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Utah's large temples up through the 1990s. Courtesy of Lee R. Cowan.

The last two decades of the twentieth century witnessed significant developments in temple building. While many smaller temples were being built worldwide, these decades saw the construction of three large temples in Utah.

Even with the Provo and Ogden Temples, the increasing number of faithful Latter-day Saints in the area had created serious overcrowding in the Salt Lake Temple. There had also been a general quickening in the pace of temple work in Utah County with the Provo Temple. President Spencer W. Kimball pointed out that of the 53,337,080 endowments which had been performed for the dead since they had started in the nineteenth century, 33 percent, or 17,540,332, had been done during just the previous six years, from 1972 to 1977.[1]

The Jordan River Temple

Fred A. Baker, managing director of the Church Building Committee (later the Building Department), had received many calls and opportunities to see land that members were offering for temple sites, but something was different about his meeting in 1977 with Alma and Helen Holt in South Jordan, Utah. Since the time Alma was young, his family would leave the farm and fields every month and go to town, visiting Temple Square while in Salt Lake City. Over the years, Alma and his five sisters—Ida, Essie, Leah, Naomi, and Ann—spoke privately about how they felt part of the family property should be given to the Church for a temple. Yet at the time no one predicted a second temple would be built in the Salt Lake Valley in the 1980s.

Jordan River Utah Temple site, 1978. Courtesy of Deseret News and Church History Library.

When Brother Baker explained to Alma Holt that the Church could not guarantee the site would be used for a temple and that it would likely be used for a meetinghouse, Holt felt discouraged but responded to Baker and asked if he would explain their story directly to the prophet. After hearing about the property in their weekly meeting, President Kimball directed that a thank-you note be sent to Holt but then later asked Baker privately if the First Presidency could visit the Holts’ land.

Fred Baker arranged for a car to take Spencer W. Kimball, Marion G. Romney, and N. Eldon Tanner to the Holt property. Baker gave special instructions to the driver that when they pulled up near the flood-irrigated furrows and uneven ground, “Don’t you let the Presidency walk out in that alfalfa field, because they’ll fall immediately.” Fortunately, the First Presidency was fine, and two weeks later, President Kimball entrusted Fred A. Baker and Emil Fetzer to begin designing a temple to be known as the Jordan River Temple. The impressions of the Holt family had been realized.

The donated Holt property was a fifteen-acre parcel on a gentle knoll located on 1300 West at about 10200 South in the city of South Jordan. It would also have access to Redwood Road, a major north–south traffic artery just to the west; property for this connecting road had been donated by the family of T. Udell Bailey.[2] The geographical area to be served by the new temple was the smallest in the Church, comprising only the south half of the Salt Lake Valley.

President Kimball called a meeting in the fall of 1977 for all the stake presidents in the Salt Lake Valley to meet in the solemn assembly room of the Salt Lake Temple on a Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m. There, he surprised most in the room by announcing the building of a second temple in the valley, particularly that the temple would be built on the west side. He also requested that all funds for the temple be raised by the members.[3]

The sacrifices started by the Holt family in giving their property were just the beginning. Saints young and old gave toward the building of the new temple, far surpassing the cost for the temple. There were many examples of sacrifice, particularly in less affluent areas. One young man with a wife and three children was earning a hundred dollars per week; he went without lunch so he could contribute one dollar per day to the temple. A stake president explained plans for raising funds for the temple in stake conference; following the meeting, three widows, all with limited means, independently wrote out checks for a thousand dollars without knowing about what the others were giving. A four-year-old boy gave his bishop a brown sack filled with money, insisting, “This is all I own, and I want to give it to the Church for the new temple.” After another family had discussed what they might do for the temple, their eleven-year-old daughter who was “seriously ill with a rare blood disease” went to her room and brought back a jar filled with coins totaling nearly a hundred dollars; she gave it to her father and said, “This is all the money I have, and I would like it all to go to the temple.[4]”

The temple was designed by Church architect Emil B. Fetzer, who had designed the Ogden and Provo Temples a decade earlier. Like the earlier two temples, the Jordan River Temple would have six ordinance rooms surrounding the celestial room. Despite this similarity, Fetzer explained that the new temple would have “its own unique personality.” It would incorporate “refinements” learned from building temples during the last ten years. It would be about 25 percent larger; the ordinance rooms would seat 124, giving it the largest capacity of any temple in the Church. There would be a 300-seat chapel and seventeen sealing rooms.[5] Its 148,236 square feet of floor space would make it the fourth largest temple in physical size, after only the Salt Lake, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. Temples. The temple would face east, but all four sides would have a “front” appearance. Parking for 680 cars would be on the side and in the back. The extensive use of stained glass with nighttime illumination would make it a prominent landmark, easily seen from many parts of the valley and from aircraft approaching the Salt Lake International Airport. President Kimball noted that Brigham Young had prophesied that the time would come “when the whole valley will be one community from hill to hill”; he said that “this thought intrigues us” and that “we hope this temple will look out over that [whole] community.”[6]

Fetzer explained that all the construction companies selected to submit bids had excellent reputations, had completed “beautiful projects,” and had the capacity to erect the temple.[7] When bids were opened on May 23, 1979, the Layton Construction Company of Salt Lake City had the lowest bid of $12,548,000 and received the contract to build the temple.[8]

By breaking ground with a backhoe instead of a shovel, President Spencer W. Kimball puts a new twist on his motto: "lengthen your stride." Courtesy of Deseret News and Church History Library.

