The peninsula of Baja California has the largest collection of pictographs and petroglyphs in the world. Scattered over 700 locations, these historic rock paintings are protected under the aegis and sponsorship of the United Nations (UNESCO). Researchers find these numerous rock paintings curious but nearly impossible to interpret in meaning and origin. But who were these painters? We have only begun to review the pictographs and petroglyphs of Baja California with reference to the Book of Mormon record, but here are some preliminary thoughts:

We suggest that not all the Book of Mormon people had the ability nor the necessary means to read and write. This skill appears to have been acquired by a select few (1 Ne. 1:1; Enos 1:1; Mosiah 1:2–8; 9:1). Because of this, we suggest that not all Book of Mormon people had convenient access to the written record but were orally taught gospel principles and their history (Alma 23:5; 26:29; 30:53; 3 Ne. 26:8; Moro. 7:1). This was not unlike the situation in the world before Gutenberg invented the printing press, and even then it was hundreds of years later, in the early 1800s, when most people could read and write and had access to libraries. Even the people of Zarahemla (the Mulekites) dwindled in their understanding and language because “they had brought no records with them” (Omni 1:17); and their history was provided by Zarahemla, “according to his memory” (Omni 1:18). The record on the brass plates, brought at great effort from Jerusalem, was the means that “enlarged the memory of this people, yea, and convinced many of the error of their ways, and brought them to the knowledge of their God unto the salvation of their souls” (Alma 37:8). Without the brass plates it was “not possible that our father, Lehi, could have remembered all these things, to have taught them to his children, except it were for the help of these plates” (Mosiah 1:4). Father Lehi was “taught in the language of the Egyptians therefore he could read these engravings, and teach them to his children, that thereby they could teach them to their children, and so fulfilling the commandments of God, even down to this present time” (Mosiah 1:4).

Because only a few people were record keepers, we suspect that others would have attempted to record and preserve cultural and historical events in mediums such as painting. The pictographs and petroglyphs in Baja California portray a few consistent elements. Many of the paintings depict two groups in the same scene, represented by red and black figures. This could correlate with the two main groups in the Book of Mormon, the Nephites and the Lamanites. The pictures also depict scenes of fighting and hunting, activities frequently described in the Book of Mormon record.

The most representative and best-known of these paintings are found in the extensive and rugged wilderness area (Sierra de San Francisco) on the north and eastern borders of our proposed land of Zarahemla. This is the same kind of mountainous and secluded wilderness described in the Book of Mormon as the location of the “Gadianton robbers, who dwelt upon the mountains,” and infested “the land; for so strong were their holds and their secret places that the people could not overpower them; therefore they did commit many murders, and did do much slaughter among the people” (3 Ne. 1:27). This wilderness hiding place of the Gadianton robbers, in the land of Zarahemla, “was called Hermounts; and it was that part of the wilderness which was infested by wild and ravenous beasts” (Alma 2:37). In our allocation of Book of Mormon lands, the wilderness of Hermounts falls precisely where there is a significant concentration of pictographs and petroglyphs.

We recognize that others could have occupied these wilderness areas after the Nephite and Lamanite civilizations were destroyed, and these later inhabitants may have been the people who created these pictographs and petroglyphs. At this time, we can only ponder the meaning and origin of these paintings and their possible relationship to the people of the Book of Mormon, but the topic appears to be a potential area for investigation. This vast collection of rock paintings, extending along the 800-mile length of Baja California, provides tangible archeological evidence for a sizable pre-Spanish civilization on the peninsula. These 700 sites, found over a wide-ranging area, are not the work of a small, incidental group of people. It is also striking that the greatest concentration of paintings centers on an area in central Baja California we identify as the land of Zarahemla.