Rooms in the Manti Temple

The Manti Temple is only one of three temples that still does live endowments. (Where you go from one room to another during the endowment)

Main Hall
Assembly Hall
Baptistry
Spiral Staircase

Celestial Room

Garden Room

Small Sealing Room

Terrestrial Room

Wells Room/Sealing Room

World Room

MANTI (a touch of history)

Manti is the county seat of Sanpete County, Utah. Manti, Utah, has a population in 1992 of approximately 2,000 people. It is situated in the Sanpete Valley of central Utah, at an elevation of slightly over 5,500 feet.

Manti was settled in late November 1849 by 224 men, women, and children. The group left the Valley of the Great Salt Lake on October 28. This, the first settlement south of Provo, Utah, resulted from a personal invitation from the Ute chief Walker in June 1849. He invited President Brigham Young of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) to send a colony of his people to join the encampments of Chief Sanpeetch's people already in the valley. Chief Walker and Brigham Young together are considered to be the founders of Manti.

The name "Sanpeetch" is uninterpreted. It may have meant or implied something to do with "red earth," but the meaning as far as it can be interpreted today has been lost. The river that drains the valley is still called "Sanpitch," but the name of the valley and the county has been modified to "Sanpete," spelled in one word with the stress on the first syllable.

Brigham Young named the site "Manti" in the summer of 1850, at the request of the local patriarch Isaac Morley. The name was derived from that section of the "Book of Mormon" called Alma. Jesse W. Fox surveyed the plat for the "city" in the same summer, and Manti was incorporated in February 1851. The first mayor was Dan Jones, the so-called "Welsh prophet," who was a native of Merthyr Tydvil, Glamorganshire, Wales.

A sizeable contingent of Danish converts to Mormonism arrived at Manti in 1853, to become the second largest ethnic group to settle central Utah.

The Walker War in the 1850s is believed to have been `pought about because of Chief Walker's anger that the Ute trade in Piute children with the Spanish traders from New Mexico was terminated by the territorial government. This followed the interception and arrest of a party of Spanish slave traders at the mouth of Salt Creek by a posse from Manti. A preliminary hearing was conducted at Manti, but the decision was made in the First District Court in Salt Lake City.

Three forts were constructed at Manti. The Little Stone Fort occupied the northwest quarter of block 64. The Log Fort was added to it on block 77, the block on which the Sanpete County Courthouse now stands. The Big Fort enclosed nine square blocks, which included the Little Stone Fort. It was erected in 1854. The center block of this fort was number 56.

The pioneer agricultural society at Manti lived within the town's limits and traveled afoot, by wagon, or on horseback to their outlying farmlands. This pattern persists, but in 1992 farmers ride to their lands by pickup trucks. Although no longer a tactic of defense, the practice of not living on farmlands continues, partly as a matter of habit and partly for social and religious (church) reasons.

Pioneer subsistence agriculture soon gave way to the production of grain for the market. The end of Indian hostilities in the 1870s opened adjacent mountain rangelands during the summer for a range livestock industry, mostly large sheep herds. Hay production increased subsequently. As the settlement grew, poultry production for both meat and eggs also increased in importance. Turkey raising and processing began just prior to World War II, and have become major enterprises since 1947. Irrigation of all croplands is necessary because the climate at Manti is semi-arid. During the 1980s irrigation practices converted from the ditch-and-furrow to the more sophisticated sprinkler types, both in town and farmlands. Sewer lines and natural gas were also introduced in those periods.

Between 1889 and about 1905 most Sanpete Valley towns experienced annual summer floods, which followed cloudbursts on overgrazed lands at elevations over 8,000 feet. In the 1890s the Manti City Council put into effect the political action that by 1903 resulted in the protection of its watershed by the federal Forest Service: the Manti National Forest.

The original settlers were of British stock, mostly Americans from New England and the Ohio Valley. Some arrived directly from Great Britain. In ensuing years emigrants arrived from Switzerland, Norway, and Sweden.

The first public transportation system into Manti was the Sanpete Valley Railway in 1880, from Nephi. This was a narrow-gauge rail line, which became standard gauge in 1896. The Denver and Rio Grande Western completed its line to Manti from Thistle Junction in 1890, and extended its operations beyond Manti the following year. The D&RG purchased the Sanpete Valley Railway in 1910, and immediately abolished its section between Ephraim and Manti.

