The Hill Cumorah is just one of 10,000 drumlin hills which fill the plains of western New York just to the south of Lake Ontario. The drumlin hill field of New York constitutes one of the largest concentrations of drumlin hills in the world, with the Palmyra Quadrangle alone showing more than 900 drumlins on a single topography sheet. These small cigar shaped hills would have provided a tremendous advantage for both the Nephites and the Jaredites, for they offered great protection and fortification for their battles.

 Any residential structures of the Nephite which may have survived the burning frenzy of the Lamanites as they ravaged the land and killed its people, have long since eroded in the moist northeastern climate—all but traces of the numerous fortifications built in the Nephite’s vain attempt to save their wayward souls. These were built with oak, a hardwood sturdy enough to withstand both the weather and the ages.

      E. G. Squire, in his Antiquities of the State of New York, estimated that about 259 drumlin hills in western New York had been fortified by an ancient people. In nearly every instance the forts had been constructed by some unfailing water source, such as a spring or stream, with guarded passageways leading back and forth. Most were built with high embankments with an exterior ditch, just like those built by Moroni.

      Squire’s observation regarding the fate that overtook these early inhabitants of New York was that: “the ancient village was destroyed by enemies, and that these are the bones of its occupants who fell in defense of their kindred, and were burned in the fires which consumed their lodges.”¹ He emphasized that in every fortified village the skeletons of the defenders were buried promiscuously, men women and little children, all mixed up together, with many of their skulls fractured as if by a blow. How close he was to the truth without even knowing it, for we read in the Book of Mormon that the Nephites lost the lands of their possessions to the Lamanites, their very own brethren, whose hatred for the Nephites fueled them on to victory. Moreover, their destruction was followed by a burning frenzy.

     And it came to pass that whatsoever lands we had passed by, and the inhabitants thereof were not gathered in, were destroyed by the Lamanites, and their towns, and villages, and cities were burned with fire; and thus three hundred and seventy and nine years passed away {from the time of Christ}. (Mormon 5:5, insert added.)

     Josiah Priest maintained that the forts found in western New York were made by a race “anterior to that of the present Indians. He went on to say: “We are far from believing the Indians of the present time to be the aborigines of America, but quite to the contrary, are the usurpers, have by force of bloody warfare exterminated the original inhabitants, taking possession of their country, property and in some instances retaining arts learned of those various nations.” ²

    E. G. Squire’s books are filled with descriptions of the elaborate preparations that had been made for war by a highly civilized race that once occupied western New York. It was clear to him that “long before the Europeans came to America this region was settled by an active and vigorous people. Their villages were among the rivers, creeks, and lakes, their camps upon the hills, their fortifications in strategic places difficult to assault.” Squire estimated that before their extermination the people of this region were more populous than any extant of territory north of Florida.³ This would, of course, include the Jaredites, they having lived chiefly in New York’s northern frontier, the land the Nephites would ultimately call Desolation because of the carnage they left behind, both nations ultimately leaving their bones on that ancient battleground in the years to come.

     And they {Limhi’s search party} were lost in the wilderness for the space of many days, yet they were diligent, and found not the land of Zarahemla but returned to this land, having traveled in a land among many waters {Finger Lakes region}, having discovered a land 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 {called Desolation by the Nephites} which had been peopled with a people who were as numerous as the hosts of Israel. (Mosiah 8:8 inserts added.)

  It has been said that “there is not an area of like size in the United States where evidence of aboriginal occupation is so abundant.” ⁴ In their research of the histories of each of the counties of western and central New York, McGavin and Bean discovered that several hundred pages were dedicated to telling the world that western New York was the scene of ancient warfare, the likes of which has not been witnessed elsewhere on the American continent. ⁵

    Thousands of specimens of war were taken to various museums and private collections, with one collection comprising 20,000 items. ⁶ The flint and copper arrow-points were the most numerous, but axes, large blades, and a variety of well-fashioned tools were also strewn across the region. It is said that there is more evidence of a well planned defensive warfare in New York than any other region of America. ⁷

   Le Grand Richards, in A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, said: “Both the Nephite and Jaredite civilizations fought their final great wars of extinction at and near the Hill Cumorah (or Ramah, as the Jaredites termed it), which hill is located between Palmyra and Manchester in the western part of the state of New York.

     We are surrounded by evidence that a race preceded them (speaking of the Indians) farther advanced in civilization and the arts, and far more numerous. Here and there upon the brows of our hills, at the head of our ravines, are the fortifications; their locations selected with skill, adapted to refuge, subsistence and defense. The uprooted trees of our forest, that are the growth of centuries expose their mouldering remains; the uncovered mounds masses of their skeletons promiscuously heaped one upon the other, as if they were gathered and hurriedly entombed of well contested battle fields. In our valleys, upon our hillsides, the plough and the spade discover their rude implements, adapted to war, the chase, and domestic use. All these are dumb but eloquent chronicles of by-gone ages. We ask the red man to tell us from whence they came and whither they went: and he either amuse us with a wild and extravagant traditionary legend or acknowledges himself as ignorant as his interrogators. He and his progenitors have gazed upon these ancient relics for centuries, as we do now, wondered and consulted their wise men, and yet he is unable to aid our inquires. We invoke the aid of revelation, turn over the pages of history, trace the origin and dispersion of the races of mankind from the earliest period of the worlds existence, and yet we gather only enough to form the basis of vague surmise and conjecture. The crumbling walls the ruins overgrown by the gigantic forests of Central America, are no more involved in impenetrable obscurity than are the more humble, but equally interesting mounds and relics that abound in our region. “ ⁸

     In a talk given by President Anthony W. Ivins, (Conference Report, April 1928-morning session), who was speaking of the historian, B. H. Roberts whose comments were published in the Deseret News on March 3, 1928, he claimed that some of his passages established the following facts: That the Hill Cumorah, and the Hill Ramah are identical; that it was around this hill that the armies of both the Jaredites and Nephites fought their great last battle; that it was in this hill that Mormon deposited all of the sacred records which had been entrusted to his care by Ammaron, except the abridgment which he had made from the plates of Nephi, which were delivered into the hands of his son, Moroni. We know positively that it was in this hill that Moroni deposited the abridgment made by his father, and his own abridgment of the record of the Jaredites, and that it was from this hill that Joseph obtained possession of them.”

   From a talk given by the Apostle Orson Pratt, Aug 25, 1878, and later included in the Journal of Discourse, Vol. 20, p. 62, we read: It will be, next Thursday night 54 years since the Prophet Joseph Smith, then but a lad, was permitted by the angel of the Lord to take the gold plates of the Book of Mormon from the hill Cumorah, as it was called in ancient times, located in the state of New York.”

     How can anything be clearer! It would be hard to imagine two mighty nations bringing thousands upon thousands of their people across thousands of miles of terrain to fight battles of complete extinction around the same hill, a hill nestled among ten thousands similar hills all across the land. No, the thought lacks any sense of reason. These people lived, loved, hunted, married, worshiped, and fought in the same region they ultimately met their demise- around the same Hill Cumorah in New York State that Joseph retrieved the gold plates which contained their long, lost histories.