There are only two settlements within the narrow strip of wilderness mentioned in the Book of Mormon account. One was the small, temporary refuge settlement of Alma’s group in the land of Helam. Here some 250 or so people built a small city in an oasis area of pure water (Mosiah 23:1-29). The other was Amulon, also a small, temporary refuge settlement, founded as a hiding place by the priests of king Noah (Mosiah 23:31-32). In both wilderness locations the people tilled the land (Mosiah 23:5, 25, 31). The role of these two, temporary settlements is described in more detail below.

A satellite picture of Baja California clearly shows a narrow strip of wilderness precisely where it is required within the relative positions of the major Book of Mormon lands. This wilderness feature is distinctly demarcated, not only from space but on drawn maps. It is positioned between areas that match the land of Zarahemla on the north and the land of Nephi on the south, and between the Pacific Ocean (the sea west) and the Sea of Cortez (the sea east). Its size measures some 200 miles north to south and approximately 50-60 miles west to east. This orientation of its longest dimension is required by the travel accounts in the Book of Mormon, as outlined above. And its configuration is “narrow” and a “strip.” Its narrow dimension is also narrower than the adjacent lands on the north and south, which is required to render it a narrow area.

This narrow strip is the most difficult topography in all of Baja California. It consists of rugged canyons (arroyos that are hidden from view until they are stumbled upon), mesas, and steep, high peaks that range to 7,000 feet in elevation, only a few miles from the sea coast. The climate of the area is semi-arid to arid, but the rainfall is significantly affected by elevation, with more precipitation at the higher elevations. Its plant cover also varies by elevation—some forested areas at the higher levels and more open Mediterranean-like (chaparral) vegetation in the lower reaches—and with no jungle-like tropical growth. And at any elevation the terrain is difficult for humans or pack-animals to traverse.

The narrow strip of wilderness is an area where groups get lost. In Baja California this is not difficult because the wilderness region is a rugged area of uncoordinated drainage where surface water is not found in continuously flowing rivers but in intermittent seasonal streams that often do not flow overland but disappear underground and do not provide a tributary drainage systems such that a disoriented group could readily follow rivers to the sea or to a downstream location. This wilderness area is the least populated region of Baja California with only a few ranches and a handful of oasis settlements.

We are often asked how the Book of Mormon people would know that the narrow strip of wilderness was “narrow” given their lack of sophisticated measuring devices, precise satellite maps and triangulation technology. The best answer is provided by the Jesuit fathers who in the late 1600s scaled a peak along the mountain crest (near the proposed location of the Book of Mormon city of Helam) just west of their mission base in Loreto on the Sea of Cortez (the sea east). They recorded that they could see both the Pacific Ocean on the west and the Sea of Cortez on the east from this single vantage point. Certainly the Book of Mormon people could have done the same. The other narrow feature, the “narrow neck of land” to the north of the land of Zarahemla, also has high peaks where one can also see both sea coasts simultaneously.

Today there are only three small settlements of any size in the area of the narrow strip of wilderness. Within the distance of an eight-day journey from our proposed location for the land of Mormon, these settlements are in valleys that match the description of the land of Helam. These valleys, in the southern extent of the narrow strip of wilderness, have springs of pure water, areas of tilled land, and places for flocks. The Jesuit fathers in the late 1600s and early 1700s established missions and built settlements in the three wilderness valleys: Misión La Purísima Concepción de Cadegomó (La Purísima); Misión San Jose de Comondú (Comondú); and Misión San Francisco Javier de Viggé-Biaundó (San Javier). All of these valleys were occupied by the indigenous people when the Jesuits arrived and are still occupied today. The three oasis towns are in areas where not only the city of Helam (Alma’s group) but also the city of Amulon (the priests of king Noah) would need to be located.