hill where the plates were deposited the "hill of Cumorah", meaning "hill of" the Book of Mormon land "Cumorah". In another account, she said that young Joseph referred to the hill using this description.The Revised and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith By His Mother, Edited by Scot Facer Proctor and Maurine Jensen Proctor, Bookcraft, 1996, p. 107 n. 14; See also History of Joseph Smith by His Mother Lucy Mack Smith, p. 100

By the 1980s, authors noted that several Book of Mormon geographic names are also found within the Great Lakes region, including both indigenous names like Oneida and Tenecum as well as biblical names like Alma, Angola, Boaz, Ephrem, Hellam, Jerusalem, Jordan, Lehigh, Midian, and Rama.https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009

Hemispheric setting By 1834, the "narrow neck of land" was being identified with the Isthmus of Panama (then called the Isthmus of Darien).

The "Hemispheric" or "Two-Continent" model proposes that Book of Mormon lands stretch many thousands of miles over much of South and North America. Traditionally, the “narrow neck of land” that divides the “land north” from the “land south”, in this model, is said to be the Isthmus of Darien in Panama.

Statements made by Joseph Smith throughout his life promote a hemispheric view. Additionally, Smith (or in some cases, perhaps his close associates) publicly stated support for Book of Mormon lands in areas as far-flung as the Great Lakes region of North America, Mesoamerica, and Chile in South America. The idea that Lehi landed on the coast of temperate Chile, thousand of miles south of Panama's narrow neck, and that tropical Colombia's thousand mile long Magdalena River is the River Sidon, were presented by church scholars as mainstream, majority views in the LDS community through the 20th century.Reynolds, George, Commentary on the Book of Mormon (1955), Vol. 1, pp. 14, 189, 190; Vol. 2, pp. 6, 308–09, 376, 381; Vol. 3, pp. 311, 312, 315, 330–31; Vol. 4, p. 237; Dictionary of the Book of Mormon (1954), pp. 208–09, 238, 253, 255, 285, 326; see also Roberts, B. H., Seventies Course in Theology, First Year, p. 118; Smith, Joseph Fielding, Doctrines of Salvation, Vol. 3, pp. 73–74; McConkie, Bruce R, The Millennial Messiah, p. 206 Until the late-twentieth century, most adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement who affirmed Book of Mormon historicity believed the people described in the Book of Mormon text were the exclusive ancestors of all indigenous peoples in the Americas.

One of the earliest advocates of a hemispheric setting was Orson Pratt, who as early as 1832 publicly promoted the idea that Lehi "crossed the water into South America".Roper, Matthew, "Limited Geography and the Book of Mormon: Historical Antecedents and Early Interpretations", see section titled "Hemispheric Interpretations of Book of Mormon Geography", Maxwell Institute, 2004 Pratt never attributed his geography (or one like it) to Joseph Smith.Pratt, Orson, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 14, p. 325 Pratt's geographic views were published in the 1879 edition of the Book of Mormon but retracted from later editions.

Strongly influenced by John Lloyd Stephens's 1841 bestseller, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Parley Pratt set various Book of Mormon lands (including, apparently, the narrow neck) farther north and west of Panama.Roper, Matthew, "Limited Geography and the Book of Mormon: Historical Antecedents and Early Interpretations", see section titled "Parley P. Pratt's View", Maxwell Institute, 2004 Prior to the influence of John Lloyd Stephens's popular book, some church members placed the southernmost Nephite land of Manti—well within the boundaries of United States territory.Millennial Star, "History of Joseph Smith", May 13, 1854, Vol. 16, p. 296; see also Journal of Samuel D. Tyler, Sept. 25, 1838

+Hemispheric settingBook of Mormon NameSupposed place"narrow neck of land"PanamaSea WestPacificSea EastAtlantic

As early as November 1830, Oliver Cowdery openly preached that Lehi landed in Chile. A document in the handwriting of early church leader Frederick G. Williams alleges that Lehi landed 30 degrees South of the equator, in what would be modern day Chile. Although many Latter-day Saints attribute its ideas to Joseph Smith (as Williams was Smith's scribe and counselor), others do not.Roberts, B.H., New Witness for God, Vol. 3, pp. 501–03 Some Mormons who support this group of theories believe that part of South America was under water, and that the continent rose up during the major earthquakes mentioned in the Book of Mormon during Jesus's crucifixion in the Old World.Priddis, Venice, The Book and the Map – New Insights into Book of Mormon Geography

The Encyclopedia of Mormonism states: Church leaders have generally declined to give any opinion on issues of Book of Mormon geography. When asked to review a map showing the supposed landing place of Lehi's company, President Joseph F. Smith declared that the 'Lord had not yet revealed it' (Cannon, p. 160 n.) In 1929, Anthony W. Ivins, counselor in the First Presidency, added, 'There has never been anything yet set forth that definitely settles that question [of Book of Mormon geography]. ... We are just waiting until we discover the truth" (CR, Apr. 1929, p. 16). While the Church does not currently take an official position with regard to location of geographical places, the authorities do not discourage private efforts to deal with the subject (Cannon).

Previous to this disclaimer, George Q. Cannon had published the following: "It is also known that the landing place of Lehi and his family was near what is now known as the city of Valparaíso, in the republic of Chili [Chile]. The book itself does not give us this information, but there is not doubt of its correctness." President Cannon was promoting a prevailing view endorsed by the Church in 1887. (See for instance Apostle Orson Pratt's speculative geographic footnotes published in the 1879 edition of the Book of Mormon.)Cannon, George Q. (editor), "Topics of the Times", Juvenile Instructor, July 15, 1887, Vol. 22, No. 14, p. 221

In 1938, Joseph Fielding Smith and his assistants in the Historian's Office of the Church published, as part of a compilation, an article giving readers the impression that Joseph Smith taught that Lehi "had landed a little south of the Isthmus of Darien".Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 267 The Isthmus of Darien (Panama) is thousands of miles north of Valparaíso, Chile. The popular LDS work quotes an unsigned Times and Seasons article that was published during a "short season" when the official editor of the newspaper (Joseph Smith) was publicly absent.Times and Season, Sept. 15, 1842, 3:921–22 The newspaper article, in fact, mentioned Joseph Smith in the third person and there is no proof that he authored the piece.Reynolds, George, Commentary on the Book of Mormon (1955), Vol. 3, pp. 330–31