The Heartland Model of the lands of the Book of Mormon has been promoted since 2004 by Rod Meldrum and Wayne May even before that.

The evidence that has been compiled in the last 10 years is quite fantastic, if you have never seen it before. The lands of the Nephites, Lamanites, Jaredites, and the People of Zarahemla are coming into fine view inside the continental United States and southern Canada.

For myself, I did the research early as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to determine where the Book of Mormon took place. My early studies of more than 8 thick books all took me to Central America. These books were all written by BYU professors and people much more knowledgeable than myself, being a new member. 

However, as time went on, I heard rumblings about the Book of Mormon happening in the United States and in North America. I went digging and found MUCH more evidence for the North American Model of the Book of Mormon than I ever did in South America.

The evidence included:

• 25,000+ artifacts with Christian symbols on them.
• Thousands of huge mounds, used for burial and other purposes. Some were older, used by multiple sets of people in the area.
• Temple complexes with earth ramps (See Ex 20:24-26). Earth ramps (not stone) was the preferred way to make alters to God under the law of Moses. (and never Hewn Stone, like all of Meso American Alters)
• The prophet Joseph Smith Jr's own testimony (see video below) - The proponents of the Meso American model for the Book of Mormon claim that Joseph Smith did not know where the Book of Mormon took place. He wasn't a trained archeologist, they claim.
• Very advanced places of resort - against some pretty powerful enemies. (like the type that Captain Moroni would build) (see video below)
• The disappearance of this advanced culture and the vacating of their cities in 400A.D. The people and knowledge no longer existed...not a blending into another group of people like the Meso-American Maya did. There are plenty of indiginous people today who are Mayan.
• The very director of the U.S. Smithsonian in 2010 didn't even know of the huge cultures that existed in North America. The knowledge was policially forgotten and intentionally destroyed. This material is NEW, even to archeologists and historians until recently.
• And so much more history, that I can't write it in this blog post.

See these other links on this same topic:  https://www.lastdaystimeline.com/manifest-destiny

In the Last Days Timeline Chapter #1, establishes the need to identify the groups of people who appear in prophecy. Only when we understand who the groups of people are, will we understand what the Lord has said happens to those same groups in the future.

And since a large helpful prophecy held in the Book of Mormon is by Nephi, son of Lehi, we need to know who he was seeing in vision in 1st Nephi.

Thus, knowing the lands of where the correct group of people live, helps us to identify them today. Just that simple.