The land of Bountiful was a Nephite territory in the land southward, lying south of the land of Desolation and north of the land of Zarahemla, and stretching from the east to the west sea (Alma 22:31–33). It was wilderness filled with wild animals, some of which had come from the land northward for food; the Jaredites before the Nephites had kept the land southward as a wilderness to get game (Alma 22:31; Ether 10:21). It bordered the narrow neck of land that led into the land northward, and the Nephites garrisoned it with guards and armies to hem the Lamanites in on the south and keep them from overrunning the land northward (Alma 22:32–33; Alma 63:5).
Moroni1 ordered the land Bountiful fortified and the narrow pass secured so the Lamanites could not gain that point (Alma 52:9). Hagoth built a large ship on the borders of the land Bountiful, by the land Desolation, and launched it into the west sea by the narrow neck (Alma 63:5). The chief judge Lachoneus1 set the land between Zarahemla and Bountiful, up to the line between Bountiful and Desolation, as the gathering place for the Nephites’ defense against the Gadianton robbers under Giddianhi (3 Nephi 3:23).
The resurrected Jesus Christ appeared at the temple in the land Bountiful, where a multitude had gathered after the signs of his death; a voice from heaven announced him three times before he descended in a white robe and declared himself (3 Nephi 11:1–10).
The city of Bountiful lay near the city of Mulek and was fortified during the wars with the Lamanites around 65 B.C. After a battle, Teancum returned to the city Bountiful to await Moroni1, and Lamanite captives were set to dig a ditch and build a timber-and-earth wall around it (Alma 52:17; Alma 53:4). Around 30 B.C. the missionaries Nephi2 and Lehi4 began their preaching at the city Bountiful and went from there to the cities of Gid and Mulek (Helaman 5:14–15).