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Mormon Sites - rising from the dust...
Finding Physical Evidences of Nephites in the Americas.
Book of Mormon Geography
Finding Book of Mormon Cities
Everything on this website is Pro-LDS
On this website you will read about exciting new findings that are beginning to reveal possible geographic locations for places and events recorded in the Book of Mormon. You'll learn about the challenge Dr. Jerry L. Ainsworth, author of the popular book "The Lives and Travels of Mormon and Moroni," has accepted to provide physical evidence towards proving the location of the hill in Mexico where it's most likely that the final Nephite battles took place.
You'll find here a whole "Reading Room" filled with never before published articles by Dr. Jerry L. Ainsworth. This website reports Dr. Ainsworth's current explorations and discoveries as they happen!
Check the Updates page to see if explorations are currently taking place, and if so, to read notes from the field. Be sure to subscribe to our free monthly newsletter. Subscribers are the first to read details of the latest discoveries...
Read the fascinating story of how "The Lives and Travels of Mormon & Moroni" came to be.
Statement by BYU Anthropologist
"Book of Mormon cities have been found, they are well known, and their artifacts grace the finest museums. They are merely masked by archaeological labels such as "Maya," "Olmec," and so on. The problem, then, is not that Book of Mormon artifacts have not been found, only that they have not been recognized for what they are. Again, if we stumbled onto Zarahemla, how would we know? The difficulty is not with evidence but with epistemology." John E. Clark, Professor of anthropology, BYU, Director of NWAF, Chiapas, Mexico. Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Vol 14, No. 2, 2005 p.42 The entire article is titled "Archeology, Relics, and Book of Mormon Belief" published by FARMS 2005.
See also another article by Dr. John E. Clark published by FAIR.
If you are not yet familiar with Mesoamerica Book of Mormon geography, I suggest that you start by reading an article by Dr. John P. Pratt that appeared in Meridian Magazine in December, 2006. Dr. Jerry L. Ainsworth disagrees with many of Garth Norman's geographic location conclusions, including some referenced in Pratt's article, but he says of Dr. Pratt's article: "This is probably the best article written on the topic since John Sorenson's. From a macro perspective, it is on target, and well presented."
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Documents, Films, Videos, DVD's
Join with us at Mormon Sites as we work towards creating and compiling visual, internet, and printed media to publish to the world credible happenings in the newly emerging field of Book of Mormon Geography studies. A major film documentary is being planned.
There's a lot of interest in what we are doing. In our first seven months operating this website, we received almost one million hits and 20,000 visitors!
Before you leave this page, be sure to scroll down and subscribe to our FREE email newsletter.
There is already so much that is known - and so much to tell as we gather the researchers and explorers, the film makers, publishers and writers, compile the evidence, explore some more, enlist your help, and do our very best to promote Book of Mormon Geography and the finding and proving of physical evidences of Nephites in the Americas.
This is not fiction - many people have been quietly exploring these things for years!
Not an Official Church Site
This site is not an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and does not necessarily represent the views of Church authorities, LDS archaeologists, or of members of the LDS Church (the "Mormons") in general.
I, the writer, am the webmaster of this site and as such am responsible for everything written herein except where authors are cited. I do not speak for Dr. Ainsworth or for anyone else. One of my priorities is to make this website entertaining enough to attract a popular audience. However, there are gems on these pages that even scholars might learn from.
This website already contains a huge amount of information about Book of Mormon Geography presented in an easy language that anyone can understand. And it's growing. I believe that these pages will help you learn much more about the Book of Mormon, and get closer to its people.
If you're short of time right now bookmark this site to your favorites and come back.
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Finding Cumorah
If you love the Book of Mormon and its people as much as I do, you'll want to learn all you can about our Finding Cumorah project, and what's about to happen south of the USA border. Knowing where the Book of Mormon stories played out has given me a fresh perspective on the Book of Mormon, and has brought to me vivid dreams of its people. It could happen to you too. You'll learn more about me and Jerry Ainsworth below.
Read the fascinating true story of Professor Ainworth's close encounter with death and snakes at Cumorah3.
