Logan Utah Temple

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• See other LDS Temples in Utah on this page.

Located at 175 North 300 East in Logan Utah and added to the National Register of Historic Places (#75001801) on November 20, 1975 – the text below is from the nomination form from the national register:

The Logan Temple has been defined as the structural and spiritual symbol of Cache Valley. Built on a hill near the center of Logan, the temple can be seen from almost every part of the valley,

Worship in the LDS temples is restricted to the devout and faithful members of the Mormon Church and the Logan Temple is, for the Mormons of northern Utah and southern Idaho, the most important religious shrine in their vicinity,

In 1871, Wilford Woodruff, at that time a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, while speaking at Logan predicted that a temple would be built on the east bench of Logan and two years later Brigham Young also suggested that ” fine temple … be built on the bench crowning the eastern part of the city.” (quoted in Joel E. Ricks, ed., The History of a Valley, p. 283.)

Groundbreaking ceremonies were held on May 18, 1877. Brigham Young, presiding at the dedication, outlined the procedure by which the temple would be built “We require the brethren and sisters to go to with their might and erect this temple; and from the architect to the boy who carried the drinking water, to the men that work on the building, we wish them to understand that wages are out of the question. We are going to build a house for ourselves, and we shall expect the brethren and sisters, neighborhood after neighborhood, ward after ward, to turn out their proportion of men to come here and labor as they shall be notified by the proper authorities.”
(quoted in Leonard J. Arrington and Melvin A, Larkin, “The Logan Tabernacle and Temple,” Utah Historical Quarterly, Summer, 1973, p. 305.)

Six temple industries were established to provide materials for the temple construction:

1. A sawmill was established in Temple Fork (Mauqhan’s Fork) in Logan Canyon. Here they cut red pine (Douglas fir).
2. A wood camp was set up a few miles down the canyon. This provided firewood, for the lime kilns and scaffolding for workmen, railroad ties for sale, and telegraph poles for their cooperative Deseret Telegraph Company.
3. A lime kiln was built in the mouth of the canyon. The firewood to provide fuel was floated downstream on the Logan River.
4. The main stone quarry was developed in Green Canyon, east of North Logan. Here they quarried the dark fucoid quartzite which is the main component of the exterior walls.
5. Another quarry in Hyde Park Canyon provided additional stone for the walls.
6. A third quarry northeast of Franklin supplied sandstone for the water tables, caps, and window ledges.
   (Ibid., p. 306.)

In addition to supplying materials for the temple f the industries also provided building materials used in the erection of homes, farms and businesses by those temple employees who received their pay in these essential supplies.

Records indicate that a total of $607,000 was donated for the temple construction in the following categories:
$30,000 in merchandise (5 percent)
$30,000 in livestock (5 percent)
$71,000 in produce (12 percent)
$93,000 in cash (15 percent)
$380,000 in labor (63 percent)
$3,000 in wagons and teams
(Ibid., p. 308.)

The temple was under construction for seven years, from 1877 to 1884, during which time about one hundred fifty men and fifty teams worked constantly on the temple or at the temple industries.

Truman O. Angell, architect for the Salt Lake temple, St, George temple, Beehive House, Lion House and Territorial Capitol at Fillmore, also designed the Logan temple. The temple was formally dedicated on May 17, 1884.

In their article, Arrington and Larkin explain the economic significance of the temple project:

“In essence, the temple project was a means of redistributing income. Those of greater property and income supported craftsmen and laborers to work on the temple during the seven years of construction, Since the materials were nearly all supplied locally, the money, labor, and materials were not lost to the community. Very little was expended outside the valley, In essence, those able to furnish resources did so, and the community economy thus was enriched. In most frontier economies, surplus resources were used to build large homes for the wealthy. In Cache Valley, such large homes were products of the twentieth century when there were not projects as effective as the tabernacle and temple in utilizing surplus for the benefit of the entire community.” (Ibid., pp. 309-310).

Symbolically they conclude:

“The temple was a kind of private mountain a corporeal embodiment of their ideals a formidable defender of the Saints’ way of life, symbolically guarding the church from the threats of the larger society around them, It was also a symbol of their reaching out to God of their closeness to God a place to which the Savior would come to dwell with them, In many respects the temple came to be regarded almost in a mystical sense, In actuality, it was a more explicit formulation of the rugged and majestic mountains around them a man-made sentinel, guarding their Promised Valley.

“Today the Logan Temple can be seen from almost every part of the valley. It symbolically demonstrates the early settlers’ belief that life is more than a struggle for physical survival. To the twenty-five thousand persons who built it and labored on it ‘without purse or scrip,’ it was a visual reminder of the omnipresence of eternity. “ (Ibid., p. 314).