Vernal, Utah - Mormon Temple
On February 13, 1994, the First Presidency of the Mormon Church announced that a Mormon temple would be built in Vernal, Utah. The Vernal temple is the 51st operating temple and the 10th temple in Utah.
A groundbreaking ceremony and sited dedication were held on May 13, 1995. President of the Mormon Church, Gordon B. Hinckley presided at the meeting and gave the dedicatory prayer.
The Vernal Mormon temple is unique, because it was the first temple to be built from an existing structure. The temple was adapted from the Uintah Stake tabernacle building; it has two ordinance rooms, and three sealing rooms. The original building was built from 1899 to 1907. The foundation was made of sandstone and the walls were made of brick fired from local clay. The building was built mostly by volunteers. President of the Mormon Church at the time, Joseph F. Smith dedicated the tabernacle on August 24, 1907. In 1948 a stake center was built near the tabernacle and the tabernacle was only used irregularly. In 1984 the Mormon Church closed the tabernacle. The Church decided in 1989 to turn the building into a temple but the plans were not announced until 1994. The exterior was preserved, the floor plan was altered to make it more conducive to temple use, one of the spires was made taller and an angel Moroni was placed on top of the spire.
An open house was held to allow the public to take tours of the interior of the 38,771 square foot temple October 11th through the 25th 1997. More than 120,000 people toured the temple during the open house.
Gordon B. Hinckley officially dedicated the Vernal Mormon temple on November 2-4, 1997. The Vernal temple serves 36,000 Mormon members in 12 stakes in eastern Utah, western Colorado and southwestern Wyoming.
Other Links:
Temple (Mormonism) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Temple: Information from Answers.com
Mormon Temple Ordinances - ReligionFacts.com
Search for Mormon Temples at LDSsearch.com