Is there one hill Cumorah or are there two hills with the same name? This question has been the focus of many debates. Like most controversial topics, it depends how one defines the subject of the dispute. In this case, what does one mean by the name, hill Cumorah? There was one hill Cumorah at the time Mormon wrote his account. Namely, the hill where Mormon before his death deposited all the records in his care except for the gold plates which he give to his son Moroni (Morm. 6:6). That hill was in what the Book of Mormon calls the land of Cumorah, in the land northward, a land not many days north of the land of Zarahemla (Morm. 1-6). The land of Cumorah is where the final battle between the Lamanites and Nephites was waged and the Jaredite civilization was destroyed. The Jaredites called the hill Cumorah the hill Ramah (Ether 15:11). In our proposal we place the general location of this hill and its surrounding battle grounds in northern Baja California and not in the State of New York.

There was only one hill Cumorah at the time the Prophet Joseph Smith received the Book of Mormon plates. That is, the hill in the land of Cumorah where the Nephite and Jaredite civilizations were destroyed. The hill where Moroni deposited the gold plates, near the village of Manchester in New York, is not the same hill as the hill Cumorah where his father Mormon buried all the records of the Nephite history, except for the few plates that were given to Moroni (Morm. 6:6). The Prophet Joseph Smith described the hill near his home only as a “hill of considerable size, and the most elevated of any in the neighborhood” (JS-H 1:51). In his history, the Prophet Joseph Smith did not call this hill, the hill Cumorah, nor did Moroni. Sometime later, members started calling the Manchester hill, the hill Cumorah, and that name has indelibly entered into our language, most likely to stay. It would have been far less confusing if it had been given a name such as Manchester Hill (the village it is near), Moroni’s Hill, or Mormon Hill. Some residents in the area have called it Mormon Hill.

Today there is still only one actual hill Cumorah, the hill in the area where the Nephite and Jaredite civilizations were destroyed. Mormon describes the hill Cumorah as being in the land of Cumorah, a “land of many waters, rivers and fountains” (Morm. 6:4). Mormon chose this land for their last battle with the Lamanites because he hoped that there they would gain an “advantage over the Lamanites” (Morm. 6:4). The nature of this “advantage” is not stated in the account. Four years were spent gathering the Nephite people to the land of Cumorah; and some 230,000 Nephite men, women and children were killed in the final battle. Only 24 of their number survived, including Mormon and his son Moroni. The next morning Mormon and others ascended the hill Cumorah to survey the scene of destruction below (Morm. 8:2-11). The survivors, including Mormon, were killed by the Lamanites; and Moroni remained to record these last events (Morm. 8:2). The Book of Mormon account says the hill Cumorah is near the hill Shim in the land northward. And the hill Shim is where Ammaron deposited the Nephite records that Mormon later retrieved (Morm. 1:3; 4:23; Ether 9:3). We don’t know the precise locations of these two hills, but in our proposal we indicate a possible setting within northern Baja California. There are hills in this area with features that match the geographical descriptions in the Book of Mormon. Someday we may be able to identify the exact location of the hill Cumorah and the hill Shim. And someday we may know more about how Moroni transferred the plates in his care to the hill near Manchester, New York.

The name Cumorah is mentioned in Doctrine and Covenants 128:20. It is not clear if the name refers to the land of Cumorah, or the hill Cumorah, or if it is a general term for the lands where Mormon and Moroni penned the glad tidings of the Book of Mormon record.