Some have asked: Should there not be artifacts or remains that the Book of Mormon people left behind? Our response is: We agree, but only artifacts or remains of items that are actually mentioned in the Book of Mormon account and could have survived to the present-day. We should not be expected to find the types of buildings or other structures that the Nephites did not construct. The remains or artifacts of the Nephite structures may not still exist because of their perishable nature, or, more importantly, these structures were left “desolate” in keeping with the prophecies of the Lord to the Nephites, and to the people in Jerusalem, that if they did not repent and return unto him with full purpose of heart, “the places of [their] dwellings shall become desolate until the time of the fulfilling of the covenant to [their] fathers” (3 Ne. 10:6–7). A “desolated” place by definition is one that is caused to be “deserted of people” and “made empty or bare” by the devastation and obliteration of buildings, crops, trees and everything of substance, rendering the land “without sign of life” and “unfit for habitation.” The Book of Mormon record is clear that the Nephites and the Lamanites in the end did not repent and return to the Lord, and the prophesied desolation was fulfilled. Likewise, the people of the Biblical land of Jerusalem, because of wickedness, witnessed the equivalent “abomination of desolation” of their homes and towns by the Romans under Titus, including the temple they thought would not be destroyed (Deut. 28:52; Matt. 24:2; Mark 13:1–2; Luke 19:40–44; 21:20; D&C 45:18–21; JS-M 1:2-21). According to the Lord, this “desolation” and the resulting devastation and abandonment of Jewish and Nephite places and dwellings would continue until “the fulfilling of the covenant to [their] fathers,” which began with the restoration of the gospel in 1830 (3 Ne. 10:7).

The abandoned Jaredite land was “called Desolation by the Nephites,” even though the land itself, its soil and its potential to grow vegetation and crops, was not “desolate, save it were for timber; but because of the greatness of the destruction of the people who had before inhabited the land it was called desolate” (Ether 7:6; Morm. 3:5; Morm. 4:2; Hel. 3:6). This land of Desolation, before it was reclaimed and restored by the Nephites, was “rendered desolate and without timber, because of the many inhabitants who had before inherited the land” (Hel. 3:5). Like the Nephite and Lamanite lands, this Jaredite land, in fulfillment of the prophecies of the Lord, was deserted of people and made empty or bare by the devastation and obliteration of buildings, crops, trees and everything of substance, rendering the land without sign of life and unfit for habitation. The Lord “had sworn in his wrath unto the brother of Jared, that whoso should possess this land of promise, from that time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fulness of his wrath should come upon them” (Ether 2:8). In 121 B.C., king Limhi secretly sent a “small number of men” northwards, “to search for the land of Zarahemla,” and to obtain help for freeing his people from bondage. The search party was “lost in the wilderness for the space of many days, yet they were diligent, and found not the land of Zarahemla” but “discovered a land [the land Desolation] which was covered with bones of men, and of beasts, and was also covered with ruins of buildings of every kind, having discovered a land which had been peopled with a people [the Jaredites] who were as numerous as the hosts of Israel” (Mosiah 8:7–11). It is the destruction and “sweeping off” of people and their possessions by decree of the Lord and ruination of structures that render a land “desolate.” A desolated land is not the same as a deserted land. A deserted land is abandoned but not devastated. And a desolate land is not a barren land that was never productive. A desolate land, unlike a barren land, can be resettled and reclaimed to its former productive state when the Lord so directs, for example, the once “desolated,” but now productive area we call the Holy Land. The Nephites and Lamanites refrained from settling this desolated northern land of the Jaredites until 55 B.C., for reasons that are not clear from the record—they may have been delayed by the Lord’s timetable, or possibly resettlement needed to wait until the land naturally recovered and became reforested to an advanced stage (see section on Cement, above).