This doesn’t exactly support the “Heartland Model” of Book of Mormon geography.

In the end, I don’t much care where the Book of Mormon story took place.  That’s not to say that the question isn’t interesting to me, but, in my judgment, a definitive answer to it is essential neither to my faith nor to anybody’s salvation.

Much more significant, it seems to me, is the proposition that the Book of Mormon took place.

Some people disagree.

I receive a fair amount of anonymous or pseudonymous hate mail.  On most days.

For a year or two, a lot of it — sometimes as many 5-8 emails daily — came from someone who was plainly convinced that “knowing” that the Book of Mormon occurred within the boundaries of today’s United States (and, more specifically, around New York State, the Mississippi River Valley, and the Great Lakes) ranks as one of the most important requirements for salvation.  In leaning strongly toward a Mesoamerican setting for the Book of Mormon, he told me over and over and over again — in various usually quite insulting ways — I’ve “thrown the prophets under the bus.”

Well, here’s some evidence that at least one of those prophets apparently climbed under the bus himself:

http://zanderthelamanite.com/1/post/2016/09/brigham-young-and-book-of-mormon-geography.html