Where they landed is a geographical question that must be left unanswered as yet. In the Story of the Book of Mormon by one of the authors hereto (President George Reynolds of the First Council of Seventy) says that "it is generally understood" it was south of the Gulf of California and north of the Isthmus of Panama. That is somewhere on the west coast of Southern Mexico or Central America. Before this theory is dismissed, it should be remembered that the Jaredites came here about 4000 years ago (Usher's chronology), when some of the after-effects of the last glacial period may still have been lingering along our west coasts, with floating icebergs and raging new storms. The Jaredites were looking for a land, choice above all the lands of the earth. (Ether 1:42) That was the promise made to them. But they would not have found such a place in the far north at that time in the age of the earth; nor in the extreme south. But wherever the debarkation took place, their fondest expectations were realized, for on the shore they "shed tears of joy before the Lord, because of the multitude of His tender mercies."
However, the landing place is not nearly as important as the fact that they landed. They came from somewhere. They did not grow spontaneously on American soil, as maintained by some. They came from some center of population in Asia. They are an important branch of the human family. We have endeavored, elsewhere, to show that they were Hebrews, in the wider meaning of that term, inasmuch as they were descendants of Joktan, the son of Eber (or Heber), and the younger brother of Peleg, the ancestor of Abraham, in whose days (Peleg's) the Earth was divided between the nations (Genesis 10:32). They came here by Divine appointment, and under Divine protection. That is the important information conveyed by the Book of Ether.