The Narrow Strip of Wilderness

The narrow strip of wilderness was the northern boundary 1 of the greater land of Nephi. This land of Nephi border was relatively straight 2, particularly along its eastern section Alma 50:8. The land of Nephi was continental in scope, running from the east sea Alma 50:8 to the west sea 3 Alma 50:11 which is precisely the sense of  Alma 22:27 when it says that the land of Nephi ran even to the sea on the east and on the west. The narrow strip of wilderness itself was oriented east west 4 and ran from the sea east even to the sea west 5Alma 22:27. North of the narrow strip of wilderness lay the greater land of Zarahemla. Early in its history (ca. 90 B.C.), this greater Zarahemla was confined to the central Sidon corridor and environs and did not yet reach the east sea 6. The east coast was filled with Lamanites Alma 22:29 who had been driven eastward by the expansion of Nephite settlements moving their direction See the blog article "Expansion of the Nephite Nation." The Nephites finally reached the east sea ca. 72 B.C. when they founded the city of Moroni Alma 50:13.

Note 1. In terms of geographic content, Alma 22 and Alma 50 are parallel texts describing the Nephite geo-political situation from Mormon's point of view in 2 axial periods: ca. 90 B.C. (when the 4 sons of Mosiah were beginning their missionary labors among the Lamanites at the beginning of the reign of the judges) and ca. 72 B.C. (when Captain Moroni was expanding the size of the Nephite nation toward its territorial maximum just before the Nephite golden age Alma 50:23) respectively.

In the earlier period (ca. 90 B.C.) the greater land of Zarahemla did not yet extend to the west coast either. Lamanites lived on the coast west of Zarahemla Alma 22:28. Emboldened by Captain Moroni's strategic innovation, fortified cities, the Nephites only began a westward push ca. 72 B.C. Alma 50:11 and by ca. 66 B.C. we see the first mention in the text Alma 52:11 of Nephite settlement along the west coast of greater Zarahemla. Nephites had earlier established a defensive outpost at a strategic location along the west coast, but it was in the  land Bountiful Alma 22:33 just southward from the land Desolation. See the final map in the article "The Narrow Pass and Narrow Passage" for our correlation of the east west Bountiful/Desolation line in context with 14 other Nephite geographic features clustered near each other in the Municipio of Tonala, Chiapas. So, it is clear why Mormon said the Nephites, ca. 90 B.C., were nearly surrounded by Lamanites Alma 22:29. They had Lamanites on the east coast, the west coast, and south of the narrow strip of wilderness. Eventually the Nephite domain, like the Lamanites before them, extended from sea to sea 7 Helaman 11:20.

The narrow strip of wilderness had some circularity to it near the west coast 8Alma 22:27. This is the sense of the phrase "round about on the borders of the seashore." Additional wilderness lay north of the  narrow strip of wilderness and south of the then (ca. 90 B.C.) inhabited portions of the greater land of Zarahemla 9Alma 22:27. Keep in mind that ca. 90 B.C. the Nephites had begun settling eastward from the central Sidon corridor but had not yet established settlements in their west. See the articles "Ammonihah Noah & Sidom all East of Sidon" and "Sidon East then West." Continuing further west, the narrow strip of wilderness passed by the southern border of the land of Manti 10 and then passed by the head of the river Sidon 11 Alma 22:27.

Note 2. It order to understand Mormon's thought process in Alma 22:27 it is important to keep in mind that he passes three times from east to west. The first pass describes the land belonging to the King of the Lamanites which stretched from the sea on the east to the (sea) on the west. The second pass describes the narrow strip of wilderness boundary that separated the greater land of Zarahemla on the north from the greater land of Nephi on the south. The narrow strip of wilderness also ran from the sea east even to the sea west with some circular (round about) irregularity near the west coast. The third pass follows the narrow strip of wilderness again (running from the east towards the west), filling in some details (of only the eastern half) along the way. As you move west along the narrow strip of wilderness, you come first to wilderness south of the greater land of Zarahemla, second to the southern boundary of the land of Manti (which was east of Sidon - see the blog article entitled "Manti"), and third to the head of Sidon. The Sidon ran generally from south to north 12 (See the article "Sidon South to North") through the center 13 Helaman 1:24-27 or heart Helaman 1:18 of Nephite lands. In the parallel passage Alma 50:11, Mormon indicates a Nephite geo-political shift through a textual shift. The geo-political shift was that the Nephites had fulfilled their manifest destiny in the east and their strategic focus was now on the west and beyond into the land northward. The textual shift is that every reference prior to Alma 50:11 mentions the east before the west (As Alma 22:27 does 3 times). Alma 50:11 starts out in the east (east wilderness) and then mentions that the Nephite military under Captain Moroni forcibly ejected the Lamanaites from Nephite lands in the west. From that point on in the Book of Mormon, all east west couplets mention the west before the east. Mormon describes the narrow strip of wilderness line beginning at the west sea and running eastward by the head of the river Sidon. And what do we find in that western half of the narrow strip of wilderness boundary? Nephite control north of the line (after ca. 72 B.C.), the land Bountiful (by the west sea) 14 Alma 63:5 and the land northward beyond Bountiful 15 Alma 22:33..

