Description

The Bountiful Utah Temple is the 47th operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

History

The history of the temple site began back in 1897, when John Haven Barlow Sr. purchased 40 acres (160,000 m2) of land from the United States government. Because of lack of water and the steep terrain, little could be done with the land. In 1947 some of the land was cleared and four hundred apricot trees were planted. In the spring of 1983, flash flooding caused a great deal of damage in Bountiful, resulting in the decision to build a dam across the canyon to limit the flow of water during heavy rainstorms. The city requested the use of the soil from the future temple site, so construction crews removed over two hundred thousand cubic yards of soil, leaving the area an ideal spot on which the LDS temple would later be built.^[1]John Paul Barlow, “Bountiful Utah Temple Site History”, Carr Printing April, 1992 printing

Announcement

On 28 May of 1988 the Church publicly announced that they had purchased land for a future temple in bountiful, though they would not be building a temple at that time. The land had been purchased the 5th of that month.^[2]”Temples Planned in Florida, Utah,” News of the Church, Ensign, May 1990.^[3]Liston, Garth R., “The Geographical Analysis of Mormon Temple Sites in Utah” (1992). All Theses and Dissertations. 4881.

A letter dated 2 February of 1990″We have now determined to undertake the construction of a temple on this site,” stated the letter, which was read at local stake conferences and at other meetings on 18 February of 1990.^[4]”Temple will be built in Bountiful, Utah,” Church News, 3 March 1990

Groundbreaking

On 2 May 1992, Church President Ezra Taft Benson broke ground. President Gordon B. Hinckley, who also spoke at the groundbreaking, alluded to the forthcoming announcements of the Hong Kong China Temple, Preston England Temple, and Hartford Connecticut Temple at the Bountiful Utah Temple groundbreaking, indicating that official announcements would not be made until sites had been acquired and approved.

At the groundbreaking ceremony for the Bountiful Utah Temple, some 7,500 people gathered on the site with another 2,500 viewing the proceedings by remote video. The crowd was so large, some attenders opted to sit on the steep hillside east of the site.

Open House

A Public open house was held for the Bountiful Utah Temple from 4 November–17 December 1994. During the six weeks that the Bountiful Utah Temple was open for public tours, 870,361 visitors walked its beautiful rooms and hallways, an average of 22,904 people per day, each of the 38 days the open house was open. Nearly by 45,000 volunteered during the open house.

Dedication

From January 8 to 14, 1995, the Bountiful Utah Temple was dedicated as a house of God. Church President Howard W. Hunter offered the dedicatory prayer and spoke of “those blessings which grow out of a continuation of the family unit forever.”1 One of the key purposes of temples is to solemnize eternal family ties. Further, he asked for God’s aid in creating peaceful homes on earth: “We seek thy help to make us equal to our tasks, that our homes may be havens of peace and happiness. In our families, may we pause to pray and think to thank.”^[5] Bountiful Utah Temple dedicatory prayer,

By the end of all 28 dedicatory sessions, 201,655 members had participated in the dedication, both on site and remotely at meetinghouses, setting a record for largest temple dedication attendance to that date.

The Bountiful Utah Temple is one of only two temples dedicated by President Howard W. Hunter during his brief time as president of the Church. (The other is the Orlando Florida Temple.)

Dedicatory Prayer

Dedication Order

The Bountiful Temple is the 47th active temple in the world, the 24th in the United States, and the 8th eighth temple constructed in the state of Utah.

At the Time of its dedication there were 5 temples under construction and another 7 awaiting groundbreaking.

Under Construction	Awaiting Groundbreaking	Under Renovation
Bogota Colombia	Hartford Connecticu
St. Louis Missouri	Madrid Spain
Mount Timpanogos Utah	Santo Domingo Dominican Republic
Preston England	Vernal Utah
	Nashville Tennessee
	Cochabamba Bolivia
	Recife Brazil

Presidents

Temple President	Years Served
President William S. Winegar	2015–
President Robert H. Garff	2012–2015
President Douglas L. Callister	2009–2012
President H. Bryan Richards	2006–2009
President L. Stephen Richards Jr.	2003–2006
President James O. Mason	2000–2003
President F. David Stanley	1997–2000
President Harold C. Yancey	1994–1997

Details

The Bountiful Utah Temple has a total of 104,000 square feet and is 145 feet wide by 198 feet long.

