The easiest way to understand Book of Mormon historicity and related Church history is to accept what Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery said.
Those who reject their teachings about translating the engravings on the plates with the Urim and Thummim and the New York Cumorah embark on a life-long journey of complicated explanations and rationalizations.
I liked this graphic from Twitter:
Logic is seeing the dots. Action is joining the dots. Creativity is aligning the dots to unlock your simplest route.
Source: About Central America