Be confident that when you travel to Mexico, Guatemala, and Central America you are traveling in the lands where the primary American events of the Book of Mormon took place according to the Prophet Joseph Smith. As the translator of the Book of Mormon and because of his several visions about…….. the geography of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, remains the key to identifying geographical locations in the Book of Mormon. It is important to point out that Joseph expected to find archaeological evidence of the Book of Mormon both north and south of the Rio Grande because the Jaredites and the descendants of Father Lehi had spread from sea to sea and covered the face of the land.

The Book of Mormon did not take place in a vacuum. In addition to being scripture, the Book of Mormon is a history of real people who lived and died in the New World. There was a Zarahemla. According to the Prophet Joseph Smith, the city of Zarahemla was located south of the Rio Grande in Guatemala and Central America. The current debate about the location of Zarahemla has to do with the authorship of three editorials in an early Church newspaper called the Times and Seasons.[1] The declaration of Zarahemla being in Guatemala and the “narrow neck of land” being in Central America, occurred while the Prophet Joseph Smith was serving as Editor of the Times and Seasons. The articles have been challenged by those who want Zarahemla to be somewhere else. Also some LDS church historical scholars have questioned who authored these articles. The majority of scholars, who have looked at the issue, ascribe the articles to Joseph Smith.[2] Finding either Zarahemla or the “narrow neck” of land establishes the geography upon which the majority of the American history of the Book of Mormon transpired.[3]

The following article written by Joseph Smith appeared in the Times and Seasons on October 1, 1842, in Nauvoo, Illinois:

ZARAHEMLA

Central America, or Guatimala [sic], is situated north of the Isthmus of Darien and once embraced several hundred miles of territory from north to south.—The city of Zarahemla, burnt at the crucifixion of the Savior, and rebuilt afterwards, stood upon this land as will be seen from the following words in the book of Alma:—“And now it was only the distance of a day and a half’s journey for a Nephite, on the line Bountiful, and the land Desolation, from the east to the west sea; and thus the land of Nephi, and the land of Zarahemla was nearly surrounded by water: there being a small neck of land between the land northward and the land southward.” [Alma 22:32.] It is certainly a good thing for the excellency and veracity, of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon, that the ruins of Zarahemla have been found where the Nephites left them: and that a large stone with engraving upon it, as Mosiah said; and a ‘large round stone, with the sides sculptured in hieroglyphics,’ [such as found in Quiriguá] as Mr. Stephens has published, is also among the left remembrances of the, to him, lost and unknown. We are not agoing [sic] to declare positively that the ruins of Quiriguá are those of Zarahemla, but when the land and the stones, and the books tell the story so plain, we are of [the] opinion, that it would require more proof than the Jews could bring to prove the disciples stole the body of Jesus from the tomb, to prove that the ruins of the city in question, are not one of those referred to in the Book of Mormon.[4]

This article speaks for itself. New research has confirmed that Joseph Smith was indeed the author of this and several other articles proclaiming that the lands in Central America and Southern Mexico were the lands of the primary American events in the Book of Mormon. This means that you, as a traveler, can walk in the lands of ancient American prophets like Nephi, Alma, and King Benjamin. No one has yet found a sign that said “Nephi slept here!” Therefore exact locations for specific sites are referred to as candidates. Future archaeological finds may answer some of these questions. For now we can stand upon the same general grounds and if we listen carefully we may hear in the wind the voices of the two thousand stripling warriors saying “We do not doubt our mother’s knew it.”

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[1] Times and Seasons 3:914-195; 3:21-23; 3:927.
[2] Scholars who ascribed the September 15 and October 1, 1842, articles in the Times and Seasons to Joseph Smith, which declared the narrow neck of land to be in Central America and the city of Zarahemla in Guatemala, included Joseph Fielding Smith in Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 266-67. Other scholars who supported Joseph as the author of these articles included Hugh Nibley, Sidney B. Sperry, Dan Ludlow, John A. Widstoe, B.H. Roberts, and the first four Presidents of the Church.
[3] Joseph Smith, ed., Times and Seasons (October1, 1842), 3:927. In the Sept 15, 1842, Times and Seasons, Joseph identified the “narrow neck of land” as being in Central America (Times and Seasons 3:915).
[4] Joseph Smith, ed., Times and Seasons (October 1, 1842), 3:927.

Mike and John are educators traveling the world with Fun For Less Tours.