The Valley of Lemuel was the first campsite of Lehi’s family after they left Jerusalem around 600 B.C. Lehi traveled three days into the wilderness near the Red Sea and pitched his tent in a valley beside a river (1 Nephi 2:4-6). He named the river Laman, noting that it emptied into the Red Sea and that the valley lay in the borders near its mouth (1 Nephi 2:8). Speaking to his two eldest sons, Lehi told Laman to be like the river, “continually running into the fountain of all righteousness” (1 Nephi 2:9), and Lemuel to be like the valley, “firm and steadfast, and immovable in keeping the commandments of the Lord” (1 Nephi 2:10). When Laman and Lemuel murmured against him, Lehi spoke to them in the valley with such power that they ceased to resist (1 Nephi 2:14). He dwelt there in a tent (1 Nephi 2:15).
From this valley Lehi’s sons returned twice to Jerusalem at his direction: first to obtain the brass plates, which held the record of the Jews and Lehi’s genealogy, from Laban (1 Nephi 3:1-4), and again to bring back Ishmael and his family so the sons could marry (1 Nephi 7:1-5). While camped there, Lehi recounted his vision of the tree of life (1 Nephi 8). Near the end of the stay, the Liahona, a brass ball with two spindles that pointed the way into the wilderness, was found at his tent door one morning (1 Nephi 16:10).
Nephi notes that all of these things were said and done while his father dwelt in the tent in the valley he called Lemuel (1 Nephi 9:1; 1 Nephi 10:16; 1 Nephi 16:6). The family then took their tents and departed into the wilderness, crossing the river Laman (1 Nephi 16:12).