Assessment
Criteria
Discussion
No
Shipping Timber to an Area with No Timber
All of Baja California has scarce timber. Wood is small and can only make simple rafts [Aboriginal Navigation off the Coasts of Upper and Baja California - "Wood is scarce, and the tule balsa [reeds] is the sole means of navigation for inshore water travel. The coast dwellers occasionally used balsas to fish in the quiet waters of some bay; never to make long expeditions where walking would be quicker, safer, shorter, and on the whole easier."]. Wood to build a ship to carry timber does not exist. The closest source of abundant timber is Southern California, but this would mean shipping from the land Northward to the lands southward (the opposite direction as stated in the Book of Mormon).
Yes
No Cold or Snow
Average highs range from 68 to 79 degrees F (20 to 26 degrees C) and average lows range from 45 to 65 degrees F (7 to 18 degrees C).
Yes
East Wind of Destruction
Hurricanes hit Baja California on occasion, but they come from the west and south. However, the winds are circular, so part of the wind is felt coming from the east. The Book of Mormon is not specific if the weather system with the east wind comes from the east or if the winds themselves come from the east.
Maybe
Narrow Neck
The issue here is that the whole of Baja California is narrow. While its narrowness meets the general criteria that the narrow neck should be between 15 and 180 miles, it's not easy to determine where the narrow neck would be located. The entire peninsula is between 15 and 180 miles, so there is no special significance for designating a "narrow neck." So this "narrow neck" location may meet the criteria.
No
North-Flowing River
There are only two rivers in the Baja region that are permanent rivers, the Rio Colorado and Rio Mulege. The Rio Colorado is north of any narrow neck location and the Rio Mulege is a brackish arm of the Sea of Cortez that receives small amounts of water from springs. Baja has six other small streams that reach the ocean on a more or less permanent basis [reference].
No
Elevated Area West and South
The issue here is there is there is only one range of elevated areas. This can either be considered west or east, but not both. The river Sidon had wildernesses to the east and to the west. With no north-flowing river, there is no way to determine if the elevated area in Baja would be considered the East Wilderness or the Hermounts. The elevated area is generally on the east, so credit is given for Baja California as meeting the criteria for an elevated area on the east, not the west.
Yes
Elevated Area East
See the description above.
Maybe
Large Bodies of Water
The Salton Sea (also known as Lake Cahuilla) is the only large body of water north of the narrow neck and has a surface area of 980 km2. The lake fills and dries up periodically when the Colorado River changes course. The discussion below identifies that Lake Cahuilla may or may not have existed at the time of Ether 6:80 [15:8] when the waters of Ripliancum is mentioned.
Some / Maybe
Significant Natural Forces
For Baja California, earthquake hazard maps indicate peak ground acceleration to range from 1.6 to 4.8 m/s2 (large), indicating large earthquakes are possible. There are several volcanoes in Baja. It's possible that eruptions may have occurred during the Book of Mormon times for Isla San Luis (ISL) Volcano, "These dates indicate that volcanism on ISL began at least 4725 ybp and continued to perhaps 1200 ybp" [reference]. Eruptions from Tres Virgens range between 6,500 and 26,000 years ago [reference] and did not happen during Book of Mormon times. The highest recorded storm surge on the Baja east coast from a hurricane is 6.5 feet [reference]. Regarding tsunamis, "...most of the earthquakes in the Gulf of California are the kind that don't lift the ocean bottom and so they don't generate waves," [reference]
Narrow Neck Location 
Commentary
- Some authors have proposed Baja California as the location for the Book of Mormon Geography. In general, Baja California geography theories have major geographical issues in addition to the issues described above:
- None of the Baja California theories include all geographical references, so comparing these theories to the Book of Mormon is incomplete.
- There are no "large bodies of water" (more than one) north of any part of the Baja California chosen as the narrow neck. This one inconsistency invalidates Baja California theories. Also, without any large bodies of water, the place described by the intersecting valleys does not exist - clearly inconsistent with the geography described in the Book of Mormon.