Ground was broken on Saturday, June 9, 1979, under blue, cloudless skies. An estimated ten to fifteen thousand interested spectators were present. The entire First Presidency and many other General Authorities of the Church attended. The Mormon Youth Chorus provided music. President Kimball refuted the prevailing notion that “the condition of human souls is eternally and irrevocably fixed by divine decree immediately after death.” He insisted that those who died without the opportunity to be baptized may still qualify for redemption by having the needed baptism performed by proxy in their behalf. He explained that “other essential ordinances have to be performed for the dead who cannot do it for themselves” and that “temples are the God-appointed places for such sacred work.” He affirmed that all temple ceremonies are uplifting, including commitments to live high standards of morality and chastity, charity, and benevolence, to devote talents and material means to the cause of truth, and in every way contribute “to the great preparation that the earth may be made ready to receive her king, the Lord Jesus Christ. With the making of each covenant and the assuming of each obligation,” he taught, “a promised blessing is pronounced contingent on faithfulness.”[9]

President Ezra Taft Benson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles insisted that the temple would be a visible witness that “God intended that the family be eternal,” that he “has not left man to grope in darkness,” and that “the power of God can stay the power of evil.” He testified that “the power of Godliness” associated with temple ordinances “will thwart the forces of evil if we will be worthy of these sacred blessings. This valley will be preserved, our families protected, our children safeguarded as we live the gospel, visit the temple, and live close to the Lord.” He affirmed that the temple “will be a light to all of this area. It will be an inspiration, not only to Latter-day Saints, but to many others as well.” Other speakers included Elder O. Leslie Stone of the First Quorum of the Seventy, who was executive director of temples, Church architect Emil B. Fetzer, and Ben E. Lewis, who was chairman of the fundraising committee. In his prayer dedicating the site, President Kimball petitioned that the work for which the temple would be built “be carried out through time and the Millennium to the blessing of millions of thy children.”[10]

The service occupied nearly two hours. Rather than using the traditional gold-colored shovels, President Kimball donned a hard hat, took the controls of a huge backhoe, and then, to the approving applause of the crowd, proceeded to move the first bucketful of earth. His counselor President N. Eldon Tanner quipped that the prophet was simply carrying out his oft-stated admonition to “lengthen our stride.”[11]

Statue of the Angel Moroni

Jordan River Utah Temple under construction. Courtesy of Deseret News and Church History Library.

At the time the Jordan River Temple was being built, the practice of the Church was to place statues of the angel Moroni on its larger temples. The figure to be placed atop the temple’s tower was a copy of the angel sculpted by Avard Fairbanks a few years earlier for the Washington D.C. Temple. The original was eighteen feet tall, while the bronze copy for Jordan River (as well as for the Seattle and Mexico City Temples) was fifteen feet in height. Fairbanks was born into an artistic family in Provo, Utah, in 1897. He was the son of John B. Fairbanks, one of the art missionaries sent to Paris to receive training before painting murals in the Salt Lake Temple. Avard won prizes for his sculpting by the age of twelve. He studied art in New York City and abroad, earning degrees at Yale and at the Universities of Washington and Michigan. After teaching on several campuses, he was serving as dean of fine arts at the University of Utah when he sculpted his angel. He stated that he wanted his sculpture of Moroni to have an “upward reach.”[12]

Before the statue of Moroni was elevated to the tower, it was gold-leafed under the direction of Alfred A. Lippold, an immigrant from Germany. He had served as an apprentice “to a master who was a real master.” He had completed projects in the Utah State Capitol, Hotel Utah lobby, and new Utah Symphony Hall. “He and a crew of four turned bronze to gold in one day, applying about a thousand two-inch squares of gold leaf.” Lippold acknowledged that completing this project on the ground was much easier than when he had worked on figures of Moroni at the Salt Lake and Los Angeles Temples over two hundred feet in the air.[13] The plan was for the angel to be covered with canvas when it was placed on the tower and then be unveiled at the cornerstone laying ceremony as the Tabernacle Choir sang “An Angel from on High.”[14] This plan was thwarted, however, when a strong wind blew the shroud off the figure a few days early.

Aerial view of Jordan River Utah Temple cornerstone ceremony. Courtesy of Deseret News and Church History Library.

