Your Research

Focus: Western New York, Mound Builders (Lamanites), Elephants (Mastodons), DNA, Languages, Ancient Discoveries.

Western New York

Memoir on the Antiquities of the Western Parts of the State of New York by Governor De Witt Clinton

From the concluding paragraph:

"I am persuaded that enough has been said to demonstrate the existence of a vast population, settled in towns, defended by forts, cultivating agriculture, and more advanced in civilization than the nations which have inhabited the same countries since the European discovery."

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(14 pp, Printed 1820)

The Geography of the Book of Mormon by Cecil McGavin and Willard Bean

From the Preface:

"In recent years there has been a tendency among certain students of the Book of Mormon to orientate Book of Mormon cultures far to the south."

"For many years the Book of Mormon carried footnotes explaining that 'the land of many waters,' 'the large bodies of water,' 'Ripliancum,' etc., had reference to the Great Lakes, while Ramah and Cumorah were the identical hill, near Palmyra, New York."

"The following pages are a plea in defense of the old theory - the interpretation of Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Orson Pratt, and a countless number of the Authorities of the Church. It is our humble opinion that there is no occasion to fling aside the old interpretation and accept the new."

From the Conclusion:

"The accounts written by many of these reputable historians and archeologists are so clear and specific that it seems as if the authors were familiar with The Book of Mormon record of the wars of extermination that were waged in Ramah-Cumorahland. For more than two centuries these renowned scholars have designated this area as America's greatest battlefield in ancient times. Their conclusions agree so faithfully with The Book of Mormon record that we need not look elsewhere for the solution of the mystery."

"Middle America is not a land of many waters. Its ancient hills are not marked with tokens of fortification; its skeptical remains do not tell of a bitter war of extermination, comparable at all to the evidence in Western New York."

"These aboriginal monuments, the tell-tale tokens of ancient warfare by highly civilized nations, are not to be flung aside as one 'fights against the pricks' to confine those ancient people to the narrow and restricted domain of Middle America. Inscriptions on metal have told us the story which is otherwise a great mystery. These mysteries vanish as ancient historians speak from the dust."

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(94 pp, Printed 1948)

The History of the Buffalo Creek Reservation

The History of the Buffalo Creek Reservation serves the purpose of tracing the ancient Book of Mormon City of Bountiful as far back as we can. For details see the Land Southward page.

From the Preface:

"The History of the Buffalo Creek Reservation by Frederick Houghton will commend itself to students of the history of this region as an exceptionally thorough, comprehensive review of natural conditions, aboriginal occupancy and gradual acquisition by white men, which form the history of this tract of land, now in part included in the City of Buffalo, NY. It is a chapter of history which has not heretofore been written." Includes a review of the archaeological finds on the reservation."

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(188 pp, Printed 1920)

Archaeological Investigation at Black Rock, Tonawanda, Near Buffalo

Stage 1 Archaeological Investigation For General Motors Tonawanda Plant Expansion Project investigates the land known anciently as the Narrow Passage.

Particular Interest:

This paper takes us as far back as we can go regarding the Narrow Passage. Of particular interest is the mention of a naturally occurring "Black Rock Pier" extending out from the Narrow Neck that was used during the colonial war as a harbor. Perhaps the same one used by Hagoth to launch his ships:

"And it came to pass that Hagoth, he being an exceedingly curious man, therefore he went forth and built him an exceedingly large ship, on the borders of the land Bountiful by the land Desolation and launched it forth into the west sea by the narrow neck which led into the land northward." (Alma 63:5)

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(114 pp, Printed 2000)

The Story of the New York State Canals

The Story of the New York State Canals highlights the fact that not only did Governor DeWitt Clinton have an appreciation for the ancient inhabitants of New York, but he also facilitated the fulfillment of prophecy by building the Erie Canal.

