The Narrow Neck of Land

     The matter concerning the narrow neck of land of the Book of Mormon has been a topic of much discussion. There is actually only two places in the Book of Mormon where the phrase 'narrow neck' even appears and only one place where the complete phrase 'narrow neck of land' is used. The first graphically chronological place is where Moroni, the last Book of Mormon prophet, uses the complete term in his abridgment of the Jaredite record and there in relationship to a city of the Jaredites that wad 'by' the narrow neck of land (Ether 10:20). The other place is where it speaks of Hagoth and where he launched forth his ship in to west sea, which was by the narrow neck (Alma 63:5).

"And they built a great city by the narrow neck of land, by the place where the sea divides the land." ~ Book of Mormon | Ether 10:20

"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." ~ Book of Mormon | Alma 63:5

It is in the contextual reading concerning tha great city of commerce of the Jaredites that one is able to deduce and understand that the narrow neck of land where the city was built, was that which lead into the land southward, which by the Jaredites used as a natural preserve for resources. That is they did not build cities or lands of habitation in it, but they did use it for hunting and the gathering of nature's resources. You could say it was their national forest lands. Then it is that verse regarding Hagoth were we are introduced to the fact that this narrow neck, where the border land Bountiful and land Desolation was located on the west sea, is where Hagoth launched his exceedingly large ship. And for further understanding we can next turn to that 'universal' Book of Mormon land description provided by Mormon as a perior peice of about 90 B.C. concerning the lands of Zarahemla and Nephi.

"And it came to pass that the king sent a proclamation throughout all the land, amongst all his people who were in all his land, who were in all the regions round about, which was bordering even to the sea, on the east and on the west, and which was divided from the land of Zarahemla by a narrow strip of wilderness, which ran from the sea east even to the sea west, and round about on the borders of the seashore, and the borders of the wilderness which was on the north by the land of Zarahemla, through the borders of Manti, by the head of the river Sidon, running from the east towards the west—and thus were the Lamanites and the Nephites divided.
"Now, the more idle part of the Lamanites lived in the wilderness, and dwelt in tents; and they were spread through the wilderness on the west, in the land of Nephi; yea, and also on the west of the land of Zarahemla, in the borders by the seashore, and on the west in the land of Nephi, in the place of their fathers' first inheritance, and thus bordering along by the seashore.
"And also there were many Lamanites on the east by the seashore, whither the Nephites had driven them. And thus the Nephites were nearly surrounded by the Lamanites; nevertheless the Nephites had taken possession of all the northern parts of the land bordering on the wilderness, at the head of the river Sidon, from the east to the west, round about on the wilderness side; on the north, even until they came to the land which they called Bountiful.
"And it [Bountiful] bordered upon the land which they called Desolation, it [Bountiful] being so far northward that it came into the land which had been peopled and been destroyed, of whose bones we have spoken, which was discovered by the people of Zarahemla, it [where Bountiful border Desolation] being the place of their [people of Zarahemla] first landing.
"And they [people of Zarahemla] came from there up into the south wilderness. Thus the land on the northward was called Desolation, and the land on the southward was called Bountiful, it being the wilderness which is filled with all manner of wild animals of every kind, a part of which had come from the land northward for food.
"And now, it was only the distance of a day and a half's journey for a Nephite, on the line Bountiful and the land Desolation, from the east to the west sea; and thus the land of Nephi and the land of Zarahemla were nearly surrounded by water, there being a small neck of land between the land northward and the land southward.
"And it came to pass that the Nephites had inhabited the land Bountiful, even from the east unto the west sea, and thus the Nephites in their wisdom, with their guards and their armies, had hemmed in the Lamanites on the south, that thereby they should have no more possession on the north, that they might not overrun the land northward.
"Therefore the Lamanites could have no more possessions only in the land of Nephi, and the wilderness round about. Now this was wisdom in the Nephites—as the Lamanites were an enemy to them, they would not suffer their afflictions on every hand, and also that they might have a country whither they might flee, according to their desires." ~ Book of Mormon | Alma 22:27 - 34

Now there are many interesting things that can be determined concerning the lands of the Book of Mormon from this lengthy account of the lands of Zarahemla and Nephi at the time that the Lamanite King made his proclamation concerning the treatment of the missionary sons Mosiah in the land of the Lamanites. Though as noted the term 'narrow neck' only appears twice, here in Alma 22 a synonym of 'narrow' is used where it speaks of a 'small neck of land.' Also an accompanying rough mapping is provided to aid one in their reflective reading of the land descriptions of Alma 22. (For a further review of the land and the map see 'BoM Geo. 101.)