Cornerstone Ceremony

About twelve thousand spectators filled the sloping lawn in front of the temple for the cornerstone ceremony on Saturday afternoon, August 15, 1981, some arriving as much as five hours early. Gordon B. Hinckley, who had been appointed as an additional counselor in the First Presidency just three weeks earlier, testified that temple work “is an affirmation of our conviction that life continues after death for all of our Father’s children.” He pointed out that hundreds of hours will be spent serving inside the temple “without gratitude spoken from those for whom it is done.” President Benson recalled that the Saints had been commanded to “stand in holy places” to avoid prophesied latter-day difficulties and insisted that “temples have been provided by a benevolent Father in Heaven to protect us from the tribulations.” He testified, “The saints in this temple district will be better able to meet any temporal tribulation because of this temple. Faith will increase as a result of the divine power associated with the ordinances of heaven and the assurance of eternal associations.” He then reaffirmed his promise made two years earlier at the groundbreaking that the whole valley would be blessed because of the Saints’ faithful temple service.[15]

Fetzer observed that because temples were now built of reinforced concrete, cornerstones no longer have any structural function, and that these ceremonies “are held more to install the box of artifacts than to mark a phase of construction.” Articles in the hermetically sealed copper box included photographs of the General Authorities and of temple construction, copies of the standard works and other Church books, current issues of the Deseret News and other local newspapers, and copies of the Church News with articles about the temple. After members of the First Presidency and President Benson had daubed mortar around the plaque that would cover the cornerstone box, “a long line of members including children” had their turn after the ceremony to apply “thin trowels of mortar around the stone.”[16]

Open House and Dedication

Jordan River dedication ticket. Courtesy of Church History Library.

A total of 568,342 persons visited the temple during its monthlong public open house which extended from September 29 through October 31. Among the special groups welcomed at the temple was a group of airmen from Hill Air Force Base representing several nations; one of them commented, “We have never seen anything like it. Now we understand why your religion is so important to you.” Three days during the last week of the open house exceeded 30,000. The 32,146 who came on October 29 was the greatest number ever to come on a single day to any temple open house. The 500,000th visitor was received as an honored guest that day. She was Myrtle Wade Gates of West Jordan, an eighty-one-year-old grandmother who came in a wheelchair and with an oxygen tank. Her home teacher had arranged the visit. “It’s the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me,” she exclaimed with surprise. “It’s really made my day!”[17]

The Jordan River Temple was dedicated in fifteen sessions, three each day on November 16–20, 1981. Proceedings were carried by closed-circuit television to various rooms in the temple and to the Salt Lake Tabernacle over fifteen miles away on Temple Square downtown. Some 163,000 faithful members eight years of age and above were able to attend. President Kimball, who had undergone brain surgery not long before, attended but did not speak. This was the first time a second temple was built in a valley where one already existed. At the dedication, temple president Donovan H. Van Dam described this as “another marvelous work and a wonder” that nobody had dreamed could come to pass. “With six temples already in Utah, we looked too far-away for such things to happen.”[18]

President Tanner, President Kimball’s first counselor, encouraged “fathers and mothers to speak to their children about the temple” and to worthily go there in order to “prepare ourselves to meet the Savior.” Elder Mark E. Petersen powerfully expounded the necessity of work for the dead, and “his testimony of the Savior brought tears to many eyes.” Several in the audience described a “light that seemed to radiate from his face as he spoke.” Elder Petersen later told his family of “the strength of the Spirit he had felt.”[19]

Jordan River Utah Temple celestial room. Courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

The dedicatory prayer asked the Lord to accept the temple and petitioned, “Pour out Thy blessings upon it as a house into which Thou wilt come, and in which Thy Spirit will direct all that is done that it may be acceptable unto Thee. Frustrate the designs of the adversary against Thy people and Thy work, and may the efforts of all who fight against Zion come to naught. May the glorious work roll on in majesty and power to fill the whole earth, even as the waters cover the mighty deep.”[20] In the years since the opening of the Jordan River Utah Temple, it has been one of the busiest temples in the entire Church.

A few years after the temple dedication, Emil Fetzer attended the marriage of one of his relatives and was surprised that the sealer was Alma Holt, who threw his arms around Brother Fetzer “in a brotherly embrace.”[21] Both men had been blessed through their experiences seeing the rise of the Jordan River Temple.

The Bountiful Utah Temple

The history of the land for the Bountiful Utah Temple suggests that while God knows the future purposes for his temple sites, not all locations have been ideal or initially showed much promise. In 1897 Israel Barlow purchased from the US government forty acres of land just below the ancient shoreline of Lake Bonneville above Bountiful. For years, the family struggled to dry-farm the land. It would occasionally provide a hay or wheat crop, but for the most part there wasn’t enough water for a successful farm. Yet by the 1970s a nice apricot orchard provided a good crop of fruit. The land was an unlikely bowl up against the mountain without much access.