Extract::

THE STORY OF THE NEW YORK STATE CANALS - GOVERNOR DEWITT CLINTON'S DREAM

"As a bond of union between the Atlantic and Western states, it may prevent the dismemberment of the American Empire. As an organ of communication between the Hudson, the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes of the north and west and their tributary rivers, it will create the greatest inland trade ever witnessed. The most fertile and extensive regions of America will avail themselves of its facilities for a market. All their surplus productions, whether of the soil, the forest, the mines, or the water, their fabrics of art and their supplies of foreign commodities, will concentrate in the city of New York, for transportation abroad or consumption at home. Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, trade, navigation, and the arts will receive a correspondent encouragement. The city will, in the course of time, become the granary of the world, the emporium of commerce, the seat of manufactures, the focus of great moneyed operations and the concentrating point of vast disposable, and accumulating capita, which will stimulate, enliven, extend and reward the exertions of human labor and ingenuity, in all their processes and exhibitions. And before the revolution of a century, the whole island of Manhattan, covered with inhabitants and replenished with a dense population, will constitute one vast city."

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(15 pp, Printed 1916)

Field Research

An archaeological understanding of the past is never more than a provisional one that is doomed to be superseded, in whole or part, as new data and new interpretative techniques become available. All too often, in stating their conclusions, archaeologists fail to specify adequately the limitations of their current knowledge and to this degree they may mislead historians as well as themselves. (Bruce G. Tigger, Natives and Newcomers, 1986 p. 52)

1. Readers can assist in doing research for the Western New York, Book of Mormon geographical area by reading the following documents and identifying which sites apply:

a. Archeological History of New York - Part 1 - pdf (Warning! Large file: 81.41 mb) (pp 1- 471, 1920)

b. Archeological History of New York - Part 2 - pdf (Warning! Large file: 64.91 mb) (pp 472-743, 1920)

2. Fieldworkers can then go to these locations and document how they look today. Feel free to download the files mentioned above by right clicking and choosing "Save As". (Keep track of where you save them.)

3. The Book of Mormon has the answers; find the gaps in their research and fill them in with Book of Mormon information.

Mastodon - American Elephant

Mastodon Remains in the State of Missouri Together with Evidences of the Existence of Man Contemporaneously with the Mastodon by Dr. Albert C. Koch

Dr. Koch was Chairman of the Committee on Comparative Anatomy at the Academy of Science of St. Louis when he gave this account of his discovery of a Mastodon/Sloth with human implements in 1839. Though there are other accounts, this is the most thorough.

Dr. Koch was severely criticized for the notion that Indians lived contemporaneously with Mastodons or Sloths. Since that time, Koch has been vindicated on all sides, particularly by the accounts in the book by Dr. Frederick Larkin MD, Ancient Man in America Including Works in Western New York and the research paper by E. H. Sellards entitled: "Early Man in America, Index to Localities, and Selected Bibliography".

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(5 pp, Printed 1857)

Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man by J. P. Maclean

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(78 pp, Printed 1878)

The Mastodon and Mammoth Contemporary with Man by Frederick Bennett Wright

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(12 pp, Printed 1903)

The Lenape Stone or the Indian and the Mammoth by H. C. Mercer

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(100 pp, Printed 1885)

Early Man in America, Index to Localities, and Selected Bibliography by E. H. Sellards

From the Abstract:

"A selected bibliography and index to localities in North America are given. It is concluded that man in America was contemporaneous with several vertebrate genera and species now extinct. Among extinct mammalia regarded as associated with man on the basis of more than one occurrence and on observations by more than one worker are elephant, mastodon, camel, horse, bison, sloth, armadillo, glyptodont, tapir, dire wolf, sabre-tooth tiger, peccary, beaver, deer, and cave bear." (Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, Vol. 51, pp. 373-432, March 1, 1940)

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(40 pp, Printed 1940)

Language

The Ancient Literature of America by John Campbell, LLD

Extract:

"Here is the dogmatic statement to which, in the face of adundant evidence to the contrary, the mass of American historians adhere:

Nothing is more demonstrable than that whatever has emanate in the graphic or inscriptive art on this continent from the red race does not aspire above the simple art of pictography; and whenever an alphabet of any kind is veritably discovered, it must have had a foreign origin. By granting belief to anything contravening this state of art, we at first deceive ourselves, and then lend our influence to diffuse error.'

The self-deception and diffusion of error were Schoolcraft's and are still the work of the many who countenance ignorant dogmatism of an otherwise diligent student and estimable character." (John Campbell "The Ancient Literature of America," Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Second Series, Vol. II, 1896, pp. 47)

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(28 pp, Printed 1896)

DNA

Ancient Discoveries

Ancient Discoveries

True Book of Mormon Geography