65 years ago today - Feb 27, 1954

CHURCH NEWS article by Joseph Fielding Smith, "Where Is the Hill Cumorah? Book of Mormon Establishes Location of Historic Region." Apostle Smith argues that the Hill Cumorah of the Book of Mormon is the same Hill Cumorah that was near Joseph Smith's farm in New York: "Within recent years there has arisen among certain students of the Book of Mormon a theory to the effect that within the period covered by the Book of Mormon, the Nephites and Lamanites were confined almost within the borders of the territory comprising Central America and the southern portion of Mexico; the Isthmus of Tehuantepec probably being the `narrow neck' of land spoken of in the Book of Mormon rather than the Isthmus of Panama. . . . This modernistic theory of necessity, in order to be consistent, must place the waters of Ripliancum and the Hill Cumorah someplace within the restricted territory of Central America, notwithstanding the teachings of the Church to the contrary for upwards of 100 years."