View from Bountiful Utah Temple site. Courtesy of John P. Barlow.

Then the ravaging rains and flash floods during the unforgettable spring of 1983 caused landslides and damaged homes in Bountiful. To create an earthen dam to protect Holbrook Canyon, Bountiful city approached the Barlow family and removed two hundred thousand cubic yards of soil from the property for the dam. By 1988 a new road called Bountiful Boulevard provided access to the property. Leo Barlow stated it would have cost him a million dollars to create access to the property. Now the Lord was subtly creating the steps so that the property would be ready for a temple.[22]

In 1988 the First Presidency announced the purchase of two possible temple sites, one in Bountiful, Utah, and the other in Bogotá, Colombia. President Benson and his counselors, Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson, had visited the Bountiful site that had been sold by the Barlow family to Ellis Ivory for development. President Monson later recalled how President Benson looked up to the mountains and out to the lake “in a spirit of contemplation” and then declared, “This site will be so suitable for a beautiful temple of the Lord.” The First Presidency explained that “while there are no definite plans for immediate construction, the choice properties were acquired while available.” The nine-acre Bountiful site, high on the east bench, afforded “a panoramic view of the valley and the Great Salt Lake.” A new road would provide access to the property.[23] The official announcement of temple construction came two years later.

Bountiful Utah Temple rendering. Courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

Saturday, May 2, 1992, was sunny but cool when ground was broken for the Bountiful Temple. Approximately 7,500 had gathered at the site, some seated in chairs, others standing, and many seated on the hillside above. A fleet of chartered buses brought them to the site from parking lots down the hill. Another 2,500 watched by closed-circuit television at the Bountiful Regional Center. Associates steadied ninety-two-year-old President Benson as he and his counselors broke ground on the steep, windswept hillside. Three boys and three girls were invited to then have their turn. In his remarks, President Hinckley explained that “the site and the conception of a temple was the prerogative of the prophet of the Lord,” so he wished President Benson could be able to speak to the assembled throng. He insisted that this was “the greatest era of temple building in the history of the world,” with as many temples being dedicated in the last seven years as in the entire previous history of the Church. (Of course, this record would be eclipsed by the rapid pace when he himself would become President of the Church just a few years later.) When President Hinckley determined that those seated on the hillside could hear him, he likened this occasion to the time when King Benjamin addressed his vast congregation from a tower.[24]

Just weeks before passing away, President Ezra Taft Benson helps a child at the groundbreaking services. Courtesy of Leslie T. Foy and Lorraine MacKay.

The twenty-eight stakes from North Salt Lake to Kaysville in south Davis County constituted the Bountiful Temple district, with a membership of 92,000. Elder Marlin K. Jensen and later Elder John E. Fowler, both of the Seventy, served as Presidents of the Utah North Area and chaired the Bountiful Temple committee. Blaine T. Jensen, a Regional Representative of the Twelve, was vice chair. The Okland Construction Company received the contract and was ready to begin construction right away.

The temple measures 195 by 157 feet, and the central tower, surmounted by the golden figure of Moroni, rises to a height of 176 feet. The exterior was finished in Bethel white granite, quarried just a few miles from Sharon, Vermont, where the Prophet Joseph Smith was born. The temple’s architect was Allen B. Erekson, who also served as project administrator for temples and special projects. He explained that the temple was not “tied to any style of architecture, but has some features similar to the Salt Lake Temple, while other details have been gathered from various sources.” He noted that “symbolic details” representing the sun, moon, and stars were included on the temple’s exterior as a reminder of the three degrees of glory.

A unique feature of the Bountiful Utah Temple is ample underground parking, made necessary by the lack of space on the hillside site. With a floor area just over a hundred thousand square feet, the temple has four 90-seat endowment-presentation rooms, the celestial room, and eight sealing rooms on the second floor, offices and dressing rooms on the main floor, and a baptistry and cafeteria in the basement.

Erekson explained that the temple’s interior lighting, colors, furnishings, and artwork were designed to have “a level of elegance that doesn’t distract from the Spirit.” Those entering on the temple’s lower level find “rich warm colors” that become “progressively lighter” and more “elegant” higher in the building. The art glass windows also have “an ascending feel,” with varied colors providing privacy near the bottom and clearer glass admitting more light higher up. Beveled crystal glass near the top acts as a prism, casting a rainbow of colors into the celestial room. The windows have the motif of Jacob’s ladder, increasing in detail as it rises. The stunning chandeliers came from the Czech Republic. All this was accomplished under the planning and supervision of Lawrence W. Wyss, manager of interior design for the Church’s temples.[25]

Bountiful Utah Temple. Winter Meets Fall, by Alan Fullmer.

Open House and Dedication

Top and Bottom: Bountiful Utah Temple dedication tickets. Courtesy of Church History Library.