The head of the river Sidon deserves some analysis of its own. The relevant scriptural passages are Alma 22:27, Alma 22:29, Alma 43:22, Alma 50:11, and Alma 56:25. The foregoing has shown that the head of Sidon was on the extreme southern boundary of Nephite territory 16 a considerable distance inland from both the east sea 17 [starting at the east sea, you come to wilderness (The Nephites had not yet settled Moroni nor Nephihah ca. 90 B.C.) and then the land of Manti before you get to the head of Sidon Alma 22:27] and the west sea 18 [we learn from Helaman's epistle to Captain Moroni that Judea (near the west coast), Antiparah, Cumeni and Zeezrom Alma 56:14-15 all lay west of the head of Sidon which was immediately south of Manti]. This confirms that the upstream head of Sidon and the downstream local land of Zarahemla were both roughly in the center of Nephite lands. There was a logical route 19 for the Lamanites under Zerahemnah to travel from the land of Antionum near Jershon (near the east sea Alma 27:22, Alma 31:3) in a south westerly arc through the wilderness [see the article "A Note About Wilderness" for perspective - wilderness meant absence of Nephite (or Lamanite as the case may be) political control, not absence of human beings] and then passing by the head of Sidon before attempting an unsuccessful invasion of Manti Alma 43:22. This wilderness south and west of Antionum (ca. 74 B.C.) is probably the same wilderness Mormon was describing in Alma 22:27 that lay east of Manti and north of the narrow strip of wilderness (ca. 90 B.C.). This was clearly part of the big east wilderness (east relative to the local land of Zarahemla and the central Sidon corridor) that Captain Moroni cleared Alma 50:11 before founding Moroni Alma 50:13 and Nephihah Alma 50:14 ca. 72 B.C. By coming into the land of Manti from the south near the head of Sidon, rather than a more direct route simply entering from the east, the Lamanites under Zerahemnah hoped to achieve an element of surprise 20 Alma 43:22. Coming in from a generally north easterly direction, it was possible to pass by the head of Sidon without crossing over it 21 Alma 43:22. One could then cross Sidon itself from east to west further downstream 22 Alma 43:35. Coming from the west one would cross over 23 the head of Sidon en route to Nephihah Alma 56:25. A persistent thread of Book of Mormon geographical exegesis interprets the phrase "running from the east towards the west" in Alma 22:27 to mean that the river Sidon itself flowed in a westerly direction at this point in its course. I (Kirk Magleby) do not read the text that way. I believe Mormon was referring to the narrow strip of wilderness rather than the river. Nevertheless, in deference to this alternate viewpoint, we will consider that the river Sidon may have flowed from east to west 24 in the immediate vicinity of the head of Sidon before turning generally northward past the local lands of Manti, Melek, Minon, Zarahemla and Gideon.

What is the head of a river? 1 Nephi 8:17 is not a great deal of help. The head of a river is clearly upstream from one's point of view along the main channel. Is it the headwaters like Lake Itasca spawning the Mississippi? the tributary furthest from the mouth like Mount Mismi in Arequipa Province, Peru 6,800 kilometers from the Amazon's mouth in the Atlantic? Not necessarily. Genesis 2:10 (repeated in Moses 3:10 and Abraham 5:10) describes the head of a river as the origin point of distributaries, each of whom is a river in its own right. Consulting the Oxford English Dictionary, we find that the head of a river can be a) the point at which a stream either enters or exits a lake, b) the highland source of a stream, or c) the confluence point where two tributaries join to form a new river. The area around Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, for example, is often referred to as the head of the Ohio because the Allegheny coming in from the north joins the Monongahela coming in from the south at that point. So, the geographic feature we call the head of the river Sidon must meet one of these commonly accepted definitions 25 for a "head" of a river.