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Reformed Egyptian Writings
There are now quite a few samples known to non-professionals of what could be Reformed Egyptian writings. It is my hope that scientists will soon develop enough interest in these to validly, reliably, and objectively test them. Here's a link to a FARMS article about Anthon-type writings.
Something of the Ancient World
"Something of the ancient world is known, of course, through written texts and the detritus of obscured and forgotten civilizations. What that world was like, however, can only be discovered; it cannot be anticipated, for it is wildly unpredictable and strangely unlike our world. That is why God, who not only knows the past but knows it perfectly, always startles "modern" thinkers, whatever and whenever their cultural milieus, by revealing things about the past that they don't know and therefore reject out of hand because they find them strange, foreign, absurd, antiquated, ridiculous, and generally repulsive to their "modern" mind-sets." H. Curtis Wright in introduction to "The Book of Mormon and Other Hidden Books" by John A. Tvedtnes, FARMS 2000.
Dr. Jerry L. Ainsworth is among those people, peculiar as their findings may seem, who pioneer outside the parameters defined by today's professional archaeologists, and continue to discover more and more about the ancient world of the Nephites. On this website he reveals his most recent discoveries.
I really like the attitude of professionals such as LDS archaeologist Dr. Richard Hansen quoted in the box below. (There's a photo of a cross in the article about Hansen. Dr. Ainsworth says of that photo: "I passed that cross by the way, on my walk out with Francisco. I had reached my limit and could not go any further. He told me he was going to leave me there, and pointed to the tomb of the last guy who got left on the trail. I decided I could walk a little farther!")
Dr. Hansen says: “I came to the conclusion years ago that science that doesn’t bless the lives of people is sterile... I can do some great research here and lay it out at a conference and everybody goes bravo, bravo....but then what.....it’s sterile, it just sits there. So it’s a matter of converting science to blessing the lives of people.”
The Hill called Cumorah
Like many other Latter-day Saints, I assumed that the hill in New York called "Cumorah", in addition to being the place where Moroni buried the records from which were translated the Book of Mormon, was also the place where the final Nephite and the last of the final Jaredite battles were fought. Like most others I suppose, I never researched the matter, it just came along as tradition.
But my understanding today is that the official LDS Church position on Book of Mormon geography is something like: "The Lord has not yet revealed to us where Book of Mormon sites are located."
"No internal geography has yet been proposed or approved by the church, and none of the internal or external geographies proposed by individual members has received approval. In the words of apostle John A. Widtsoe: All such studies are legitimate, but the conclusions drawn from them, though they may be correct, must at the best be held as intelligent conjectures." Meridian Magazine article - Dr. F. Richard Hauck.
Recent statements about Cumorah by a BYU Professor of Anthropology
Below are a few excerpts from an excellent article by Dr. John E. Clark, Director of BYU's New World Archaeological Foundation (NWAF) facility in Chiapas, Mexico:
"If any place merits archaeological attention, it is Cumorah. The very word elicits a series of empirical questions that can only be addressed through archaeology."
"....before archaeology can reveal Cumorah’s secrets, it must first be employed to identify its location. The hill the plates came from is not at issue; the question is whether this final resting place is the same hill where the ending battles occurred."
"I am not an expert on New York archaeology, nor am I likely to be, but I took a few hours to peruse some of the literature and learned that the general course of prehistory outlined for New York fits comfortably and logically with the histories of adjacent regions and that it makes good anthropological sense. The inferences made from archaeological observations appear reasonably supported by known facts. When we pay attention to time and to cultural context, it becomes clear that the events described in the Book of Mormon did not occur in New York."
"New York lacked cities and cereal agriculture until after AD 1000 and is thus not the place where the events described in the Book of Mormon took place.... Finding a 2,000- to 4,000-year-old city in New York State would be so novel that it would be reported quickly in all scientific outlets. It has never happened, and it will not happen. The most likely locations for such cities are already archaeologically well known because they are also the prime locations for modern occupation."