By the fall of 1994, construction was complete and the temple was ready for its six-week open house. On November 3 and 4, Church leaders greeted members of the press, community leaders, and other special guests. Temples “are to us the most sacred precincts in the whole world” and “the center of our worship,” explained Elder James E. Faust of the Quorum of the Twelve, because in them we undertake “to seal and bind on earth that which is to be sealed in heaven.” Elder John E. Fowler of the Seventy noted that faithful Latter-day Saints “make great efforts to be sealed in a temple” because they are “places to contemplate the importance of marriage and family, reflect on challenges, and to find peace.” Newly appointed temple president Harold C. Yancey observed that “the temple is placed so many people can see it. It will be a great blessing,” not just to Latter-day Saints but to the entire community, and “all can point to it with pride as a place of beauty.”

The public open house was from November 5 through December 17. Visitors described the temple as having “reverent grandeur,” being “elegant without ostentation.” The temple’s “natural cherrywood moldings and attractive furniture” created a “welcoming, almost homey atmosphere.” The chandelier in the brides’ dressing room seemed like “a bouquet of glass, a celebration of the importance of temple marriage.” In the two-story-high celestial room the huge chandelier was like “a fountain of crystal in frozen cascade.” Still, spiritual feelings impressed visitors most.[26] By the time the open house concluded, more than 870,000 people had visited the temple with the help of 45,000 volunteers.

The temple was then closed so it could be made ready for dedication. Elder Fowler explained that the temple was “scrubbed from ceiling to carpet . . . to be absolutely spotless as we present this holy house to the Lord.” Ruth Yancey, the new temple matron, reported that the people were also getting ready and were eager to help. “They have made children’s clothing and quilts for the nursery and have donated altar covers with beautiful crocheting. They are ready to serve and willingly give of their time,” she gratefully acknowledged.[27]

Dedication of the Bountiful Utah Temple extended over an entire week. The cornerstone ceremony took place early on the first day, at 7:00 a.m., even before sunrise. Sunday, January 8, 1995, was a chilly winter day. As the group of Church leaders and their wives walked down a wooden ramp to the southeast corner of the temple, an outside choir appropriately sang “High on the Mountain Top.” Choir members were grateful to be warmed by the Spirit. President Gordon B. Hinckley quipped, “Let’s get the mud in place before it freezes.” The plaque was then sealed in place over the cornerstone box containing historical artifacts.[28]

Four dedicatory sessions were held each day in the temple’s celestial room from Sunday through Saturday, January 8–14. President Howard W. Hunter spoke and offered the dedicatory prayer in the first session. “We thank thee that thou did reveal thy priesthood, even the sacred sealing power, by the hand of Elijah the prophet so that in this temple and all thy other holy houses thy faithful Saints may be endowed with power from on high and may enter into those everlasting covenants which open the door to the receipt of all the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the holy prophets. The plan of salvation taught in the temple with simplicity yet with power will be as a never-failing beacon of divine light to guide our footsteps and keep them constantly on the pathway of eternal life.” The prayer continued, “We plead with thee to make us worthy to inherit the fullness of those blessings found only in thy holy temples—even those blessings which grow out of a continuation of the family unit forever.”[29]

Bountiful Utah Temple dedication, front cover of Church News, January 14, 1995. Courtesy of Church News.

As President Hunter was offering the prayer, the sun broke through the clouds, bathing the celestial room in brilliant light. President Hunter attended six of the twenty-eight sessions. (He would pass away on March 3, just two months later, after presiding over the Church for only nine months.) Forty-nine General Authorities spoke during the week. To accommodate all who wanted to attend, proceedings were carried by closed-circuit television to other rooms in the temple and to five other buildings—the Salt Lake Tabernacle, the Bountiful Regional Center, and tabernacles in Ogden, Brigham City, and Logan. As each session closed, faithful Saints reverently left the temple as well as the other locations with tears flowing freely and scarcely wanting to talk, being overwhelmed by the impact of what they had just experienced. Attending a temple dedication was “a cherished experience long to be remembered.” Others were already in line to enter the following dedicatory session.[30] After the chilly start, weather was fortunately relatively mild. With the multiple sessions and overflow locations, 201,655 Saints were able to attend, the largest number ever to participate in a temple dedication.[31]

Ordinances in the Bountiful Utah Temple commenced at 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday, January 17, three days after the last dedicatory sessions. There were enough anxious Saints present at this early hour to fill three ordinance rooms for the first endowment session.

The Mount Timpanogos Temple

Groundbreaking services ticket. Courtesy of Mike Anderson.

