North America for Book of Mormon, not South America?

THERE'S an on-going debate about where the Book of Mormon took place geographically.
The common belief is that it took place in Central or South America.
However, I've been leaning more toward North America in recent years and with good reason.
First, the Golden Plates that the Prophet Joseph found and translated the Book of Mormon from, with divine assistance, were located in North America -- specifically the Hill Cumorah, Palmyra, New York.
I just don't buy into the fact that the Nephites and Lamanites traveled so many thousands of miles between Central, North and/or South America.
For example, the distance between Costa Rica and New York is more than 2,200 miles.

              Snow in the Book of Mormon? A hint of North America in this painting?

North America is the promised land and I'm starting to believe this is where most of the Book of Mormon stories took place.
(There was a great physical upheaval and change in the landscape of North America after the Jesus Christ was killed on the other side of the world too.)
-Anyway, debate away on this subject and here are some LESS COMMON factors to argue in the favor of North America.

  The Wasatch Mountains of the greater Salt Lake area (in the background) as they appear looking west from the Bald Mountain area.

1. Brigham Young taught that the Gadianton Robbers used to flee to and inhabit the Wasatch Mountains on Northern Utah. (See Journal of Discourses 8:344).
How could that be, unless the Book of Mormon did indeed take place in today's area of Utah?

           The Pine Valley Mountains, north of St. George.                               Photo by Liz A. Hafen

2. According to a more contemporary source, the Color County Spectrum newspaper in St. George, Utah, a story on August 13, 1977, there was a 19th Century sawmill in the Pine Valley Mountains north of St. George, that used to experience weird events. For example, saw blades were found broken overnight, tools disappeared and there were other problems -- all with no evidence of thieves or pranksters having visited there overnight.
The story goes that Brigham Young was asked about this problem during one of his visits to St. George.
He told the people that some Gadianton robbers were buried on that property and if the saw mill was just moved, the problems would go away.
(It is about 300 miles between the Wasatch Mountains of Salt Lake and the Pine Valley Mountains -- that I can accept as the Gadianton Robbers traveling between ....)

So, the debate goes on about Book of Mormon location .....

NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.