"In summary, the archaeology of New York is persuasive evidence that Book of Mormon peoples did not live in that region. By implication, the Cumorah of the golden plates is not the Cumorah of the final battles."
"In accord with these general observations about New York and Pennsylvania, we come to our principal object—the Hill Cumorah. Archaeologically speaking, it is a clean hill. No artifacts, no walls, no trenches, no arrowheads. The area immediately surrounding the hill is similarly clean. Pre-Columbian people did not settle or build here. This is not the place of Mormon’s last stand. We must look elsewhere for that hill."
"The Palmyra hill is still a sacred place and was the repository of the golden plates and other relics placed there by Moroni. How Moroni made his way to this place and constructed his time capsule of artifacts is a historic adventure for another time."
Excerpts above quoted from: Archaeology and Cumorah Questions, John E. Clark, BYU FARMS Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Volume 13, Number 1-2, 2004.
Startling as it may be if this is your first introduction to Book of Mormon geography, it seems very probable that there is another Hill Cumorah somewhere!
Dr. Ainsworth believes he has found the original Hill Cumorah!
And he's determined to prove it beyond "intelligent conjecture!"
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It's important to know where things happened. The D&C carefully documents where Joseph Smith was when revelations were received. LDS historical sites are identified and marked all along the “Mormon Trail”. Sites of early Church history have been purchased by the Church and tourists are invited. The Hill Cumorah near Palmyra, New York features prominently in the LDS community.
For the same reasons Mormon Sites, a pro-LDS group, is intent on finding, proving, and promoting ancient sites where Book of Mormon events occurred. The focus is on Mexico and parts of Central America ("Mesoamerica") where scholarly studies have indicated the Book of Mormon story most likely played out. You are invited to join with us in this historical and exciting venture to locate and authenticate physical evidences of Nephites in the Americas.
The Challenge is Made
Dr. Ainsworth is almost certain that the Cumorah3 site in Mexico is Cumorah of the Final Battles. I spoke the challenge, and he accepted!
Dr. Ainsworth has accepted my challenge to prove Cumorah3!
He plans to have bones and artifacts found by farmers near that hill scientifically dated. If they date around 385 A.D. when the final Nephite battles took place, that should make Cumorah3, combined with his other evidences, credible enough to attract professional archaeologists to the site. It is they who will make their own discoveries nearby, and will provide the final documentation that proves Cumorah3 to be the original Hill Cumorah. Dr. Ainsworth's unique pioneering work points the way for those who can provide the proof.
Dr. Ainsworth is an expert in the precise ways Book of Mormon writers communicate geographic data. He has personally explored Mayan ruins and other sites in Mexico and Central America for decades. But he is not a credentialed archaeologist or anthropologist.
He acknowledges the important work the Church sponsored NWAF has done in Mexico for fifty or so years. But it is his freedom from the tight restrictions that bind professionals that allows Dr. Ainsworth to explore 'outside the box' and make such unique contributions to the gathering wealth that is known as "Book of Mormon Geography." But Professor Ainsworth frequently comments to me that what he is really interested in finding is, THE TRUTH!
Marcel with stone found by a farmer near the Cumorah3 site - June 14, 2006.
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The Mission of Mormon Sites
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For none can have power to bring it to light save it be given him of God; for God wills that it shall be done with an eye single to his glory, or the welfare of the ancient and long dispersed covenant people of the Lord.
The mission of Mormon Sites is:
1. To promote the Book of Mormon.
2. To promote Book of Mormon Geography studies to a general popular audience, in easy to understand ways.
3. To help educate people to a better understanding of Book of Mormon people, places, and events, and thus help bridge the gap between the living and those who today speak "from the dust."
4. To explore for, find, authenticate, and publish as widely as we can credible physical evidences of the Book of Mormon people.
5. To attract people, including scholars, academics, archaeologists, anthropologists, writers, explorers, and the general public who are interested in the above and want to have a pioneering part in it; and to provide for them places of learning, interaction, coordination, expression, and possibly funding.
