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The St. George Utah Temple is the first temple built by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after the death of Joseph Smith, Jr. Located in the city of St. George, Utah, it was the first LDS temple built in the Rocky Mountains. It was designed by Truman O. Angell and is more similar in its design to the Nauvoo Temple than to later LDS temples.

The St. George temple is the oldest temple still actively used by the members of the Church. The temple currently has three ordinance rooms and 18 sealing rooms, and a total floor area of 110,000 feet. It was originally designed with two large assembly halls like the earlier Kirtland and Nauvoo Temples. The lower Assembly Hall was partitioned with curtains to provide the ordinance rooms for the Endowment Ceremony. In 1938 the lower Assembly Hall was rebuilt with permanent walls dividing it into four ordinance rooms. The four ordinance rooms were later changed into the present three rooms, at the time the endowment ceremony was changed from a live endowment to one presented on video.

In the 1970s the temple was closed and underwent extensive remodeling. Spencer W. Kimball rededicated it in 1975. The St. George Temple stands in the center of St. George and serves as a beautiful reminder of the hard work and dedication that was required by the Saints for its building.

Temple construction and dedication

A temple for St. George was announced in November 1871 by Brigham Young, and was the third to be completed by the church. The Salt Lake City Temple had been announced years in 1847, but construction would be ongoing until 1893. The St. George Temple was built to satisfy the church's immediate need for an appropriate place for temple ceremonies and ordinances. Because of the pressing need, the building's groundbreaking ceremony was held on the day the temple was announced.

Brigham Young, President of the Church at the time, chose a six-acre plot as the temple site. Unfortunately, the Saints soon discovered that the chosen site was swampy with numerous underground streams. Young was consulted on moving the site, but the prophet remained firm in the idea that this was the site for the temple. To deal with the problem of the swampy site, the Saints created drains to eliminate as much water as possible. Then they decided to bring lava rock to the site, crush it and use the fragments to create a dry foundation for the temple. This led to a new problem: how to crush the rock. Someone suggested using an old cannon that the city had acquired. After creating a pulley system, the cannon was used like a pile driver to compact the lava rock and earth and create a firm foundation.

The old cannon had an interesting history. It was made in France and used by Napoleon during his siege on Moscow. During Napoleon’s hasty retreat, however, the canon was left behind. It was later dragged to Siberia, then Alaska, and finally ended up at a fort in California. Members of the Mormon Battalion acquired the cannon, had it mounted on wheels, and brought it to Utah. Today, the old cannon is displayed on the temple grounds.

After stabalizing the foundation, work finally began on the structure itself. The walls of the temple were constructed out of the red sandstone common to the area and then carefully plastered for a white finish. The Saints worked tirelessly for over five and a half years to complete the temple. Historian James Allen made note of the dedication shown by the pioneers in Southern Utah. The workers opened new rock quarries, cut, hauled and planed timber, and donated one day in ten as tithing labor. Some members donated half their wages to the temple, while others gave food, clothing and other goods to aid those who were working full time on the building. At its completion, it contained a million feet of lumber, which had been hand chopped and hauled between forty and eighty miles. They also used seventeen thousand tons of volcanic rock and sandstone, hand cut and hauled by mule teams.

The temple dedication ceremony took place on April 6, 1877. Young presided and Daniel H. Wells, his second counselor, gave the dedicatory prayer. The St. George Temple was the only temple completed while Brigham Young was president. Shortly after the dedication, Young returned to Salt Lake and died a few days later on August 29, 1877 at 76 years old.

When the temple was completed, Young was not completely satisfied with the tower and dome; in his words, it was too "squatty." He suggested having it fixed, but the Saints were so excited to have the temple operational that Young did not push the suggestion. About a year after the dedication, on October 16, 1878, a large storm rolled through St. George and a lightening bolt struck the tower of the temple. Extensive damage made it necessary to reconstruct both the tower and dome. Young's feelings were well known and when a design was created, they made the tower taller. This led the builders to claim that, even in death, Brigham Young got his way.

See also

• Temple (Mormonism)
• List of temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

External links

• Official LDS St. George Utah Temple page
• St. George Utah Temple Page
• St. George Utah Temple Page
• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - Official Site
• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - Visitors Site
• Unofficial LDS Temples Site
• Lightplanet - Mormon Temples
• Mormon Temple Ordinances
• Mormon Temples and Secrecy

Reference

• Allen, James and Leonard, Glen M. (1976, 1992) The Story of the Latter-day Saints; Deseret Book; ISBN 087579565X Current edition only available at Deseretbook.com

• Latter Day Saint temples
• Buildings and structures in Utah