The Book of Mormon wasn’t written to be a comprehensive history of the people that lived in the Americas. It was meant to be scripture. Spiritual text that will strengthen faith in God and convection to Jesus Christ.
With that said, knowing that the Book of Mormon Lands are real, knowing that this record is of real people that lived on this Land centuries ago can strengthen our faith and confidence witht he teachings that are true.
Where the Book of Mormon Took Place. Where the City of Zarahemla was, where the City of Bountiful was have been discussed and debated over the years. One of the reasons that it is so hard to find archaeological evidence of the book and its people is because we don’t even know where we’re looking. It’s hard to know where it happened when the peoples who records it was were destroyed 1600 years ago and when the record they left wasn’t designed to explain the maps and locations of it.
Different Book of Mormon Models
Over the years there have been many different models. My Grandfather was facinated with this concept, and had dozens of books regarding where the Book of Mormon took place, all according to a Meso America context. The reality is that there is lots of archaeological evidence that an ancient people did live in Meso America during the time period when the Book of Mormon people did. Those people were intelligent, had advanced science, math, and serious religous history including temples and writing, and calendars, and understanding of dates and times. But where those the people of the book of mormon and or descendants of the Book of Mormon?
It’s possible.
Later in Life, after my mission when I was convinced that meso america was where the Book of Mormon people lived, I learned of other theories. Other compelling evidence. I have a co-worker who is convinced that the Book of Mormon took place in South America arround the Northern Chile and Peru Areas. I have heard theories of the Book of Mormon taking place in California and the Baja Peninsula. The fastest growing theory is that it happened in the Heartland area of the United States. That the Book of Mormon events happened primarily in the same locations as the restoration of the Gospel and the early Church. It’s also possible that the Book of Mormon people existed.
Where The Book of Mormon Took Place According to CHAT GPT
Well, today we live in a world with technology beyond the comprehension of what we had even a decade ago. Artificial Intelligence has the ability to meticiulously scan through the contents of the book of mormon and the details of the text, time periods, geographic mentions, and comparisons in ways that only brilliant minds like Hugh Nibley could. It is able to compare geography, archaelogy, climate, weather information science, and likley land changes over the centuries with a bigger database of inputs and information than ever before. So I set up to let it find out, based on the text of the Book of Mormon, not influenced by previous models, where it would determine the setting and location of the Book of Mormon.
I started off by giving it prompts and instructions to examine the text of the book of mormon to find out where Nephi and His Family would have set sail from, come up with possible routes that they would have taken and then identifiy the most likely cities and locations of those events in the Book of Mormon that have sufficient details regarding descriptiosn, location, and proximity to geographic landmarks and features and in relationship with one another, triangulation to ensure that those locations are also compatible with other locations already identified, and use its reasoning to logically conclude the most likely location.
This is the model it has come up with.
Core anchor
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Zarahemla → Portsmouth, Ohio (Scioto–Ohio confluence)
Rivers
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Sidon (river) → Scioto River system (Ohio)
Near-Zarahemla cities and events
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Gideon → Lower Scioto crossing zone near Portsmouth (satellite city at/near a ford)
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Melek → Springfield / Urbana, Ohio region (intermediate city on Zarahemla → Ammonihah route)
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Ammonihah → Marion / Bucyrus, Ohio region (north/upper inland from Zarahemla)
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Manti → Upper Scioto headwaters / south-central Ohio uplands (frontier/headwaters near wilderness)
Land of Nephi complex (southern uplands)
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Land/City of Nephi → Somerset / Upper Cumberland basin-edge uplands (KY) (regional zone)
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Waters of Mormon → within ~1 day of City of Nephi, in karst/spring/pond thicket terrain (micro-zone not pinned)
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Helam → ~8 days from Waters of Mormon, still within the broader Nephi region (zone not pinned)
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Valley of Alma → north edge of the Nephi uplands / exit point toward Zarahemla, from which 12 days to Zarahemla is plausible (zone not pinned)
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Wilderness strip (dividing Nephi and Zarahemla) → Appalachian/plateau forest belt between KY uplands and Scioto/Ohio lowlands
Eastern frontier (Zoramites + Ammonites)
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Antionum (Zoramites) → Upper Ohio Valley / Appalachian foothills (Washington, PA / Morgantown, WV corridor)
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Jershon (Ammonites) → Northern WV / SW PA plateau (Wheeling–Morgantown corridor), treated as eastward frontier “near the east sea” (not coastal)
Northern system (Bountiful / narrow neck / northward / Cumorah)
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Bountiful (land, northern buffer) → Niagara / Buffalo / Hamilton corridor (regional)
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Narrow neck of land → Niagara corridor (between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario)
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Land northward → Southern Ontario / western NY (regional)
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Land of Cumorah → Finger Lakes / Lake Ontario basin (regional)
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Hill in Cumorah (where records were deposited) → a prominent drumlin-type hill within the Finger Lakes/Lake Ontario basin (not pinned)
First landing
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First landing → Provisional / not locked (we discussed Gulf coast as a possibility earlier, but it is not currently consistent with the rest of the map without additional constraints)