If Book of Mormon Geography is new to you, I highly recommend that you read " The Lives and Travels of Mormon and Moroni" written by Dr. Jerry L. Ainsworth. Jerry does not make a net profit on the sale of his books. You can buy the book at LDS bookstores, or get an autographed copy by ordering directly on Dr. Ainsworth's website.
That's the formal part of our mission. Quite frankly, this website is not just for Latter-day Saints even though the founders are all active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who have a spiritual testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the Holy Bible. We acknowledge the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as our Redeemer, and look to Him for our salvation.
Jesus Christ visiting His lost sheep in America
As recorded in The Book of Mormon - Another Testament of Jesus Christ.
We know how important it is to get the ATTENTION of human beings before they can be taught anything new. Even the Savior during His mortal ministry did that by working miracles along with teaching eternal truths. It is our intent to find and authenticate PHYSICAL EVIDENCES of Nephites in the Americas, and to promote those evidences to the world to get the attention of people everywhere. Our hope is that many of them will then sincerely read The Book of Mormon, and apply Moroni's spiritual method to find out for themselves if it is true. With that sure knowledge they will then be doubly enriched as they accept the "Stick of Joseph", the testimony of his sons Ephraim and Manasseh in the Americas, and make it one with the "Stick of Judah", the Holy Bible.
The Stick of Joseph and the Stick of Judah
Emerging research in Mexico and Guatemala has raised the exciting possibility that some of the cities and event locations of the people whose one thousand year record is condensed in The Book of Mormon may have been found! Though it has not yet been proven, it is possible that the Maya are descendents of the Book of Mormon's Lehi and Sariah. There are disagreements among experts, as always, but most seem to now agree that the Book of Mormon stories played out in Mesoamerica.
The Purpose of this Website
This website was initially created primarily to record and to share the results of decades of unique pioneering Book of Mormon explorations in Mesoamerica conducted by Dr. Jerry L. Ainsworth and his colleagues. Jerry is an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with an intense love for and a unique knowledge of the Book of Mormon and its people.
However, this website is evolving to include the words and findings of other Book of Mormon researchers, scholars, and groups. And, it's looking like we may be able to involve our readers in some aspects of the exciting and timely search for Nephite evidences in the jungles and highlands of Mesoamerica, and possibly for Moroni's footprints, and the people of Ammon in the USA and Canada as well.
Although many academics disregard anything not controlled by their own discipline or campus, and official archaeological research findings in Mesoamerica are still far from conclusive, it's possible that this Book of Mormon website will eventually become the best resource on the web to find cutting edge results of current Book of Mormon research in Mesoamerica and the USA, written in a language that anyone can understand. Dr. Ainsworth is constantly making new discoveries and creating new knowledge and I've got my ear to the ground for you.
I understand the importance of academic credentials and I appreciate scholarly works; but look at what wonders come when the Lord steps in and reveals His secrets through the mouths of babes and the unlearned such as Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration. Perhaps the Lord's hand will be revealed in this uncredentialed version of Mesoamerican Book of Mormon Geography research. I feel it often as I write this website - I hope you will too as you read it. You won't need a degree or credentials here. You are invited to Bookmark this site to your Favorites, and keep coming back to see how it all plays out.
Dr. Jerry L. Ainsworth
Jerry Ainsworth - "El Jefe"
Dr. Jerry L. Ainsworth Ed.D., MPH is a real life professor adventurer. He doesn't take the time to toot his own horn so I'm going to do it for him. I fully expect that movies will be made about this unique man of adventure who was surely born to fulfill a mission that is only now beginning to be reported.
The Lives and Travels of Mormon and Moroni
Jerry Ainsworth is the author of "The Lives and Travels of Mormon and Moroni" a beautiful book filled with unique color photos of maps and artifacts, and wonderful insights into where the Book of Mormon story probably played out geographically.
For those who like to criticize profit-making and accuse this website to be only to sell his books: Dr. Ainsworth does not make a profit on sales of his book! He is unlikely to ever recover the huge financial cost he personally took on to publish the book - for him it was a mission.
