The hill Ramah, where the Jaredite civilization was destroyed, is described by Moroni as the same hill as the hill Cumorah, the site of the final battle of the Lamanites and Nephites (Morm. 6:6; Ether 9:3; 15:11). We place this hill and its surrounding battlegrounds in northern Baja California and not in the state of New York. We have not been able to stretch the geography of the hill Cumorah (Ramah) to reach as far as New York without abandoning all the other geographical descriptions and spatial relationships recorded in the Book of Mormon.

Is there one hill Cumorah or are there two hills with the same name? There was one hill Cumorah at the time Mormon and Moroni wrote their accounts—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, in the area where the Nephite and Jaredite civilizations were destroyed (Morm. 1-6). The Book of Mormon account says the hill Cumorah is near the hill Shim. 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 (Ramah) and the hill Shim.

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 distant 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 of the Church started calling the hill near Manchester, New York, 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. Residents in the area have called it Mormon Hill. Someday we may know more about how Moroni transferred the plates in his care to the hill near Manchester, New York.

It is not unheard of to have two places with the same name. In this case, two hills called Cumorah—one in the state of New York where Moroni deposited the gold plates and one in a distant place where his father Mormon deposited all the records in his possession. There is a river named Jordan in Utah and a Mount Nebo, along with cities called Lehi and Nephi, but these places should not be confused with their namesakes elsewhere.

The hill Cumorah (Ramah), to be a hill, would need to be a naturally raised area of land that rises significantly above all the surrounding terrain. The surrounding terrain of the hill Cumorah would need to be of such a surface configuration that the Nephites could pitch their thousands of “tents round about the hill.” The surrounding terrain would need to be sufficiently expansive and reasonably flat to serve as a suitable battleground by approximately 600,000 or more Nephite and Lamanite combatants. And all 23 Nephite groups of 10,000 people each would need to be spread over the surrounding terrain such that when Mormon and Moroni and 22 other survivors climbed to the top of the hill Cumorah “on the morrow, when the Lamanites had returned unto their camps,” the hill would be of sufficient height, and the surrounding terrain of such a surface configuration, that they could observe all 230,000 of their dead and identify the 23 groups led by their commanders. Yet the hill would also need to be of a height that Mormon and the others could climb to the top, make their observations and return within a realistic amount of time. Any hill proposed as the hill Cumorah would need to fully match these recorded requirements (Morm. 6:1-15).