Joseph Smith Statements about Book of Mormon Locations

The early church (1830's) believed in the Hemispheric geography model

Major proponent was Orson Pratt

The later church (1840's) believed in the Central America model

Joseph Smith published 5 articles in 1842 about this model
Joseph Smith never published or wrote anything about a central / northern US BoM geography

What did Joseph Smith know about the geography of the BoM?

Late 1841 into 1842, the Times and Seasons editorship was in the hands of Ebenezer Robinson and Gustavus Hill (Vol 1, No. 1 published in Nov 1839)
The paper was about the Church, but independent (not directed by) the Church
In the fall of 1841, the Prophet began expressing concerns about Robinson and Hill's ownership and operation of the paper
Revelation, Jan 28, 1842 - A Revelation of <to> the twelve concerning the Times and Seasons. Verily thus saith the Lord unto you my servant Joseph. go and say unto the Twelve That it is my will to have them take in hand the Editorial department of the Times and Seasons according to that manifestation. Which shall be given unto them by the Power of My Holy Spirit in the midst of their counsel Saith the Lord. Amen [Source: Joseph Smith Papers]
1842 - The Twelve appointed Joseph Smith as Editor of the Times and Seasons. As the Editor, Joseph Smith made this claim in the first edition printed with himself as Editor:
Times and Seasons Vol. III No. 9, March 1, 1842 - This paper commences my editorial career, I alone stand for it, and shall do for all papers having my signature henceforward. I am not responsible for the publication, or arrangement of the former paper; the matter did not come under my supervision. JOSEPH SMITH.

Heartland Model Interpretation of Joseph Smith's comment about him being the Editor:

Rod Meldrum presents this as evidence that Joseph Smith was giving up the editorial responsibilities to the Twelve

'Certainly, Joseph Smith would have done exactly as the Lord indicated and turned over the responsibility for the Times and Seasons to the Twelve.'

However, Joseph Smith did not have editorial responsibilities or even ownership of the paper to 'turn over' to anybody
The revelation was not for Joseph to 'turn over' anything, but to have the Twelve take over the editorial department from Robinson and Hill [Source: 'War of Words and Tumult of Opinions': The Battle for Joseph Smith's Words in Book of Mormon Geography]
The appointment of Joseph as Editor indicates Joseph had a hands-on approach to the content of the Times and Seasons during 1842 until October

Joseph Smith was Editor for the Times and Seasons when five articles were published describing Central America as the location of the Book of Mormon

'Traits of the Mosaic History,' Times and Seasons 3/16 (June 15, 1842): 818-820 (signed Ed.)

There are many things contained in the above [oral history in Central America] that go to support the testimony of the Book of Mormon, as well as that of the Mosaic history. The Mexican records agree so well with the word of the book of Ether...

'American Antiquities,' Times and Season 3/18 (15 July 1842): 858-860 (signed Ed.)

More Proofs of the Book of Mormon - We feel great pleasure in laying before our readers the following interesting account of the Antiquities of Central America,

"Extract from Stephens' 'Incidents of Travel in Central America,' " Times and Seasons 3/22 (September 15, 1842): 911-915 (unsigned)

Let us turn our subject, however, to the Book of Mormon, where these wonderful ruins of Palenque are among the mighty works of the Nephites:-and the mystery is solved.

'Facts Are Stubborn Things,' Times and Seasons 3/22 (September 15, 1842): 921-922 (unsigned)

'...and that Lehi went down by the Red Sea to the great Southern Ocean, and crossed over to this land and landed a little south of the Isthmus of Darien,...'

'Zarahemla,' Times and Seasons 3/23 (October 1, 1842): 927-928 (unsigned)

... we have found another important fact relating to the truth of the Book of Mormon. Central America, or Guatimala ...

According to Neal Rappleye, 'Meldrum and others have sought to circumvent such common sense conclusions by pointing out,' [Source: 'War of Words and Tumult of Opinions': The Battle for Joseph Smith's Words in Book of Mormon Geography]

...some issues had an article written by Joseph and another article accredited to 'Ed.' in the same issue. In other words, there were two authors, one was Joseph, the other was 'Ed.' or editor within the same issue. Had Joseph written both articles, wouldn't they have both been attributed to him?
Meldrum also states - Regarding [John L. ] Lund's claims that 'According to the Prophet Joseph Smith, the city of Zarahemla was located south of the Rio Grande in Guatemala and Central America.' This claim rests entirely on a handful of articles appearing in the Times & Seasons newspaper during the fall of 1842, a time when Joseph Smith was in hiding from the law for a crime he did not commit. .. While Joseph Smith's name appeared on the end-plate of the paper as being its editor, as was customary at that time, there is no historically verifiable evidence that he participated in the writing, publication or printing of these specific articles or edited these editions whatsoever. [Source: bookofmormonevidence.org]

In Reality - Regarding the Authorship of the Editorials in 1842:

Meldrum insists 'that their authorship is historically unknown,'
Lund states - If this case were true, then no statement can be made that Joseph Smith did not author them -
Meldrum himself understands, in principle at least, that the authorship can be discovered by analyzing the style of writing. In his 2009 video presentation, he asserts, "In other words, when they would write, they would use specific words, and they had certain patterns that they would write [in], and so articles that are signed 'Ed.,' if you take a look at the linguistics, many times could be determined who it was that wrote those articles."
Lund observes that Meldrum has not published any author analysis of the editorials
Lund subjected the editorials to 9 objective and 2 subjective word analyses to determine if Joseph Smith, John Taylor, or Wilson Woodruff authored the editorials
The results of the eleven separate author identification tests were overwhelmingly clear in identifying Joseph Smith as the one who authored the editorials in question. (also confirmed by another, separate word-print assessment) [Source: 'War of Words and Tumult of Opinions': The Battle for Joseph Smith's Words in Book of Mormon Geography]

SUMMARY: The best information available indicates that Joseph Smith was the editor of the Times and Season and published that he believed the Book of Mormon lands were located in Central America.

Statements about BoM Lands