Meanwhile, construction was progressing on a similar temple about fifty miles further south. At the October 1992 general conference, in connection with the sustaining of Church officers, President Gordon B. Hinckley announced plans for “another temple in Utah County to relieve the pressure on the Provo Temple, which is operating far beyond its designed capacity.” The exact site was disclosed during the April 1993 general conference six months later. As part of his address honoring the Salt Lake Temple during its centennial, President Hinckley indicated that other temples would be built, including one on “a site in American Fork, Utah, which the Church has owned for many years.” Located at 900 East and 700 North, this nearly twenty-acre site had been part of a welfare farm.[32]

Originally purchased in 1953 by the Timpanogos Stake, the eighty-acre farm owned by Adolphus and Thelma Pulley was used as a Church welfare farm to produce hogs, beef, alfalfa, and grains. For almost four decades, the land was used to bless those in need. In 1992 the Church traded most of the acreage for land in Alpine, Utah, and retained twenty-three acres in American Fork for a temple site.[33] Later at the groundbreaking held on Saturday, October 9, 1993, Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Twelve noted that the farm on this property had provided for temporal welfare, but the temple would contribute to the people’s spiritual well-being. He believed that the greatness of the 11,750-foot Mount Timpanogos, after which the temple would be named, appropriately represented “the valiancy and the faithfulness” of the Utah Valley Saints.

Sea of people at Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple groundbreaking services. Courtesy of Mike Anderson.

At the groundbreaking ceremony, an estimated twelve thousand eager persons were in attendance, and music was provided by a 440-voice choir. Responding to questions about why the Church would build another temple in Utah, President Hinckley noted that the Provo Temple was the busiest in the Church, operating at 115 percent of its designed capacity, and that the Jordan River Temple was the second busiest. Even though forty-five temples were operating, 20 percent of all ordinances were performed in just these two temples. He referred to a “lost and found” sign he saw on the grounds and explained that service in the temple brings salvation to bless those who otherwise would be lost, but who are found through family history research and vicarious temple ordinances.

President Thomas S. Monson indicated that he had received a letter from a young boy, Samuel Barnes, who had learned in Primary that pioneer children had helped build temples. He wrote that he wanted to help with the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple “and that you can tell me how on Saturday at the groundbreaking services.” President Monson responded, “Samuel, I thought maybe today I would try to tell you how you can help with the Mount Timpanogos Temple and in so doing, if everyone else wants to listen in, fine. But this message comes directly to you, Samuel.” He recommended that the boy put a picture of the temple in his room where he could see it each evening and morning when he said his prayers, that he look forward to participating in baptisms for the dead in the temple, then later to receiving his endowment before serving as a missionary, and then to kneeling “at a sacred altar with a sweet daughter of our Heavenly Father, an eternal companion, and hear these words, ‘I pronounce you husband and wife for time and for all eternity.’”[34]

Construction of Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple. Courtesy of Church History Library.

Construction was about two-thirds complete when a highly visible milestone was reached—placing the statue of the angel Moroni. The American Fork Police Department estimated that twenty thousand people filled the streets surrounding the temple on Monday, July 17, 1995, to see a tall crane lift the thirteen-foot, two-hundred-pound gold-leafed statue of the angel to the top of the temple’s tall spire. As the figure came to rest, the crowd broke into applause and spontaneously began singing “The Spirit of God.” Steve Studdert, president of the Highland East Stake and vice chair of the temple committee, believed that the presence of such a large crowd “speaks for the interest and faithfulness of the Latter-day Saints in the area. They literally clogged the streets, but it was done in a wonderful spirit.” He regarded it as “a moving demonstration of an outpouring of faith that was very touching.”[35]

With a floor area of 104,000 square feet on three levels, the temple’s plan was like that of the Bountiful Utah Temple, but there were some subtle differences. The Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple’s spire was a little taller, reaching a height of 190 feet. The temple was faced with Sierra white granite, and the tower was of a slightly lighter shade. The inside colors were also different, carpeting ranging from mauve to off-white. In the brides’ room and celestial room, patterns in the carpet reflected those in the stained glass windows. The grounds were landscaped to reflect the rural setting then characteristic of northern Utah Valley.[36]

President Gordon B. Hinckley conducts cornerstone service. Courtesy of Church News.

Just a week before the open house was to begin, as President Studdert read the Lord’s admonition to “prepare every needful thing” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:119), he was impressed with the need for a last-minute cleaning of the temple’s grounds and surroundings. He called on each stake in the temple district to provide one hundred volunteers the next morning. Over four thousand responded, often at a personal sacrifice because of the short notice. Nevertheless, they had smiles on their faces as they spent about four hours weeding, pruning, digging, planting, and hauling off debris from the temple site and the 160-acre grounds of the Utah State Developmental Center across the street. The Center’s grounds superintendent smiled when he heard about this project, but he was moved to tears when he was told how many volunteers would be contributing their time to beautify his property as well as that surrounding the temple. President Studdert explained: “We wanted to say to the development center ‘thank you for your patience during the last three and a half years of construction’ and ‘thank you in advance for your patience as hundreds of thousands of people visit your neighborhood [during the open house].’ What better way could we show our love for our neighbors than to say to them, ‘let us help you where you can’t help yourself.’”[37]

Open House and Dedication

Public open house ticket. Courtesy of Church History Library.

