Where is the Hill Cumorah?

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I’ve come across some interesting information. I understand that Joseph Smith was given plates at someplace called the Hill Cumorah in New York State. Apparently, some BYU people are saying the Nephites lived in Central America, far from New York. They are claiming the Hill Cumorah was in Central America as well. Why would they disagree with what their prophet claimed? Here’s the article I came across:

utlm.org/onlineresources/cumorah.htm

It seems like these Mormons are a pretty confused bunch.
 
Bart;

Back in the early 1800s you could get away with all sorts of tall tales. Archeology and its attendant tools were in their infancy.

Remember the Piltdown Man?

So for over 100 years mormons believed “Hill Cumorah” (nice Irish ring, that!) was in upstate New York. After all, mormonism like all ‘burnt region’ sects was primarily a NATIONALISTIC cult.

Oops! Now there is too much evidence of NON-EVIDENCE of what the BoM claimed to have happened when Jesus decided to take a stopover in the Americas on His way Home.

So it’s time to rewrite mormon history (a common practice for them).

“Move it south.Still no match? Heck, let’s move it east, no, not Africa, a little further on, yeah, here on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, this is the place!”:banghead:

Robert
 
Hill Cumorah is in Upstate NY, in Palmyra.

I live near there, I have passed by it many times. There is a statue of Moroni on it, and a (relatively new) Mormon temple there.

The Mormons hold their pageant there every summer. In fact, since it is a **big **production, held completely outdoors, in this area, we have come to call any extended period of dry weather (in spite of weatherman’s predictions), “Mormon Weather”…
Saying it is anywhere else just sounds weird. I mean , they have all kinds of rules for behaviour for everyone who is on the land there. (No smoking, no alcohol, no swearing, no spitting [yes, :rolleyes: spitting:shrug: !!], etc)…Because it is:cool: “sacred ground”.
 
Book of Mormon geography has been a favorite area of speculation since the book was first published. They basically have two things to go off of: the site in upstate New York where Joseph was said to have removed the plates from the hillside and the geographical clues left in the text itself.

There are competing theories within Mormon academic circles although the majority of LDS apologists adhere to the two hill scenario. They argue that the text supports a limited geography (based on descriptions of days walking and such) and that just like you have in all of history as people come to new territories and lands they name landmarks after their previous lands (having lived myself in Massachusetts I can attest that the entire state is named after English cities).

I think this statement summarizes the current thought nicely:

farms.byu.edu/publications/bookofmormon.php?selection=bom&cat=bom

But you will continue to hear different theories within LDS circles. Early leaders of the church obviously had their theories and assumptions but they were speculating just as much as modern day scholars. The exact location of Book of Mormon territory and Moroni’s exact path over years of wandering is never addressed in revelation or canonical scripture.
 
stokemeister said:
Book of Mormon geography has been a favorite area of speculation since the book was first published. They basically have two things to go off of: the site in upstate New York where Joseph was said to have removed the plates from the hillside and the geographical clues left in the text itself.

There are competing theories within Mormon academic circles although the majority of LDS apologists adhere to the two hill scenario. They argue that the text supports a limited geography (based on descriptions of days walking and such) and that just like you have in all of history as people come to new territories and lands they name landmarks after their previous lands (having lived myself in Massachusetts I can attest that the entire state is named after English cities).

I think this statement summarizes the current thought nicely:

farms.byu.edu/publications/bookofmormon.php?selection=bom&cat=bom

But you will continue to hear different theories within LDS circles. Early leaders of the church obviously had their theories and assumptions but they were speculating just as much as modern day scholars. The exact location of Book of Mormon territory and Moroni’s exact path over years of wandering is never addressed in revelation or canonical scripture.
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Joseph Smith, when he and his companions found a body killled by an arrow buried in Illinois (nowhere near Central America), prophesied:
“His name was Zelph. He was a warrior and chieftain under the great prophet Onandagus, who was known from the Hill Cumorah, or eastern sea to the Rocky mountains.”
Click to expand...
  • Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 2:79-80; June 3, 1834
Click to expand...
That to me says that Joseph Smith (who should have known) declared prophetically that the Hill Cumorah was the one in New York (near the eastern sea), and that the limited geography theory is hogwash.

Think about it: If the Nephites & Lamanites were limited to a small patch of Central America, how could Zelph have been slain in battle in Illinois?

Did God move both the plates and the body to new locations?

I’m afraid the Mormons are stuck with the Continental Geography theory for the Book of Mormon.

Paul
 
stokemeister said:
Book of Mormon geography has been a favorite area of speculation since the book was first published. They basically have two things to go off of: the site in upstate New York where Joseph was said to have removed the plates from the hillside and the geographical clues left in the text itself.
Click to expand...
Some one better tell the folks in Palmyra, NY that they’ve missed the mark. Mormons have been assembling there annually and celebrating for many years.
 
PaulDupre said:
I’m afraid the Mormons are stuck with the Continental Geography theory for the Book of Mormon.

Paul
Click to expand...
Totally agreed. This is the only theory they can stand by and remain Mormon. :eek: Despite a total lack of evidence. Any other theory and they become non-Mormon.😃 Because all others discount the BOM as a whole. It has to be all or nothing, if it is really sacred scripture. :tsktsk:
 
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