Here are various sources of information and references for ongoing research.

To satisfy the curiosity of the seeker and researcher, I shall place here various sources of information regarding some of the claims that have been made on this web site. I will continue to update the web site as more develops and as time allows.  Hopefully the evidence supplied here will be enough to start you on your own quest for the truth regarding the Book of Mormon and where the Nephites lived.

As we read the Book of Mormon, Captain Moroni describes some of the forts which were built during the great wars to keep out the Lamanites.  These forts were surrounded by large walls of timbers about as a high as a man, and around these walls were dug ditches so that when the Lamanites would come near the forts the Nephites could shoot their arrows down from the tops of the walls into the ditches.  Here is a reference to one of several locations in the Finger Lakes region of similar forts. Below is a description of one of these smaller ancient towns that covered 500 acres.

"It appeared by three elliptical or circular forts, eight miles distance from one another; placed in such relative positions as to form a triangle round about the town at those distances . . . In Camillus, in the same county, are the remains of two forts, one covering about three acres, on a very high hill; . . . its shape was elliptical; it has a wall, in some places ten feet high, with a deep ditch. Not far from this is another, exactly like it, only half as large.  There are many of these ancient works here abouts; . . . There is evidence enough that long bloody wars were waged among these inhabitants . . ." (B.H. Roberts, New Witness for God, Vol. 3, Pg. 71)

"There is an abundance of evidence of an ancient aboriginal occupation in that favored land, [Land of Many Waters,] the chief monuments being the remains of fortifications that attest the skill of the builders.  These ancient relics together with the evidence of an extensive and ancient warfare in that region are tokens of a highly civilized nation that thrived and perished in that historic land."

"This vast array of evidence tells the scientists who have studied it a story of bitter warfare-the sage of a great nation being exterminated in the land of many waters.  The accounts related by the local historians and archaeologists sound very much like the stories told in the Book of Mormon about the battles that took place in that favored region."

"Two centuries ago remains of fortified hills and well defended villages were to be found in more than two hundred places in Western New York, many of which were said to have been erected long before the Christian era..." (McGavin & Bean, Geography of the Book of Mormon, pg. 9)

"Cayuga County yielded a rich harvest of giant skeletons among the ancient ruins, of which we read that 'entire skeletons have been found of people of giant proportions, the skulls and jawbones of which could cover the head and face of the most fleshy person of our day.' We are told of a tradition which asserts that a destructive war was waged 'in this very section of the country, and with such fury and determination on each side that practically all of the warriors were slaughtered."

"Erie County has yielded a vast store of ancient monuments, including many giant skeletons, spear points, war hatchets, and other weapons that seem too large for an average sized man to wield.  Bones of 'giant size' have been uncovered.  Similar discoveries have been made on Ontario County, 'skeletons of an early age, including many of unusual size have been found." (Ibid, pg. 13, quoting W. Durant, Oneida County, New York, pg. 58)

"The New York historian J.P. MacLean recounts a native legend. . .'this country has been inhabited by a white people who were familiar with the arts of which the Indian knew nothing and that after a series of battles with the Indians, they were exterminated.' He also declared that the old burial places were the graves of an unknown people; that the old forts had not been built by the Indians, but 'belonged to a long ago people, who were of white complexion, and skilled in the arts." (Ibid, pg. 83, quoting J.P. MacLean, The Mound Builders, pg. 144)

Many a critic has put down the Book of Mormon due to that fact that steel swords have never been found.  Though later in this document I shall show that steel swords have been found in some of the mounds, the finding of Iron Ore is significant since Steel is made from Iron Ore, and if anyone knows the chemical makeup of steel, when it corrodes it basically turns to dust.  So it would be rather hard to find a steel sword intact laying in a field.

"In the sepulchral mound at Marietta (Ohio) there was found in the year 1819 a little lump of iron ore that had almost the specific gravity of pure iron, and presented the appearance of being partially smelted, while in the mound at Circleville oxidized iron was found in the shape of a plate." (B.H. Roberts, New Witness for God, pg. 526)

The remarks of Historian A. J. Conant are interesting as well . . .