What is important to our discussion here is that between the land northward where the Jaredites did one time live and the lands southward of Zarahemla and Nephi, there is a narrow or small neck of land. Such a narrow neck between two large sized lands is call an 'Istnmus.' And one other item which will prove of interest to note is that from 'east to west' on the border 'line' between Bountiful and Desolation it would only take a Nephite a day and a half journey to cross from sea to sea.

Now most all readers, students and scholars of the Book of Mormon do come to such obvious conclusions as presented here. And the various discussions will most often settle upon such matters. There are other such matters discussed and we will cover another such, but after what is here presented next. Now that distance of a 'day and a half journey' becomes a hot topic of discussion, with any number of various personal stipulations and subjective determinations placed upon it. One states that it is a standard distance measure of how far a Nephi can walk in a day and a half even though it being put in a 'half' measure makes it a bit difficult to work with as a meausuring unit. Another state that anything over 45 miles covered is not to be considered realistic for more that 30 miles per day is 'ridiculous'. Other will argue, will that depends on a mode of transportaion or that a Zulu Warior, which we are to presume a Nephite warior is equal to, can 'military march' 50 miles in a day and fight a battle at the end of that march, so 75 mile distance is possible. As to mode of transportation another could point out that Lewis and Clark would travel 75 miles plus in a day's time by canoeing down river on their return journey. All such is good for discussion and personal opinion. But what is really possible in terms of a location and the reality of such a narrow isthmus crossing from sea to sea. To that question of actual fact, I will present the following.

Many have scoffed at me when I have held to the Isthmus of Darien as being the narrow neck of land, which the statement attributed to Joseph Smith does suggest concerning Lehi's landing site (TPJS p. 267). They say the distance is too far, the rainforest jungle is too thick and so forth. And they will summarily write it off per their own 'conclusive discussions' with those who are of the same mind as they are. But there is one 'objective' historical witness as to the truth of what is concerning the Isthmus of Darien. It was published in 1697, though I doubt that Joseph Smith ever saw it. I've had to wait until my older years than Joseph lived to find it and only by the access of the information super highway did I find it on the World Wide Web. I present it for consideration next below:

" ... Our first landing place on the south coast was very disadvantageous, for we travelled at least fifty miles more than we need to have done, could we have gone up Cheapo River, or Santa Maria River; for at either of these places a man may pass from sea to sea in three days time with ease. The Indians can do it in a day and a half, by which you may see how easy it is for a party of men to travel over. ..." ~ William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World, Chapter 2

Marked upon this map, which I have highlighted in yellow, is 'The A^s Entrance into the South Sea' if you are able to read upside down. An obvious deduction is the the 'A' stands for Atlantic as 'The Atlantic's Entrance into the South Sea.' What it shows is the foot path marked with hash marks, which leads from the east to the head waters of the then terms River of St. Maria. Then part way down those head waters the 'foot path' ends and the natural presumption is that, which doesn't take a rocket scientist to deduce, then one would take to the river route and float the river on down to one's destination rather than to walk the rest of the way. William Dampier reports in his text that it was about a 3 day journey for his privateers and but only a day and a half's crossing for a native indian. William nor I would likely to be able to tell you if that Indian were a Nephite or not, but certianly it is possible by the native Americans to cross the Darien 'from east to west' in a day and a half's time. That was just 'common ability' for that native Indian or dare I say Lamanite or Nephite of William Dampier's day.

As stated in Dampier's quote, there are two places of possible crossing which are 'easy' according to Dampier. Note where the 'Cheapo River and the Santa Maria Rivers' are on the map. Now consider the two reports of the Book of Mormon of two such sites. The one already noted in Alma 22:32 above is said to be done in a 'day and a half' as parallel's Dampier's report the other is here quoted below in relationship to the narrow neck crossing at another site.

"And there they did fortify against the Lamanites, from the west sea, even unto the east; it being a day's journey for a Nephite, on the line which they had fortified and stationed their armies to defend their north country." ~ Book of Mormon | Helaman 4:7

Now the changes at the time of Christ could account for the differences of a half a day's travel, but it would seem that along their 'developed' line of defense, from the west sea even unto the East, their travel distance was but one day for the ability of a Nephite. One possiblility I have heard is that the line did not go all the way to the east sea as it is not specifically mentioned, perhaps due to intervening rugged terrain and perhaps even a defensive city already upon the east coast like the city Bountiful was located. Any one of those circumstance might contribute to the difference in time/distance. As to candidates for such two locations one might consider the lower neck location of the Santa Maria river location and the upper neck location of the Cheapo river location as so proposed by the accompanying rough illustrated map.