Turning our attention again to the narrow strip of wilderness boundary, the area was large enough to accommodate the people of Ammon (Anti Nephi Lehies) 26 while they waited word from the Nephites about a new homeland Alma 27:14-15. On the other hand, it was small enough to justify the adjective "narrow" 27 (See the article "Narrow and Small Things"). The dictionary definition of a "strip" is something much longer than it is wide. The most famous strip of land in U.S. History was the Cherokee Strip (not to be confused with the much wider Cherokee Outlet). It had a 3.96 kilometer wide section in the modern state of Kansas and a 3.2 kilometer wide section in what is now Oklahoma between the 96th and 100th meridians of longitude. The Cherokee strip was approximately 362 kilometers long and 7 kilometers wide. So, our narrow strip of wilderness should conform to commonly held notions of what constitutes a "strip" of land 28.
From a continental perspective, the narrow strip of wilderness was small enough to be considered a "line" 29 Alma 50:11, Alma 50 13.

The narrow strip of wilderness had properties that made it a natural line of defense 30 for the Nephites who placed fortifications at key points along its northern edge Alma 50:10-11.

The narrow strip of wilderness was the principal boundary between the Nephites and Lamanites Alma 22:27, Alma 50:11, groups who differed politically, ethnically and religiously, but who shared a very similar material culture. We would expect to find evidence of this littoral function 31 along our boundary line in the archaeological literature.

The narrow strip of wilderness should exhibit characteristics of wilderness 32 (human occupation on a modest scale) throughout most of its extent.

Our candidate for the narrow strip of wilderness is the boundary between the North American and the Caribbean tectonic plates that runs from the Caribbean just north of Livingston, Izabal, Guatemala to the Pacific near Huixtla, Chiapas, Mexico.

Boundary of North American and Caribbean Tectonic Plates

This striking natural feature, visible from space, is a long string of cliffs with many streams flowing east west at their base. Over much of its length, it is known as the Polochic fault, named after the eastward flowing Polochic River that empties into Lake Izabal. Here is a perspective from 2 geologists: M. Guzman-Speziale & J.J. Meneses-Rocha.

East West Polochic Fault

And this is what the plate boundary looks like in the celebrated Blue Marble imagery from NASA, marked with a small red arrow. This image is from the month of October, the height of the rainy season. As with all images on this blog, click to enlarge.

Proposed Narrow Strip of Wilderness Running Round About through the Sierra Madre

The red line on the map above shows the northern edge of our proposed narrow strip of wilderness curving southward on its westward extent through the Sierra Madre mountains along the Pacific coast of Chiapas. Our correlation for the narrow strip of wilderness does run "round about" as it approaches the sea west. Criterion 8 satisfied.

91011. Beginning at the east coast, the narrow strip of wilderness ca. 90 B.C. passed 3 geographic features as it ran westward toward the center of Nephite lands.

Second, the white circle encloses our candidate for the land of Manti. After passing by wilderness, the narrow strip of wilderness ran south of the land of Manti.

Third, a green push pin shows the location of our candidate for the head of Sidon.

In our correlation, the narrow strip of wilderness does pass by wilderness, Manti and then the head of Sidon as it runs from east to west. Criteria 9, 10 & 11 satisfied.

1213. From the head of Sidon, the big river flowed generally northward through the center or heart of Nephite lands in the land southward. Our candidate for the head of Sidon is the quadruple confluence of the Chixoy-Negro with the Salama, Carchela, and an unnamed tributary of the Chixoy that we in the Book of Mormon Google Earth Model (see the article "Book of Mormon Model") call Tributary Chixoy E.

Proposed Sidon (Usumacinta) Running Northward through the Center or Heart of Nephite Lands

The ruler on the map above shows a heading of 328.02 degrees where 360 would be due north, 270 would be due west and 315 would be due northwest. So, beginning at our head of Sidon where the Departments of Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz and Quiche come together and ending at the mouth of the Usumacinta near Frontera, Tabasco, our proposed Sidon does run in a northerly direction through the central part of Nephite territories in the land southward. Criteria 12 & 13 satisfied.