"And to question whether they possessed a knowledge of working iron, the wise man will hesitate long before he answers in the negative.  It should be remembered, too, how quickly - unless under the most favoring conditions- iron corrodes to dust and leaves scarcely a trace behind.  The piles of the Swiss lake-dwellings, the cedar posts of the mounds, may endure for ages, while iron - so hard, and more precious than gold in the advancement of the world's civilization, - speedily melts away before the gentle dew and air of heaven."

"In Scipio, (about 45 miles away from Cumorah) on Salmon Creek, a Mr. Halsted has, from time to time during ten years past, ploughed up, from a certain extant of land of his farm, seven or eight hundred pounds of brass, which appeared to have once been formed into various implements, both of husbandry and war; helmets and working utensils mingled together.  The finder of this brass, we are informed as he discovered it carried it to Auburn, and sold it by the pound, where it was worked up, with as little curiosity attending as thought it had been an ordinary article of the country's produce. . . " (B.H. Roberts, New Witness for God, pg. 259-262)

"A vast many instances of articles made of copper and sometimes plated with silver, have been met with on opening their works.  Circular pieces of copper, intended either as medals or breastplates, have been found, several inches in diameter, very much injured by times.  In several tumuli the remains of knives and even of swords, in the form of rust, have been discovered . . . But besides, there have been found very well manufactured swords and knives of iron, and possibly steel, says Mr. Atwater; from which we are to conclude the primitive people of America, either discovered the use of iron themselves, as the Greeks did, . . . or that they carried a knowledge of this ore with them of their dispersion." (B.H. Roberts, New Witness for God, pg. 531, quoting Josiah Priest, American Antiquities, pg. 256)

Critics claim the animals mentioned in the Book of Mormon did not exist in America before the Europeans introduced them.  But all of these animals mentioned have been found.  The most criticized claim is cows, but cattle were here before the Europeans arrived.  They were spotted in the early 1600s.

". . . we saw in divers quarters, immense herds of wild bulls and cows; their horns resembling, in some respects, the antlers of a stag.  Our game does not leave us.  It seems that venison and game follow us everywhere.  Large droves plunge into the lake as if to meet us . . . At the side of the rapids we perceived a herd of wild cows which were passing at their ease in great state.  Five or six hundred are seen sometimes in these regions in one drove." (McGavin & Bean, Geography of the Book of Mormon, pg. 8)

Many of the hundreds of mounds in New York have been found to contain hundreds and thousands of bodies, only three miles from Cumorah was a sandy mound uncovered to contain heaps of bodies of men, women and children.  Many of them with their skulls bashed in as if a hard blow to the head. The style in which these mass graves were buried is as if there was a great war and that they were killed in battle and rapidly buried disorderly by an enemy.

"Children of different ages and the full grown seem to been piled together promiscuously. One of the skulls was found pierced by an arrow, which was still sticking in it, driven about halfway through before its force was spent.  The arrow point was about six inches long.  The subjects of this mound were doubtless killed in battle and hastily buried.  Some of the mounds are full of bones that are perforated, as though the living subjects were slain in battle, and that the skeletons were heaped together in promiscuous confusion, as if buried after a conflict." (McGavin & Bean, Geography of the Book of Mormon, pg. 74)

As time permits me I will add more references upon request or if I feel they are relevant.  Much research done by antiquitors of New York, and early journals of the first governor of New York testify to the ancient race of large people who lived in this land.  For now I highly recommend to you a new book which has many more references and even more research than I have done, which is written by an active Mormon.  That book "The Lost Lands of the Book of Mormon" was previously mentioned on the former pages of this site, please go back to those pages. Hopefully this has been enough references for the time being to spark your mind to study on your own.  If you would like further discussion I suggest signing up for the Lost Lands of the Book of Mormon discussion group.

Those who are awakened will recognize the truth contained on this site, and that is what matters most, that you take it to Christ yourself, and do as Moroni asked...

Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.
And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.
And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is. (Moroni 10:3-6)