There is more than one Hill Cumorah?
The is the “real” one and several “theortical” ones...
Cumorah (also called Mormon Hill) is a drumlin near Manchester, New York, where Joseph Smith, Jr. said he found a set of golden plates which he translated and published as the Book of Mormon. In the text of the Book of Mormon, “Cumorah” (originally Camorah,1830 edition) is a land situated in “a land of many waters, rivers and fountains”.[1] In this land, one hill is named the “hill Cumorah”. The Book of Mormon describes the hill Cumorah as a place where two hundred thirty thousand Nephite soldiers were killed in a final battle with the Lamanites,[2] and where centuries earlier, the last battle of the Jaredites took place, which destroyed their civilization. The hill “Cumorah” (its Nephite name) was previously called the hill Ramah by the Jaredites.[3]
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church)—the largest of the Latter Day Saint churches that use the Book of Mormon—has no official position on the geography of the Book of Mormon, nor is there currently any official claim of correspondence between the hill mentioned in the Book of Mormon and the hill in New York.[4] Numerous LDS Church authorities have, in the past, indicated that Cumorah of the Book of Mormon resides in the Finger Lakes region of western New York.[5] It has been argued that LDS scripture also locates Cumorah in this region.[6] In an 1842 letter to the Church that has been canonized into LDS Church scripture, Joseph Smith stated that the church had received, “the gospel … truth out of the earth … glad tidings from Cumorah”.[7] Smith did not specifically refer to the Hill Cumorah in this letter.[8]
In the 20th century, scholars from the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church) and later the LDS Church speculated that the Book of Mormon’s Hill Cumorah is in southern Mexico, Central America or South America.[9] This hypothesis has been controversial and has been opposed by some leaders and members of the church[10] but embraced by others.[11]
Some mainstream scholars who specialize in 19th-century American literature place the original literary setting for the Book of Mormon among the mythic mound builder people of North America.[12] Accepting the mound-builder setting, at least one LDS researcher has pointed out that no proposed Central or South American setting for the Book of Mormon is likely to be accepted by mainstream academia as a legitimate representation.[13]
According to the 'unofficial' lds archaeology apologists there are as many as two. Of the leading proponents - ldsr sorenson claims the bom lands are a small, small area in central america and that there was a hill cumorah there and SOMEHOW the plates were transferred to ANOTHER hill cumorah in NY. This particular issue is the only one of recent that the lds presidency has spoken towards and basically invalidating sorenson - there is only ONE cumorah - the one in NY.