Like the Bountiful Utah Temple, the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple had a six-week open house, running from August 10 through September 21. Visitors first entered one of several temporary shelters outside of the temple where they viewed a video presentation on the doctrinal purpose of temples. As they were about to enter the temple, many heard a children’s chorus singing such numbers as “I Love to See the Temple” or “I Feel My Savior’s Love”; all the wards in the temple district had the assignment to provide these groups of young singers in rotation. Visitors then walked quietly through the temple, passing through areas including the baptistry, brides’ dressing room, chapel, one of the ordinance rooms, a sealing room, and the celestial room. Brief recordings explained the function of each area. As guests exited the temple, missionaries were on hand to answer questions.[38]

Children singing at the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple open house. Courtesy of Church History Library.

President Hinckley insisted that the tours should emphasize “the ordinances and covenants of the temple rather than the architecture of the building.” This has resulted in “a profound outpouring of the Spirit” and numerous missionary referrals. Developmentally disabled residents of the center across the street were among the first guests; arrangements were made for family members to accompany them as they visited the temple. One sixty-year-old man seemed upset and quite agitated as he entered the temple, and his brother wondered if bringing him to the open house had been a mistake. Suddenly the man, whose speech was usually unintelligible, shouted, “Stop!” Behind the recommend desk was a large painting of the Lord holding a lamb in his arms. The man folded his arms like the Savior’s, seemed to calm down, and clearly said, “Jesus.” They completed the tour in peace. A man with terminal brain cancer was being pushed in a wheelchair. In the celestial room he stood for several minutes, gazing at the infinite reflections in the opposing mirrors, and then quietly said, “All is well. I am ready to go now.” By the time the open house ended, some 679,217 visitors had passed through the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple. More than 56,000 volunteers had served as guides or supervisors, pushed wheelchairs, answered questions on the grounds, cleaned the building each night, or repaired the padding placed to protect the carpeting. During the open house, one of these volunteers lost his wife of fifty-six years. The day after her funeral he was at his post, saying, “This is where Beth would want me to be. This is my duty.”[39]

Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple. Nightfire, by Alan Fullmer.

At this time the Mount Timpanogos temple district extended from Alpine to Orem in northern Utah Valley and in the Heber and Vernal areas of northeastern Utah. The forty-three stakes had a membership of 131,000 members.

Winter, Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple. Courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

As had been the case at Bountiful, the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple’s dedication filled an entire week. The cornerstone ceremony took place at 8:00 a.m. Sunday morning, October 13, 1996, just as the sun was rising over Mount Timpanogos. As Church leaders emerged from the temple, an 880-voice chorus of young adults, 20 from each stake in the temple district, sang “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet.” President Hinckley and then others placed mortar to seal the plaque over the cornerstone box, which contained the accustomed memorabilia plus samples of wall coverings and wood moldings from inside the temple. Three dedicatory sessions were held that day and then four sessions each day through Saturday, October 19. Closed-circuit television carried the proceedings to the American Fork Tabernacle, Salt Lake Tabernacle, and to twelve stake centers in the temple district. Thus, a total of 157,917 faithful Saints were able to attend the dedication.[40]

The dedicatory prayer encapsulated the temple’s functions: “Here, in the beautiful font, baptisms will be performed by living proxies in behalf of the dead. Here with repentant hearts we will be made clean before Thee and stand clothed in robes of spotless white. Here we will be instructed in the things of eternity and enter into solemn covenants with Thee. Here at sacred altars we will be joined as husbands and wives, as parents and children under the authority of the eternal Priesthood in bonds of covenants that will endure forever.”[41] President Hinckley pronounced the prayer in the first and ten other sessions. His counselors conducted the balance of the twenty-seven sessions. A total of fifty-two General Authorities participated during the week.

Celestial room of Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple. Courtesy of Church History Library.

President Thomas S. Monson had stayed in touch with Samuel Barnes since the time of the groundbreaking, and the young man now thought of him as a good friend. President Monson invited Samuel, now twelve years of age and suffering from incurable Crohn’s disease, to attend one of the dedicatory sessions. During the session, President Monson called Samuel to come stand by him at the pulpit. He presented the young man a piece of temple granite and told him that he and Sister Monson prayed for him every day. When Samuel was invited to respond, he stated that “he was thankful that there was a temple close by” and that “he had such a good friend to help him make it through the hard times.” Afterward, he told his family that he knew “why so many people went to the temple”; he felt so good in there that “he didn’t want to leave.” Just a week later, he joined other youth in his ward to do baptisms in the temple. His mother, Deborah, affirmed that Samuel “has taught the family about faith and about answers to prayers.”[42]

Ordinances commenced in the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple on Tuesday, October 22, 1996. Several large temples were now in service in Utah. Before the end of the century, two other and quite different temples would be dedicated—one much smaller, and the other constructed from an existing older building.