The Lives and Travels of Mormon and Moroni vastly increased my personal understanding of The Book of Mormon and its people; reading it changed my life. The book might change your life too, but in any event it is certain to shine a bright light on your personal study of The Book of Mormon, "the most correct of any book on earth..." I recommend Jerry's book to you.
The Lives and Travels of Mormon and Moroni
 
Dr. Ainsworth with artifacts from Mesoameria. What's that writing? The professionals have yet to identify it.
"[The author Jerry Ainsworth's] enthusiasm is infectious. His accounts of travel and exploration are quite entertaining." "...all of [Ainsworth's conclusions] seem plausible based on the information he presents." FARMS (Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, affiliated with BYU)
FARMS review called Mormon and Moroni "engaging." I picked it up in a bookstore and was reading the book at closing time, When you can't put a book down, I call it 'addictive' Scott Richardson, Arizona.
Of course, there is bound to be criticism for a book of this nature. A few professionals have complained that some of Dr. Ainsworth's comments do not agree with current scientific knowledge. Criticism seems particularly strong regarding the "Padilla" gold plates mentioned in the book. Dr. Ainsworth says of that: "There is no place in my book that I claim the Padilla plates to be authentic. I present the story of our obtaining those plates as a part of a very important part of my 'journey' in the study of the Maya."
The Founders of Mormon Sites know that the ultimate proof of the Book of Mormon is the sure spiritual knowledge that comes when Moroni's admonition is carefully and sincerely followed. We are not out to 'prove' the Book of Mormon is true, we already know that!
The Great Age of Maya Archaeology
The Deseret Morning News, Tuesday, May 16, 2006 published a glowing article attributed to John Noble Wilford of the New York Times News Service. The article is titled "New Finds rewriting the history of Mayans." It discusses exciting new discoveries in Guatemala. Dr. Michael D. Coe, a retired Yale Mayanist, calls the find "one of the greatest Maya discoveries of all time."
"The text is 1,000 years before the late Classic writing, which we are good at reading — up to 95 percent of it," Stuart said. "Any script is going to go through significant changes over that time. But these glyphs are very unusual, very different from later writing." In his autobiography, "Final Report," Coe concluded: "The great age of Maya archaeology is far from over. In fact, it's just beginning."
The Website Writer
My name is Marcel Demas. I'm a retired real estate investor and amateur writer. When we're home, my wife and I live in beautiful St. George, Utah, the place where Brigham Young declared that Moroni had visited and dedicated the temple site when he was still a mortal. We're finding physical evidences in southern Utah that may eventually be traced to Moroni's 36 year wanderings after the final Nephite battles.
Marcel & Mayan boy at Lake Atitlan, Guatemala
My association with Jerry Ainsworth began when I fished a book out of a garbage can about 2003. My wife had purchased "The Lives and Travels of Mormon and Moroni" to give to our daughter as a Christmas present. Sometime later we helped her and her husband make a move from one state to another and at the last minute they tossed away a lot of things that wouldn't fit into their U-Haul trailer. One of the items that ended up in the trash was Jerry's book!
The next day, just before the garbage collector came, I discovered the book, fished it out of the trash, went home, dusted it off, and read it. And read it again...
I thought I knew the Book of Mormon. By then I had read that book or listened to it on tape while commuting probably a hundred times. But The Lives and Travels of Mormon and Moroni opened my eyes to an astonishing idea:
That the general geographic location of Book of Mormon stories and events had been found!
I began to think about the Book of Mormon in a different way. I began to vividly dream of Book of Mormon characters and events. Take this for what it is, just someone else's dream, but I even witnessed the expression on Mormon's older sister's face when she was told that her young brother had been appointed leader of the Nephite armies...
    
Book of Mormon Scenes
I struck up a correspondence with Jerry by email and although we had never met we became email pals before and after my wife and I served an eighteen month LDS mission in a foreign country. I learned a lot from Jerry, he is a man with an enormous knowledge of the Book of Mormon and its people, particularly Mormon and Moroni. Some of the things he told me he asked that I reveal only to members of my own family. But events and a vigorous exchange of emails over the last few days as I write this title page have changed all that - and thus the existence of Mormon Sites, and this website.
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