Twelth Stage of Colonization and Settlement of Zarahemla

Perhaps one of the most telling phases of the Colonization, Settlement and Development of the national land of Zarahemla is that which involves but a portion of the land during a time of 'Settlement Retreat' to the Central Stronghold geography of the nature of the land of Zarahemla. This strategic retreat would be to gather all the more faithful Nephites of the nation of Zarahamela to gather in to but three lands which would included 1) the central valley of the Sidon River about the province and captial city of Zarahmela, 2) 'the land which was between the [provincial] land Zarahemla and the [provincial] land Bountiful in the lower Sidon Valley, and 3) the [provincial] land Bountiful, yea, even to that line which was between the land Bountiful and the land Desolation or in other words the 'cork stopper' between the land northward and the land southward (3 Nephi 3:22-24).

The Days of Lachoneous. Now lets continue with the story line of events effecting the land of Zarahemla. After the days of Lehi and Nephi, the and their converting many of the Lamanites a new wickedness enveloped the land. The Lamanites had returned to the Nephites their national land of Zarahemla but the secret band(s) of Gadianton Robbers had been growing in the land. And that wickedness of those robbers had become wicked and so numerous and so wide spread that they threatened to distroy the entire Nephite nation of God, north and south. Lachoneous, the Chief Judge of the Nephites had determined that the only way to spare the nation was to call in all the law abiding Nephites of God into one land and let the course of 'robbers' destory themselves. Now if one is not aware of land size, here again the error of condensation easily creaps in. For Lachoneous has all of the Nephites gather together into the Land of Bountiful, the Land of Zarahemla, and the land in between. To the casual reader, it sound like three cities, Sugarhouse, Murray, and Sandy if you will. To which I must say 'NOT!' and 'NOT EVEN!' Remember Bountiful is a day and a half journey for a Nephite across at its most narrow point. Some say this is 30 miles, some 50, some 75 and some even as high as 125 miles in distance at its narrows. I'll settle for 75 miles if I have to guess. The point is this is a large land in size not just a few ajoining cities. It is at least 75 miles wide at the 'narrows' and quite longated by three large provincial metropolitan areas. We just got through discussing that the land between Bountiful and Zarahemlas had many cities and many strongholds in it alone. So lets review what the greater regional lands of Zarahemla, Bountiful and the Land Inbetween would have consisted of. The regional land of Zarahemla was the entire Central Sidon River Valley. Bountiful was the land from the sea west to the sea west that also ran on up into the narrow neck of land until it bordered the land of Desolation on a line across it narrows that was a day and half journey for a Nephite. And the Land in Between was the lowlands or lower Sidon valley across boarding the River Sidon until it reached the Land of Bountiful.

Now that's a lot of land. And the Nephite nation who were living the laws of the land were a lot of people and don't forget 'vast heards of livestock'. Some how some have considered that Lachoneous' defense of his maga-city was a walled defense. Has a Hadrians wall or a wall of China been discovered in the America's. Even a wall of timber would have taken all the timber of the land to build around such a land size. And while some even go so far to suggest that they had food and stores for years to feed themselves and their stock, more realistically, they would have had to have had some limited growing fields to at least graze their animals and supply some food as guarded centrally secured they would have been. So how did Lachoneous defend his mega-city nation?

I would suggest a system of natural defenses and military defenses upon 7 such fronts to Lachoneous' defense of his consolidated nation.