- There are no "many rivers and fountains" (Mormon 3:5 [LDS 6:4]) that empty into the sea east (Sea of Cortez) anywhere in Baja California. There are a few, widely spaced, perennial rivers in Baja California. Most are semi-perennial, meaning they are dry during parts of the year. Most drainages empty into the Pacific. None of the rivers actually flow into the ocean as they sink into the sand many miles before they reach the ocean. The few arroyos that are in watersheds that drain into the Sea of Cortez only have water in the mountain valleys and the water sinks into the sand as soon as they exit the mountains. The rivers are well-spaced along the entire Baja peninsula. The rivers are:
- Laguna Salada (a new freshwater lake being filled via a canal, so it was not in existence in BoM times)
- Rio de Tia Juana is the northernmost (semi-perennial, empties into the Pacific)
- Rio Guadalupe is the next important stream to the south (32°5'N, semi-perennial, empties into the Pacific)
- Rio San Carlos (31°45'N, semi-perennial, empties into the Pacific)
- Rio Santo Tomas (31°35'N, semi-perennial, empties into the Pacific)
- Rio San Vicente (31°30'N, semi-perennial, empties into the Pacific)
- Rio San Rafael (31°07'N, semi-perennial, empties into the Pacific)
- Arroyo San Telmo (30°55'N, semi-perennial, empties into the Pacific)
- Arroyo Santo Domingo (30°55'N, intermittent, empties into the Pacific)
- Tajo, Carrizo, Guadalupe, and Palomar valleys (semi-perennial, empties into the Sea of Cortez)
- Rio El Rosario (30°5'N, perennial, runs dry in drought years, empties into the Pacific)
- Rio El Cardonal (perennial, runs dry in drought years, empties into the Pacific)
- Rio San Ignacio (located 27°N and 28°N, first true perennial river south of the northern mountains, empties into the Pacific)
- Rio de la Purisima (26°20', this is the largest perennial stream of the southern peninsula, empties into the Pacific)
- Arroyo de la Pasion (25°, semi-perennial, empties into the Pacific)
- Rio Mulege (26°05'N, not a river but a brackish water lagoon, empties into the Sea of Cortez)
- Rio San Jose de Magdalena (27°N, perennial, empties into the Pacific)
- There are no northward-flowing rivers in Baja California that could be used as the river Sidon. All flow westward or eastward and none have tributaries that could explain the valley Gideon.
- None of the rivers in Baja California have a west valley and east valley.
- The total sustainable population of Baja California is approximately 40,000 inhabitants. "When the first dozen Europeans arrived at Loreto in 1697, there were probably 40,000 aborigines living a rather precarious existence on the entire peninsula. The entire peninsula of Baja California could apparently only support 40,000 Indians in bare subsistance." (Source: California Riparian Systems: Ecology, Conservation, and Productive Management, page 401) "The Cochimi Indians occupied the desert when the first Spaniards arrived. The Cochimà often lived on the edge of starvation. To survive during lean times, they dried their own feces after feasting on the annual harvest of pitahaya cactus fruit. When food ran out, they reaped a 'second harvest' by sifting pitahaya seeds from their dried excrement." (Source: The Vizcaino Desert). This does not describe the state of the number of people in the Book of Mormon and the food sources available to them.
- No natural forces exist to describe the cities on the east sea coast being destroyed by water. The highest recorded storm surge on the east coast of Baja California is about 5 feet from a category 5 hurricane with most storm surges from hurricanes being recorded at 1 to 2 feet. Tsunamis do not occur on the east coast of the peninsula.
- One theory uses the Rio San Ignacio as the river Sidon. There are some major inconsistencies with the Rio San Ignacio as the river Sidon.
- The river Sidon is a northward-flowing river. The Rio San Ignacio flows westward for approximately 3 km and then turns southward for aproximately 14 km.
- The river Sidon can transport bodies dumped into it to the sea (Alma 20:97 [LDS 44:22]). The Rio San Ignacio flows for about 17 km and it sinks into the sand about 20 km. before reaching the Laguna San Ignacio. The entire 17 km watercourse can be traveled in one day on foot. The inhabitants of the area would know that the river did not empty into the sea. Also, the Rio San Ignacio has a very low water volume. It has a daily average volume of only 4 cubic meters of water (1476.3 cubic meters average annual volume) (Source: Laguna San Ignacio: profile). The daily volume of water in the river is insufficient to float a single body, much less the many bodies cited in (Alma 20:97 [LDS 44:22]). The Rio San Ignacio was dammed by the Spanish and most of the pictures of it today show the lake formed by the dam, not the river as it appears naturally. A few photos of the natural river below the dam can be seen here and they show how small the stream is.
- There are a few naturally occurring pools along the course of the San Ingacio arroyo.
- Google Earth has a resolution of about a foot. Visual inspection of the arroyo shows that any stream through the arroyo is less than a foot wide.
- The cities along the river Sidon were Zarahemla as the furthest downstream, Manti near the headwaters, and Melek, Gideon, and Minon in between Manti and Zarahemla. This theory puts Melek and Manti downstream of Zarahemla and Minon and Gideon upstream (out of order from the descriptions in the Book of Mormon). Since the entire watercourse of the Rio San Ignacio is 17 km, this means there is a city approximately every 4 km. This is very inconsistent from the description of the size of the lands as being approximately 15 to 30 miles (24 to 48 km) in size - as far as someone can walk out from the city and return in one day or travel through the land in two days.
