Hypothetical setting of the Book of Mormon

Various locations have been proposed as the geographical setting of the Book of Mormon, an 1830s work that purports to be a miraculously-delivered record of pre-Columbian America. While some people accept the narrative's historicity as an article of faith, mainstream views hold that the book is a creation of the 19th century, which was dictated, edited, and published by Joseph Smith.

Early readers and believers both concurred that the book's climactic scene, the final battle resulting in the destruction of the Nephites, was set in Palmyra, New York, at a hill Joseph Smith called Cumorah. As early as 1830, some readers felt the book's setting extended to both North and South America. By the 20th century, some followers suggested there were "two Cumorahs", with a second Cumorah located somewhere in Mesoamerica.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has no official position on the Book's geographical setting.

Background

According to Joseph Smith, an angel named Moroni told him "there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang." According to Latter Day Saint scripture, the narrative in the Book of Mormon came to an end in the ancient land called Cumorah, where Moroni, in 421 AD, deposited storied golden plates prior to his death. Many believers claim the Cumorah in the Book of Mormon narrative to be the same land containing the modern "Hill Cumorah" near Joseph Smith's home in Palmyra, western New York, from whence the gold plates of the Book of Mormon were retrieved. Others view the modern "Hill Cumorah" to be distinct from the original and simply to have been named after it, thus adding no information to the question of the location of the lands described in the Book of Mormon.

In the Book of Mormon narrative, three groups of people are stated to have migrated: Jaredites, Lehites (later divided into Lamanites and Nephites), and Mulekites.