How did Lehi’s family reach their promised land in Baja California? And which route did they follow? The story of the Book of Mormon begins in the land of Jerusalem with Lehi and Ishmael’s families, along with Zoram, the servant of Laban. This small party, at the Lord’s insistence, flees from the troubled city of Jerusalem and takes their tents, seeds, and other provisions and departs into the wilderness.

They travel south along the border of the Red Sea and then east across the breadth of the Arabian peninsula, wading through “much affliction,” to a coastal location they called Bountiful—a trip equal in distance from California to Florida and some eight years in duration. Here in a semi-tropical oasis they gather “much fruit and also wild honey,” and Nephi builds a ship with the Lord’s direction. (See 1 Ne. 1–18) This land route of some 2,000 miles from Jerusalem to Bountiful on the Indian Ocean has been investigated and mapped by several researchers, first by Hugh Nibley, then subsequently by Lynn and Hope Hilton and Kent Brown¹

The Bountiful retreat on the east coast of the Arabian peninsula is in a microclimate similar to the southern area of Baja California and at about the same latitude. The ocean route the outcast group followed from Bountiful to the promised land is not delineated in the Book of Mormon record. The account says they were “driven forth before the wind for the space of many days,” and crossed the sea, which they called “Irreantum, which, being interpreted, is many waters” (1 Ne. 18:9; 17:5). The wind patterns in the Indian Ocean, to the east of Bountiful, are westerly, that is, the winds came from the west and would have driven them toward the east. Nephi’s ship might have stayed close to the coasts, or, since they were directed by the Lord and the Liahona, “a ball of curious workmanship” that “pointed the way,” they could have shortened the route by heading through the open waters of the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and then through one of several passages, such as the Strait of Malacca between the Malay peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra. These are time-honored sailing routes that led from Africa and Arabia to the Pacific.

Once in the Pacific Ocean near the Philippines, the ocean currents and the wind patterns in the north Pacific follow a clock-wise circular motion because of the movement of the earth’s atmospheric circulation around high pressure cells that control the direction of the winds and the water beneath. The westerly trade winds are developed in the mid-latitude segment of this clock-wise circulation. Sailing vessels took advantage of these “westerlies” when sailing from the Orient to North America. Commencing in 1565, hundreds of Spanish galleons for nearly three centuries sailed from the Spanish-held Philippines, laden with silk cloth, spices, porcelain and other riches from the Orient, to the lucrative North American and European markets. Many of these Manila galleons sailed for some three to four months directly to Baja California ports such as La Paz.

With the Lord’s protection, the compass direction of the Liahona, the favorable winds and ocean currents, and Nephi’s guidance of the ship, Baja California would have provided a reachable destination (1 Ne. 18:8-23). Others have sailed this same general route. The family of Lehi was one of many, and the Jaredites and the people of Zarahemla (Mulekites) possibly traveled along a portion of the same route, especially the mid-latitude, Pacific Ocean sector.

The Book of Mormon account provides some indicators as to where on the Baja California peninsula Nephi’s ship would have landed. Mormon in his detailed description of the Book of Mormon lands specifies the location of the idle Lamanites as being in the wilderness area to the west of the land of Zarahemla and in the wilderness area to the west of the land of Nephi, and also in the borders by the seashore on the west in the place of their father’s first inheritance (See Alma 22:27-34 and Mormon’s Description of Book of Mormon Lands). Within Mormon’s general description, these relative Lamanite locations would position the landing site, the place of father Lehi’s first inheritance, on the west coast of the southern extent of Baja California. And this coastal location is positioned alongside the wind-driven Pacific route of the Spanish galleons and other ships sailing from the Orient.