1415. Focusing on the western half of the narrow strip of wilderness, we find that our model precisely conforms to the Nephite text. After Captain Moroni cleared the Lamanites from the west wilderness Alma 50:11 ca. 72 B.C., Nephite settlements (such as Judea) were founded in the greater land of Zarahemla along the west coast. Moving further northward, we find the land Bountiful also on the west coast and even further northward the land Desolation. The Bountiful/Desolation line was the boundary between the land southward and the land northward.

Focus on our Correlation of Western Nephite Lands ca. 72 B.C.

Criteria 14 & 15 satisfied.

161718. Geographers identify the confluence of the Chixoy-Negro with the Salama as the point where the Chixoy river begins. The Chixoy becomes the Salinas at the Guatemala Mexico border and then the Usumacinta at the Pasion confluence. This area today is a reservoir backed up behind Chixoy Dam, the largest hydroelectric installation in Gautemala. The green circle has a radius of .75 kilometer. In that compact space, 4 streams come together to form the mighty Chixoy. V. Garth Norman in the 1960's identified this point as the head of Sidon. All the work we have done in recent years substantiates Garth's correlation.

Confluence of the Chixoy-Negro, Salama, Carchela and an Unnamed Stream to Form the Chixoy

Zooming out, we see that our proposed head of Sidon is the place where the Chixoy system ends its eastward direction of flow, reverses course and runs westward for 26 kilometers, and then begins to flow generally northward.

19. The logical route for Zerahemnah ca. 74 B.C. from our correlation of the Jershon Antionum border (Belize River) to the head of Sidon south of Manti would be down the Caribbean coastal plain of Belize and up the Polochic. This route is shown in white on the map below.

Proposed Route for Zerahemnah Marching from the Jershon Antionum Border to the  Head of Sidon

Replacing the default Google Earth base map with shaded relief shows why this route makes sense - it skirts around the rugged Maya Mountains.

Criteria 21 & 22 satisfied.

23. On the other hand, according to Helaman's epistle to Captain Moroni, if the Lamanites garrisoned in the western city of Antiparah had wanted to invade the distant city of Nephihah, they would have crossed the head of Sidon en route. This map shows the likely route in white.

25. The geographic feature we have identified as the head of Sidon is the confluence of four streams (the Chixoy - Negro, Salama, Carchela and an unnamed stream) that all come together within 1.5 kilometers of each other to form a new river - the Chixoy.

26. When the people of Ammon (Anti Nephi Lehies) left the greater land of Nephi and travelled to the greater land of Zarahemla to dwell among the Nephites, they probably followed a route like the one shown in white on the map below. Important way points north of Guatemala City (Kaminaljuyu) included Salama, Baja Verapaz and Coban, Alta Verapaz.

• Mormon tells us they numbered in the thousands Alma 23:5 and they came from 4 Lamanite lands (Ishmael, Middoni, Shilom, Shemlon) and 3 cities (Nephi, Lemuel, Shimnilom) Alma 23:9-12
• In Alma 23:13 Mormon indicates that entire Lamanite cities were converted 
• 1,005 were passively slain by their wicked brethren Alma 24:22
• More than 1,005 repentant converts immediately joined their ranks Alma 24:26 
• Ammon said they numbered in the thousands Alma 26:4, Alma 26:13
• Alma also said they numbered in the thousands Alma 37:9
• They were able to internally raise an army of 2,000 young men of fighting age Alma 53:18
• Approximately one year later, they were able to send 60 more young men to the front Alma 57:6
• They absorbed 4,000 former Lamanite warriors who came to live among them in the land of Melek Alma 62:17

Taking all these metrics together, it is likely that the people of Ammon numbered about 40,000 people. Helaman's 2,000 stripling warriors would then have represented about 5% of the group's population. History shows that a military participation rate of 5% is on the high end of reasonable for most societies and a rate of 10% would be unsustainable under normal circumstances.

Could 40,000 people reasonably have pitched their tents Alma 27:25 and camped for a few weeks with their flocks and herds Alma 27:14 in the territory we have identified as the narrow strip of wilderness along the Nephi to Manti travel route? Yes. The map below shows our area of interest.