It is surprising how many geographical references are found in the Book of Mormon—almost one or more on every page. We compiled a categorized list of these items that could have some bearing, even to a small degree, on substantiating or disallowing Baja California as the actual location. Some of these items are physical in nature, such as the shape of the land and the location of rivers and mountains. Others are human creations such as buildings, roads and tents. And still others are concepts, such as the geopolitical goal of the Nephites to strategically “hem in” or enclose their Lamanite enemies within the territory towards the south.

Our goal has been to aim as high as possible, by attempting to achieve a 100 percent match of all possible physical and human items mentioned in the Book of Mormon to the physical and human landscape of Baja California. Understandably, for some items this is not feasible, but this remains the goal for those features that can be reasonably matched. If an item appears not to fit, within acceptable perimeters, we would need to question or rethink our initial proposal. Our fundamental approach has always been to attempt to disprove Baja California as a possible location.

The possibility of correlating all feasible items is compounded by erosion of evidence over time. Many human items, such as houses, clothing and roads may simply have disappeared through the effects of deterioration by man or nature. Whereas, physical features such as a mountain, a river or a gold deposit might have suffered minimal deterioration at the hand of man or natural deterioration. This continuum of human and natural effects through time is illustrated below. The items placed towards the bottom left corner we assumed would have the least changes and those in the top right corner the most changes. We have attempted to investigate all possible physical and human items to a significant and logical degree, and have found none that would appear to create an obvious matching problem. Further investigation, however, may reveal some correlation challenges.

There are a number of ways to provide confirmation for a Baja California location. In our research, where possible, we have used the triangulation methodology of multiple sources to verify our conclusions. This provides supportive information from several different angles. Our first priority was to attempt to match the items in the Book of Mormon which are the most obvious and the easiest to compare—the climate, the shape of the land and the location of rivers, mountains and seas. If these features provided a 100 percent correlation, then we could move on to lower levels, right down to the numerous and precise locational and physical details surrounding military battles.

The middle latitude nature of many of the geographical items found in the Book of Mormon account is one of the best means of triangulation. And, conversely, the scarcity of geographical items that might support a northern latitude location or tropical wet location. For example, the occurrence of grapes (and wine) and figs, two annual growing seasons (a season of grain and a season of fruit, Hel. 11:17), up to three years of drought (and the accompanying famine), the growing of barley as a significant crop including its use as a medium of exchange, along with silver and gold. The occurrence of hail, insect infestation and the destructive and feared east winds is of geographic significance. This triple calamity (Mosiah 12:6, Hel. 5:12) can only occur in limited areas of the middle latitudes (such as in Baja California) where it is cold enough for hail formation (and yet warm enough for the updrafts to form that are necessary for hail formation in the upper atmosphere) and yet not too far north or south to still have destructive east winds (possibly hurricanes), and yet dry enough for insect infestation when sustained droughts leave insects with little to eat. All of these conditions have a geographical basis and point to a middle latitude location, especially one with a Mediterranean climate and its annual and distinct wet and dry seasons.