THE NORTH AMERICAN MODEL

I refuse to spend copious amounts of time delving into where the Book of Mormon narrative occurred - though I am intrigued by the North American model.  My focus is on the message of the Book of Mormon - that it brings one closer to God than by any other book.  My favorite passages are the last few chapters of 2 Nephi, Mosiah, and most all of 3 Nephi.  I also like reading the final chapters as well as Ether to forensically dissect exactly how a culture can go from brilliance all the way down to the abyss (as we currently are, today - in our cultural death-throes).

I believe it is clear that the Hopewell are the equivalents to the Nephites.  And I will not rest until all the scoundrels at the Smithsonian (I noticed my feet were a little dusty there, when we visited DC a few summers ago), who have covered up the truth of American history for the sake of Manifest Destiny (meaning - culturally accepted genocide of our native brothers and sisters in order to steal the land and resources and make a greedy buck in the process).

In my mind, the Land of Desolation is the land that was covered in artifacts as the Jaredites (who were there exploiting the abundant copper of the Upper Penninsula - and who then had an open trade route with the Pheonicians who took it up the St Lawrence Seaway and back to bolster the wealth of the Solomonic empire (spectroscopy of bronze and copper artifacts of the era proves it came from those free copper sites in Michigan).  It explains why the Pheonicians had such an amazing fleet of ships - and why such wealth was at their command.

Here is a web site that someone clearly put a ton of thought and work into:

http://www.worksofjoseph.com/maps-2/

Enjoy!