[YOhio]

Originally Posted by Sleeping in EQ

The Maxwell Institute has the footnotes being from 1879 until 1920. They're probably right.

Here's a bit on it from the Maxwell Institute (FARMS):

....
I find it interesting that Pratt's notes are in the BoM for decades until the Church decided that it "clearly had no authoritative stance on what was, and remains, an open issue." No doubt many Mormons took their presence in the BoM as at least fairly authoritative, sort of the way people have taken McConkie's chapter summaries for the 1981 edition. Pratt was edited and most probably McConkie will be too (eventually).

Originally Posted by pelagius

SIEQ gave some nice background, but here is what some of the footnotes actually say. This is from a Book of Mormon I own printed in 1908 which means it is an 1879 edition done by Orson Pratt. For example, On page 155 footnote g reads, “The land Nephi is supposed to have been near Ecuador, South America” and footnote h reads, “The land Zarahemla is supposed to have been north of the head waters of the Magdelena, its northern boundary being a few days’ journey south of the isthmus.”

I am not sure they are salacious, but they are hemispheric.

SIEQ and Pelagius: Thanks for that information. Very interesting, especially the actual footnotes.