Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple Wiki

The Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple was announced 3 October 1992, by President Gordon B. Hinckley, first counselor in the First Presidency. When the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple was announced, President Gordon B. Hinckley explained that it would relieve demands placed on the Provo Utah Temple, which “is operating far beyond its designed capacity.” No location was specified when the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple was announced in General Conference as a temple for “Utah County.”^[1]Gordon B. Hinckley, “The Sustaining of Church Officers,” Ensign, Nov. 1992, 21.

Utah Temples at Time of Announcement

Announced

• –

Under Construction

• Bountiful Utah

Dedicated

• Jordan River Utah [1981]
• Provo Utah [1972]
• Ogden Utah [1972]
• Salt Lake [1893]
• Manti Utah [1888]
• Logan Utah [1884]
• St. George Utah [1877]

Ground was broken for the temple on Oct. 9, 1993, a year after its announcement. Approximately 12,000 people gathered on the temple site for the ceremony. During the services, the location of the Madrid Spain Temple was announced.

President Gordon B. Hinckley — then the first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — considered the groundbreaking of the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple in October 1993 an important step within “the greatest era in the history of the world in the building of temples.”

The late Church President continued, “There has never been another season like this season in the construction of houses of the Lord. Of the 45 operating temples we now have, more than half have been constructed in the past 12 years. We are moving across the world to extend the blessings and privileges of temple service to the faithful Saints of this Church, wherever they may be found, and this groundbreaking is a part of that great process.”

A public open house ran from Aug. 6 to Sept. 21, 1996. A total of 679,217 people toured the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple during the six week run. More than 800 children’s choirs – made up from nearly every ward and branch in the temple district – performed near the front entrance to the temple at least once during the open house.^[6]”Mount Timpanogos Temple to Open Doors to Public”. deseret.com. Deseret News. May 18, 1996. Retrieved January 7, 2023. https://www.deseret.com/1996/5/18/20770123/mount-timpanogos-temple-to-open-doors-to-public

During the open house, over 56,000 volunteers acted as guides and supervisors, pushing wheelchairs and answering questions for the 679,217 visitors who toured the temple over the six-week period.

On 13 October 1996 the Mount Timpanogos temple was officially dedicated. It was dedicated by President Gordon B. Hinckley to “be a beacon of peace and refuge.”

The dedication took place over a week and consisted of 27 sessions. President Hinckley presided over and spoke in 11 of those sessions, while his counselors — President Thomas S. Monson and President James E. Faust — presided over and read the dedicatory prayer in 11 of the other 15 sessions. A total of 52 general authorities addressed the sessions, as well as the temple presidency and matron.^[7]van Orden, Dell (October 19, 1996), “Mount Timpanogos Temple dedicated”, Church News, https://www.thechurchnews.com/archive/1996-10-19/mount-timpanogos-temple-dedicated-10884

A total of 11,617 people participated in the first dedicatory session, and around 38,000 attended the first three sessions on the temple’s first dedication day. Only 2,900 were able to meet inside the house of the Lord for the dedication, so the rest met in meetinghouses around American Fork, Utah. Three sessions occurred the first Sunday, and four on each of the following days for a total of 27 dedicatory sessions. 157,917 people attended all the dedicatory session.^[8]Weaver, Sarah Jane, “157,917 attend dedication,” Deseret News, 26 October 1996. https://www.thechurchnews.com/1996/10/26/23253131/157-917-attend-dedication

About 38,000 attended the three sessions on the first day. During the week, Hinckley presided over and spoke in 11 dedicatory sessions, including the cornerstone ceremony. Monson and Faust each presided over eight dedicatory sessions, and each spoke in 11 sessions, which included the cornerstone ceremony. A total of 52 general authorities addressed the sessions, as well as the temple presidency and matron.^[9]van Orden, Dell (October 19, 1996), “Mount Timpanogos Temple dedicated”, Church News, https://www.thechurchnews.com/archive/1996-10-19/mount-timpanogos-temple-dedicated-10884.

Built on a bench in the valley below the base of Mount Timpanogos in American Fork, Utah, the temple stands on almost 17 acres overlooking the valley. The Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple overlooks the cities of American Fork, Cedar Hills, Highland and Alpine as well as nearby Utah Lake. Mount Timpanogos, the peak from which the temple gets its name, and the Wasatch Mountains serve as a backdrop.

Bronze is used for the primary doors. Upon walking up to the temple, visitors can find similar stone archways to those seen at the Bountiful Utah Temple.

The spire holding a statue of the angel Moroni, is 190 feet tall, and comprised of tin..

Cladding

The exterior finish of the structure was made with sierra white granite.

Windows

The exterior windows are art glass featuring both small prisms embedded in the glass that refract many colors of light, and dichroic glass elements. The dichroic glass is a glass filter, tuned to reflect a specific wavelength. As a result, the glass appears as the reflected color in bright daylight, and the opposite color when the specific wavelength is filtered out at night.

Spandrel panel

The spandrel panels are of the same glass as the windows.

Site

The grounds offer a spacious area where attendees can sit on benches or in the grass.

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Events

The cornerston of the temple is on the south east corner facing east. It takes the spot of what would have been one of the “Earthstones” of the temple. The inscription is on a raised panal that is inset into a a larger frame. It was engraved and gilded.

At the each of the four corners of the temple can be found square fiberglass panels with an inset showing a double circle, reminiscnent of the Earth stones on the Salt Lake Temple. While this should proviced for 2 of these figures per corner, the south wast corner has the east facing one replaced with the Cornerstone.

Above each one of the wondows is another square panel, with another inset square, with a circle figure inside yet agiain. Each one of these has been shaped to appear as a phase of the moon. There are our of these panels on each side of the temple. There are antoher 2 each ont he north and south sides of the entryway, thogh those are not showing a phase of the moon, just a plain circle.

The house of the Lord is 107,240 square feet and features a Single basement floor below grade, and 2 floors above.

The interior furnishings feature varying shades of mauve and gray accented with white and gold. Other interior highlights include architectural woodwork with a glossy white finish, marble floors and a white celestial room with plush furniture and a massive chandelier. A repeating motif of circles and waving lines is sculpted into the carpet, carved into the woodwork and gold-leafed onto the interior walls

Inside there are four stationary ordinance rooms, eight sealing rooms and a single baptistry.

The floor plan of the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple is an adaption of the floor plan created for the Bountiful Utah Temple.

Entry

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Unlike many other temples that feature hand-painted historical or scriptural murals on the baptistry walls, the Mount Timpanogos baptistry focuses on clean architectural lines, elegant and minimalist design, with no artwork directly in the font area.

Different from most earlier and later temples, Mount Timpanogos is one of the few temples where the seating is right next to the font, while the oxen are visible outside of the seating, (external font well) rather than the seating being near the walls, and the oxen being visible between the font and the seating (internal font well.) The seating curves around the font and is tiered which provides an area where patrons can reverently watch the ordinances being performed as they await their turn.

The lighting is bright but warm, with little in direct lighting, the light instead being bounced off the central dome and the plain white ceiling sections between ornamented girders.

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Okland Construction Co. was the General Contractor for this project

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