On the Trail of the Plates of Mormon

I have decided to put aside researching the Mentinah Archives for now and concentrate more on my map of Nephite migrations until I can get more information on them. The Archives gave me some new ideas on how and where the Nephites settled in the United States. I forgot about the Anasazi ruins and numerous artifacts found in Utah that suggests an advanced culture lived there. So, I adjusted my map to reflect on these discoveries. You can view it here.

I believe one of the reasons why there would be two locations for Nephite settlements is that God wanted to re-establish His Church and His people on this land. There is only two general areas that can support large populations–the lands east of the Mississippi river and the lands west of the Rocky Mountains including the west coast. In Alma 63:4,5, there are two groups that went into the lands northward. One was a company of 5400 families. I believe they settled in the southwest. The other group is Hagoth’s ships. The scripture says he travel in the west sea by a narrow neck of land. There is only one place where he could have done this from Zarahemla and that is the northern coast of Mexico. There is an archaeological site that was discovered on the north end of Lake Mead that dates to around the first century that is called the Lost City. I have also read that there were many other sites in the Grand Canyon area that was destroyed by Lake Meade. Could it be possible that Hagoth traveled up the Colorado River as suggested in the Book of Hagoth in the Archives and started colonies there? Then after he did this would travel across the Pacific to settle the south sea islands. (The Book of Hagoth says that he had a son named Hagoth who left before his father did and became lost during a storm and landed on a group of islands.) Most migrations takes place along rivers where there is plenty of water and food. There might be other ruins in the lower Colorado river area that date to this time. I found this site that also suggests that Nephites settled in the Utah mountains. This site is the best I have seen so far of a gallery of photographs that suggests a high level of technology in Utah. Metal plates, swords and stone boxes. These were all used by the Nephites. The Utah valleys would be an excellent place to store records and give protection to the people. A part of my theory on why the Nephites migrated north was to escape the wars and the corruption of the Church in Zarahemla. From the time Lehi settled in South America the Nephites were being pushed north by the Lamanites. They would settle in an area for a while then become over run by Lamanites and corruption in the Church and then a small group of righteous Nephites would leave and start new. According to the Book of Mormon the Nephites in Zarahemla were becoming a very corrupt and evil nation just before the coming of Christ. So, I believe that God wanted to preserve the Church and records and sent groups of righteous Nephites into the lands north into the United States. What better place for protection than in the mountains of Utah where they could be naturally protected on three sides. By using Hagoth’s ships a colony could be set up quicker than overland routes. I believe that God wanted the east coast to be settled also in case the mountain colony would become corrupted and the Church and records could be again saved from destruction. It says in Alma 63 that copies of the records were sent to all the cities except where Alma was commanded not to send them. So, there would be libraries of records found throughout the United States and Central America and Joseph Smith may have been allowed to see one of these to return the Mormon Plates in upstate New York. The grasslands between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains is a great barrier between the two colonies that would discourage large scale wars to happen.

This is the basics of my theory on the Book of Mormon geography. It’s all speculation, I know, but I believe this to be closest to what the Book of Mormon teaches us about the Nephite Nation. This is a fun and challenging project for me and I hope I can inspire someone to take a closer look into my ideas and do a better researched article on this subject. More to come…