The last passenger train left Manti for Salt Lake City in 1949. The entire rail connection to and beyond Manti was abandoned with the dramatic floods of 1983 and 1984, which washed out Thistle Junction completely.

Manti's connections with northern Utah today are by truck and private automobile along Highway U.S. 89 to Thistle, connecting with Interstate 15 at Spanish Fork. The other route follows the traditional pioneer trail along Utah Highway 128 to Interstate 15 at Nephi.

The most obvious cultural feature at Manti is the Mormon temple, begun in 1877 and dedicated in 1888. The Patten house (1854), constructed by John Patten of pioneer rubble rock, is a museum, a gift to Manti from the Utah State American Revolution Bicentennial Commission in 1976, with supplementary help from private donors.

Albert Antrei

A Manti Session 2007

I just wanted to share what I learned about the Manti Temple when Brandon and I went to do a session tonight!
It was erected in 1888! Amazing huh? Itwas the 3rd temple built. (St. George and
Logan already existed!) It was built using the same architecture as the Logan
Temple, which explains why I think it is about the most majestic building I have ever seen.

This is way cool! NO power-tools were used in any part of the construction or interior decorations of this temple. And all moldings, paintings, wood, everything was done by members who were considered artisans at that time. There is no way for me to tell you what the inside was like! I have never seen ceilings and crown molding, and wood work, that even comes close to comparing, not even in other LDS Temples. Even the hinges on the 16 foot doors to each room, were intricately engraved. When we were escorted into the Telestial Room (Live sessions). Everyone gasped! If I hadn’t been in the Celestial Room yesterday, I would not have believed it possible to surpass the Telestial Room in beauty. Every piece of furniture was made by hand too. Nothing and I mean nothing was made with a power-tool. I just wish I could have pictures of all the ceilings. They really put Michael Angelo to shame. I asked Brandon if we could make the hour and a half drive once a month, because I am truly in love with this place! and hey there was that AWESOME mexican restaurant there, so I don’t think we will have trouble getting the Powell’s or the Ballard’s to go with us! I think when all of you visit Utah, you should just plan on doing a session with us and will treat you to the yummiest dinner ever.

One more cool story! The Sealer from yesterday, who cried when my young children walked into the Sealing Room so reverently and well-behaved, was called and set-apart by President Hinkley 21 years ago and has been a sealer ever since. Our kids thought it was cool that, the now President of our church had called our Sealer.

Being there on Valentines Day was soooo special. I was baptized on Valentines Day, and went through the temple with Brandon (Jordan River) Valentines Day Weekend. (I already had a endowment date scheduled when I met Brandon. I was ready to go through on Valentine’s by myself. Our current Bishop counseled all the graduating BYU senior women who were going to receive their BS before their MS. to take out endowments before graduating-----In other words, I was a spinster! NICE! Brandon proposed the first week of February, so he was able to do all that special stuff a fiancee gets to do in the temple.) Anyway, now this on Valentines! I am so blessed! And I have now not drank coffee for 16 years!! Wahooooooo!
Add a CommentFebruary 15, 2007

The White Building of Dreams

Here are some facts about the Manti Utah Temple:
Announced June 25th 1875

Groundbreaking and site dedication was April 25th 1877 by Brigham Young

Original dedication May 21-23 1888 by Lorenzo Snow

Rededicated June 14-16 1985 by Gordon B. Hinkley

The 3rd temple built in Utah

Originally named just the Manti Temple

It was built on a rattlesnake-infested site, known as the Manti Stone Guarry. The quarry's stone, Manti oolite, is the stone that was used to build the temple.

Moroni dedicated the site for a temple in the later days!

Open-center spiral staircases wind up each of the 179-foot towers. An engineering marvel of the Mormon Pioneers.

The Manti Utah Temple is one of only two temples that still employs live acting for its sessions.

Stands on what is known as "Temple Hill," and dominates the Sanpete Valley of central Utah, because of it's location it can be seen from miles and miles away.

A contrast between the smooth finished stone of the temple and the un-quarried stone of the hill behind the temple.
The tower on the east end , you can see the French influence in the architecture.

The big stone wall.

The temple grounds always have such beautiful foliage.

A stone quarry was chosen as the building site. Because of the solid rock nature of the hill, a year and a half were required for excavating and terracing. On April 14, 1879 cornerstones were laid, and stone masons began putting up walls.