• First, the narrow neck of land was a strategic point. the land of Desolation was still not fully recovered and gave little subsistance to robbers without anyone to rob from. And the narrow neck was easy to defend as a line of defense.
• Second, the western coast of Zarahemla had always been a natural barrier and was used so again protecting that section of the border.
• Third, the north end of the west Cauca Valley would need to be defended to prevent assult upon the land of Bountiful from that avenue.
• Fourth the eastern coastal route which Moroni, Lehi, and Teancum had defened before would need to be defended. This placed a great defensive effort in the land of Bountiful and would tend to increase Bountiful even further in terms of development and population prior to the time of Christ.
• Fifth the land in between would need to be defended and was the major source of the defense to the north access to the Zarahemla valley and to South Bountiful. On the east access from the land of Jershon with its wide plains would be patroled and guarded and on the west access from the parallel valley of Ammonnihah would likewise need to be guarded with the mangrove swamps of the west coast being their own natural defensive feature.
• Sixth, the Zarahemla valley had the natural defenses of being between the Central and Oriental Cordillera ranges. Advances from the sides would be able to be defended in advance by positioning strategic lookouts.
• Seventh, the southern access to the Zarahemla 'provincial centeral valley had long been defened against the Lamanites from the days of King Benjamin and would be used again by Lachoneous now. At the point where the Sidon forked into two major tributaries, the Sidon Highland branch and the Gideon valley eastern branch, there would be a defensible position which still likely held mountainous wilderness and less travelable river concourses to guard, the upper southern Sidon river valley which flowed down from Manti and the eastern Gideon valley river valley limited access.

And then there was an eighth defense was the best defense of all. It is often said that the best defense is a strong offense. And this Lachoneous practiced, for the robbers dared not to be caught out in the open for fear that patrolling every watchful Nephites armies of Lachoneous would come upon them and destroy them. (3 Nephi 3:22-26 & 4:1-6+)

The 'Bread Basket' of such an arrangement would likely be between the two protective mountain ranges as it always had been, the more capital parts of the land for an agricultural based society. And thus the very nature of the land which was so set out seems to speak loud and clear of its basic nature. The wide fertile river valley being the nation's backbone of production. Yes they were limited as to space in that they could not roam outside their protected lands. But they were not confined to walled cities and huddled in meger shelters all the time. They reverted to their earlier national size which had worked for the people of Mulek before being joined by the Nephites and having their centeral valley system expanded to further settlement and development outside of the Sidon valley, to the parallel valley to the west, to the wide plains to the east, to the canyon valley to the east and the upper southern valley of the Manti. And even likely the protective development of the land of Bountiful. All that extra expansion and development had come with the advent of the Nephites to the land of Zarahemla the descendants of King Zedekiah and his son Mulek.

Catastorphic Destruction. Even surviving the Gadianton Robbers in 30 BC would not keep the Nephites humble for any length of time. Even the signs of Christ's birth was not enough in 0 BC/AD. And by the time of Christ's death, for the most part the descendants of Lehi where ripening for destruction again. This time 'world wide' destruction would set in. The earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, the tornadoes, huricanes, and the colision of land plates was felt abound the world. In Jerusalem the veil of the temple was rent and the earth quaked and there was darkness are 4 PM when the Savior died. In the Western Hemisphere, the destruction changed the entire face of the land north. I marked the beginning of the closing up of the Amazon Sea into what is left today is the Amazon River Sea as we know it today. Mountains where raised up. Cities were swallowed up in the depths of the sea and by the earth. And for three days the sun was blotted out and after shocks and rumblings persisted for the duration. The initial land movement had lasted for three solid hours. Most great quakes today last for a few minutes at most.

Bountiful, the Land of Landing by Lehi had developed from a forested wilderness to the site of a narrow pass defensive city, to being the sight of a shipping and timber harvesting industries, to the crossroads of the lands of the Nephites, to the refuge defensive land against all of the Lamanities on behalf of all of the Nephites, to being the the major northern defensive land of the mega-city nation of Laconeous. It was now a central land of the Nephites. And when Christ came, he came to the temple which was built in the Central land of the Nephites, the land of the narrow neck, the land of Bountiful.

During the destruction, Zarahemla was completely destroyed by fire, emphasizing the fact that it was a city which was built primarily of timber as where most all the cities of Zarahemla. Some of the cities destoryed would never exist again. And Mormon does not attempt to rebuild the map he had provided of Zarahemla's colonization, settlement and development to any extent. He bascially points out that the city of Zarahemla was rebuilt, and that Zarahemla did remain as a nation. But that is just about the extent of it.

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