Students of the Book of Mormon often imagine that the Jaredites lived in what is now North America. Often, they imagine that they lived in the regions near Palmyra, where the plates were eventually found. However, this verse makes it clear (and the rest of the Book of Mormon supports the notion) that the Jaredite settlements were just north of the narrow neck of land. It is pretty hard to find a narrow neck of land anywhere close to the state of New York. Therefore, this notion should be abandoned. The Jaredites lived in a land later called Desolation, not because the land was completely barren but because the people suffered a desolating annihilation there (Hel 3:6). And the land of Desolation was defined as the land just north of the narrow neck, Thus the land on the northward was called Desolation…and now, it was only the distance of a day and a half’s journey for a Nephite, on the line Bountiful and the land Desolation (Alma 22:31-32, see also Alma 63:5).