The Manti Temple was completed in 1888 after eleven years of construction, and dedicated at two separate services on May 17th and May 20th of that year. It was opened for sacred ordinance work eight days later by Wilford Woodruff, the fourth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

PROVO — When Nani Bendixen was a small girl, she loved visiting her grandfather in the Sanpete Valley. He would often take her on bumpy rides around his farm and point out a white building in the distance on a hill.

"See that building way out there," he'd say. "That's the Manti Temple. Your great-grandparents were married there. Your grandmother and I were married there. Your parents were married there."

It's a beautiful building now on a green and grassy hill, he explained but it wasn't always so.

The site Brigham Young said was dedicated to be a temple site by the Book of Mormon prophet Moroni, was solid gray rock. Known as the Manti stone quarry, it was actually abundant in a cream-colored stone known as Manti oolite, used for the building's exterior.

To make way for a temple building, the early Saints would tunnel back about 20-30 feet, then dig two 10-foot wings at the end. They would then fill the cavity with several hundred pounds of gunpowder and explode the rock, dislodging 2,500 tons of rock, dirt and trees each time.

"It worked great except for the rubble it created," said Bendixen, who presented a paper on the temple's history at the Eleventh Annual Religious Education Student Symposium at Brigham Young University recently.

The rocks from that rubble can be seen today in the foundations of many of the homes in the Manti area.

The master mason for the temple, Edward Parry, tells a story about the pair of mules he used to pull loaded wagons to the site and back. When one day he couldn't find them, he became distraught only to discover them already at the site eager to get to work.

He insisted on quality stone, once rebuking a worker for attempting to put a piece of cracked stone on the inside of the building where it wouldn't show.

"That is not quite right," he said. "You will know it, I will know it and the Lord will know it. Now remove the stone and replace it with one without flaws."

The timber for the temple came from four sawmills in the area, the best cut down from the nearby woods known as Hell's Kitchen. The timber grew so straight they could cut poles 60-75-feet long.

"So they used lumber from Hell's Kitichen to build God's temple," said Bendixen.
Workmanship on the temple was largely done by Scandanavian carpenters more used to building boats than buildings.

To create the ceiling, they relied on skills they were comfortable with so, for instance, the temple's interior ceiling is a boat bottom built upside-down by a Norwegian saint.

The walls are so completely true that you can put your face against the side and see if there's a fly down the way.

The two open-center circular stairways inside the west tower are two of only five such stairways in the world, two of the three in the United States, built without central support. The two 151-step tower staircases are widely acknowledged to be an engineering marvel.

Many of the workers at the time joked that all they used in the construction was a "spirit level."

In the 11 years of temple construction, not one person died of injuries incurred while working on it. In fact, Parry dreamt one night of a worker falling to his death so he arose and went to check on the scaffolding. He found a loose rope which he tightened thus preventing certain injury.

One unique feature is the carpet in the temple's Celestial Room, which has 27 different colors woven into the design.

Another is the symbolism in the door catches, hinges and knobs created by John Patrick Reid — later interpreted by his grandson, Hugh W. Nibley to represent, among other things, eternal life.

There are many aspects of the Manti Temple that are unlike any of the other temples in existence. It used to be said that "the Manti Temple is the only temple you can go through without a recommend" because there was a large tunnel constructed under the east tower. One could actually come from either the south or the north and drive past both temple walls, thus going "through" the temple.

The temple's water source is also noteworthy. Originally, all the water came from a small spring near the temple. Through the years, as the need for water has increased, the spring's production has also miraculously increased.

Another temple story involved a 15-year-old boy, Lewis Anderson, who, while in bed waiting for broken bones to heal, dreamed in detail of a white building. Years later, that boy became the temple president of the Manti Temple, serving 27 years in that role. He recognized the building when he saw it for the first time after he was grown, married and returned from two missions.


On April 25, 1877, the pioneer colonizers of Manti - the fourth community established in Utah - began taking from the south side of this hill the oolite stone from which to build their temple. The third of these sacred edifices erected in Utah, it was begun before the other two were completed.

When the site was dedicated, Brigham Young, who planned the structure, announced that no money was to be spent for labor. Consequently many months of labor were donated by skilled workmen, which together with contributions of materials and money made possible the completion on the building.

The temples construction was carefully and tastefully executed, the workmanship, decoration, and furnishing representing a high quality of skill and design. One outstanding feature of the interior is a beautiful spiral staircase which extends to the top floor.

Eleven years in construction, the Manti Temple was completed May 21, 1888, at a cost of one million dollars. It stands as a monument to the thrift, industry, and self-sacrifice of these early Mormon colonists.