Notes

[1] “New Temple Planned in Utah,” Church News, February 4, 1978, 3.

[2] “Temple Completion Set for ’81,” Church News, June 3, 1978, 3.

[3] Church News, June 9, 1979, 2.

[4] “Temple Completion Set.”

[5] “Temple Completion Set.”

[6] “Temple Contract Awarded,” Church News, June 2, 1979, 3.

[7] John L. Hart, “First Presidency Sets Jordan River Groundbreaking Date,” Church News, April 28, 1979, 3.

[8] “Temple Contract.”

[9] Dell Van Orden, “Ground Is Broken for Temple,” Church News, June 16, 1979, 3.

[10] Van Orden, “Ground Is Broken.”

[11] Van Orden, “Ground Is Broken.”

[12] J. Michael Hunter, “I Saw Another Angel Fly,” Ensign, January 2000, 30–36.

[13] Hart, “Man with a Midas Touch,” Church News, August 8, 1981, 3, 12.

[14] “Temple Statue to Be Unveiled,” Church News, August 8, 1981, 3.

[15] Hart, “1,200 Attend Temple Rites,” Church News, August 22, 1981, 3, 8–9.

[16] Hart, “1,200 Attend Temple Rites.”

[17] “568,000 People Visit Jordan River Temple,” Church News, November 7, 1981, 5.

[18] Van Orden, “Church Dedicates New Jordan River Temple Near S. L.,” Church News, November 21, 1981, 3, 5; “About the Cover,” Church News, November 21, 1981, 2.

[19] Peggy Petersen Barton, Mark E. Petersen: A Biography (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985), 180.

[20] “Dedicatory Prayer Offers Praise,” Church News, November 21, 1981, 4–5.

[21] Fetzer, Completed Writings, 90.

[22] John Paul Barlow, Bountiful Utah Temple Site History, 1992, Church History Library.

[23] “Sites Are Purchased for Temples in Bountiful, Utah and Bogota, Colombia,” Church News, May 28, 1988, 2; John L. Hart, “Ground Broken for Bountiful Temple,” Church News, May 9, 1992.

[24] Hart, “Ground Is Broken,” 2.

[25] “Elegance to Complement the Spirit,” Church News, November 12, 1994, 6.

[26] “Public Invited to Bountiful Temple,” Church News, November 5, 1994, 3, 7; Hart, “Thousands View Sacred Precincts,” Church News, November 12, 1994, 3–4.

[27] Hart, “Thousands View,” 4.

[28] Dell Van Orden and John L. Hart, “Winter Chill No Obstacle to Warmth of Dedication of Beacon on a Hill,” Church News, January 14, 1995, 3, 5.

[29] “Magnificent Edifice Consecrated to Lord,” Church News, January 14, 1995, 4; capitalization and punctuation standardized.

[30] Van Orden and Hart, “Winter Chill,” 4; Hart and Mike Cannon, “Experience of a Lifetime at Dedication,” Church News, January 14, 1995, 6.

[31] “200,000 Attend Dedicatory Sessions, Church News, January 21, 1995, 3.

[32] “American Fork Site Selected for New Utah County Temple,” Church News, April 10, 1993, 3.

[33] Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple History, Church History Library.

[34] John L. Hart, “Mt. Timpanogos Utah Temple Groundbreaking Another Significant Step in the Greatest Era in Temple Building,” Church News, October 16, 1993, 3–4.

[35] “20,000 See Statue Lifted Atop Mount Timpanogos Temple,” Church News, July 22, 1995, 3.

[36] R. Scott Lloyd, “Thousands Visit Newest Utah Temple, 49th in the Church, during Open House,” Church News, August 17, 1996, 3–4.

[37] Sara Jane Weaver, “4,000 Answer Last-Minute Service Call,” Church News, August 10, 1996, 3, 11.

[38] Lloyd, “Thousands Visit Newest Utah Temple,” Church News, August 17, 1996, 3–4.}

[39] Lloyd, “Tours of New Temple Touch Hearts, Lives As 500,000 Attend,” Church News, September 14, 1996, 3–4; Lloyd, “700,000 People View Newest House of God,” Church News, September 28, 1996, 3–4.

[40] Dell Van Orden, “Mount Timpanogos Temple Dedicated: 5,000 Watch President Hinckley Apply Mortar to Cornerstone,” Church News, October 19, 1996, 3, 5; Weaver, “157,917 Attend Dedication: Many Renew Resolve in Mount Timpanogos Temple,” Church News, October 26, 1996, 3.

[41] “May It Be a Beacon of Peace, Refuge,” Church News, October 19, 1996, 4.

[42] Weaver, “157,917 Attend Dedication,” 3.