Book of Mormon geography/Models/Limited/Goble 2004

Model Name Date Proposed Scope Narrow Neck Land North Land South Cumorah River Sidon Nephi's Landing Religion Type of model

Model name: Goble 2004

Date proposed: 2004
Scope: LGT/HGT
Narrow neck: Tehuantepec
Land north: From Tehuantepec Northward
Land south: Mesoamerica/Preclassic Maya
Cumorah: New York
Sidon: Undetermined
Landing: Undetermined
Religion: LDS
Type: External

Edwin Goble was co-author of the book This Land: Zarahemla and the Nephite Nation in 2002. Goble previously believed in the general US Heartland model, now popularized by Rodney Meldrum.

Goble later became aware of the significance of Joseph Smith's statement in the Levi Hancock Journal during Zion's Camp. The statement seems to suggest that Joseph Smith believed that the area of the Zelph Mound in Illinois was in a northern part of the land of Desolation mentioned in the Book of Mormon. This contradicts the central idea in the US Heartland Model. Goble's faith was shaken in the US Heartland model. Goble realized the implication of that statement from Joseph Smith, that it actually pushed the Narrow Neck of Land into Mesoamerica. He ended up retracting his belief in the US Heartland model. He now believes in a model that places the Book of Mormon Land Southward in Mesoamerica, but with the Cumorah where the Nephites and Jaredites perished in New York. Therefore, a northern domain of the Nephites existed in the Eastern United States where the Hopewell/Adena cultures existed anciently, according to Goble's beliefs. Goble now believes the Narrow Neck of Land was Tehuantepec. (See book entitled Resurrecting Cumorah)