- The area around Zarahemla supported at least "five thousand and four hundred men, with their wives and their children" (Alma 30:5 [LDS 63:4]). People were still in Zarahemla after these people left, indicating a larger number of people. As for the Rio San Ignacio to support a population of people, "The riverbed itself is either lava rock, caliche, or sandstone, affording little nourishment for plants." California Riparian Systems: Ecology, Conservation, and Productive Management. The current population of San Ignacio (the only current town located on the Rio San Ignacio) had a 2010 population of 667 people (Source: 2010 census tables: INEGI). This is after the introduction of date palms, which is the only agricultural product of the region and after the river was dammed creating a lake that retained/supplied a larger volume of water. Only two subsistence ranches (only enough food for the families that operate them) exist along the Rio San Ignacio. The Rio San Ignacio cannot support the number of people described in the Book of Mormon that existed near the river Sidon.
- Concerning Lake Cahuilla
- Archaeological dating is not exact, but the picture that is painted is that Lake Cahuilla existed during part of the Jaredite period, it dried up sometime towards the end of the Jaredite period, it filled up again about the beginning of the Nephite period, it dried up about the time of the birth of Christ, and did not fill up again until about 700 AD.
- Analysis of eruptions from Red Hill and Obsidian Butte, both located on the current Salton Sea south shore, "Analyses for a granophyre ejecta clast from the Red Island rhyolite dome indicate an eruption age of 2480 ± 470 a (calendric dates between 0 and 940 Before Common Era, BCE; error at 95% confidence). This eruption age is supported by U-Th zircon crystallization ages for two obsidian-bearing lavas: Red Island (the host for the granophyre) and Obsidian Butte, a prehistoric quarry for obsidian that is widely distributed in southern California and northern Mexico archaeological sites" [reference].
- The significance of this data is that the eruption occurred under water. Note, obsidian only occurs when erupted material occurs under water. Likewise, the material from Red Island only a few miles to the north of Obsidian Butte also only occurs from underwater eruptions.
- The earliest reliable artifact sourced at Obsidian Butte dates between ca. 510 BCE and 640 CE (Kyle, 1996) [same reference].
- The significance of this data is that Lake Cahuilla was dry enough (lake level below -225 feet) to be able to collect the obsidian. Note: Kyle, 1996 [reference] reports the date range for the strata containing the obsidian artifact as 334 BCE to 174 BCE (2250 BP ± 80). The date of 640 BCE to 510 BCE reported by other sources cannot be substantiated.
- Archaeological evidence for Lake Cahuilla being in existance or dried-up are:
- A site (CA-RIV-6797) indicates the lake was dry sometime around 10 BCE and 680 AD [reference]
- Several maximum shoreline (lake filled) sites (CA-RIV-5771/5773, CA-RIV-1974, CA-RIV-1769) have radiocarbon dates between 640 BCE and 220 AD. [ibid.]
- The oldest Obsidian Butte obsidian artifact dates between 334 BCE to 174 BCE (or 640 BCE and 520 BCE) when the lake was dry
- The eruption of Obsidian butte is dated between 940 BCE and 0 AD when the lake was filled, but it had to occur before the earliest archaeological evidence for its obsidian, so this brackets the lake being in existence from between 940 BCE and 334 BCE to 174 BCE (or 640 BCE to 510 BCE).
- There is a radiocarbon dated site (CA-RIV-1340) when the lake was drying up that is dated between 1280 BCE and 840 BCE [reference].
- Lake Cahuilla (Salton Sea) formed when the Colorado River changed course and the river flowed into the Salton Trough. When the river changed course back into the Sea of Cortez, evaporation caused the lake to dry up. It did not take long for the lake to disappear. Don Laylander calculated that it takes about 55 years for Lake Cahuilla to evaporate from it's maximum level to complete dessication [reference].
- San Diego State University publishes that rainfall is about 2.3 inches a year and evaporation of 70.8 inches for a net loss of 68.5 inches a year [reference]. Note: This agrees with Laylander's calculations.
- The obsidian in Obsidian Butte occurs "20 to 25 meters below the crest of the central dome". According to a hydrological model (Laylander 1997:128), when the lake began to recede, at least 30 years had to elapse before the top of its [Obsidian Butte] peak was exposed, and 47 years would have to pass before the hill ceased to be an island and was joined to the mainland. The lake would have completely disappeared a decade after that. [reference]