Exterior

Architects Allen Ereckson and Keith Stepan designed the temple in a contemporary style. The entrance features a curved portico connected by elegant arches. A single spire decorated with stained glass rises from the center of the temple. On top of the 176-foot spire, a statue of the angel Moroni, a prophet from the Book of Mormon, heralds the second coming of Jesus Christ. With a total floor area of 104,000 square feet, the Bountiful Utah Temple is among the Church’s larger houses of worship.

The temple features a breathtaking circular columned atrium that reaches from the lower parking level to the main parking level and an elegant portico at the entrance with graceful columns and arches. A cascading water feature flows on the east side of the temple underneath the Holiness to the Lord plaque.

Cladding

White Bethel granite quarried near Sharon, Vermont, covers the temple exterior.

Windows

The windows on the temple feature a Jacob’s ladder motif, and the design becomes more detailed as it ascends. The glass is a combination of stained glass and dichroic glass.

Symbolism

Keystones

Many of the windows on the temple have keystones. These keystones are not structural, and cut through the trim around the windows and wrap up and around the top of the wall of the temple above the window.

Star Stones

There are 24 stars at the top of the main tower of the spire. 6 on each side of the temple, 3 to either side of the arched window.

Sun Stones

There are 16 sunstones on the temple, at the base of the tower, on some accompanying smaller blocks. Each block has a sun face on each side, pressed into the tin making up the sunstone pattern.

Moon Stones

On each of the four sides of the temple are 4 windows. At the top of each window are moonstones, each side having one of four phases. On the left, a full/new moon, then moving right, waning crescent, Waxing crescent, and waxing half moon.

Earth Stones

In a reflection of the Earthstones on the Salt Lake Temple, 7 Round features inside a square are at the corners of the temple, one on corner face, for two at each corner. The odd corner out is the south east corner, where the earth stone ont he east face has been replaced with the cornerstone. The features are comprised of cast concrete, rather than stone.

Inscriptions

Located where the Center East Window would be expected to sit, The Engraving on the bountiful temple is inscribed into the granite in a a series of lines of differing heights and then gilded. The inscription also contains the name of the Church.

Cornerstone

The cornerstone of the Bountiful Utah Temple is on the South East corner of the temple, facing east. Like the inscription, theletters are engraved into the stone and gilded.

ERECTED

1997

Spires and Moroni

Spire

The spire is a single multi stepped construction in the center of the temple. There are 2 smaller blocks at each of the corners of the main spire. The top of the spire is a pyramid shaped steeple.

Moroni

The angel Moroni Statue was placed atop the Bountiful Utah Temple on 18 October 1993. The statue was carved in 1985 by Karl Quilter, and was placed to face east.

On May 22, 2016, lightning struck the angel Moroni atop the Bountiful Utah Temple, cracking the exterior gold leaf and removing chunks from the face and back of the fiberglass statue.

On June 1, 2016, a replacement Moroni was set in place. The replacement statue had been manufactured for the Meridian Idaho Temple and required having the hole in the base of the sphere enlarged sot hat it could fit on the spire.

Interior

The interior of the temple contains a baptistry, four ordinance rooms, and eight sealing rooms, a celestial room and rooms necessary for maintenance and administration of the work. The Instruction rooms in the temple are set up for a stationary endowment presentation.

The Bountiful Utah Temple includes a baptistry; a celestial room, symbolic of heaven on earth; instruction rooms; and sealing rooms, where marriages take place. Light fills the temple, creating an atmosphere that encourages patrons to turn their thoughts to God. The temple contains 62 chandeliers, and in the celestial room is a crystal chandelier weighing 900 pounds.

Individuals and Contractors

Architect	Allen Ereckson
Architect	Keith Stepan
Contractor	Okland Construction
Project Manager	Jerry Sears

Sources and Links

External links

• LDS.org(official)
• MormonTemples.org (official)
• MormonNewsroom.org (official)
• LDSChurchTemples.com
• LDSChurchNewsArchive.com
• Wikipedia
• MormonWiki

Additional Articles

Sources/Citation

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