Unavailable Genetic Evidence, Multiple Simultaneous Promised Lands, and Lamanites by Location? Possible Ramifications

Abstract: The first part of this paper investigates the transportation methods used in the Book of Mormon, concluding that foot travel rather than horse and river travel dominated all journeying. Part 2 then estimates the overall dimensions of the Promised Land by examining Alma the Elder’s journey from Nephi to Zarahemla, reaffirming the 200-by-500-mile size promoted by John L. Sorenson decades ago. Part 3 looks at four ramifications of this 100,000 square-mile Promised Land footprint: it allows for more than one Promised Land; it predicts that most Native Americans today would have few or no direct ties to the Jaredites-Lehites-Mulekites; it demonstrates that research efforts to identify evidence of the Book of Mormon peoples could be exploring locations thousands of miles away from their original settlements; and any of the post-400 CE localized population losses in the Americas due to disease, war, or unknown causes might have destroyed the primary locus of the Jaredite-Lehite-Mulekite populations.