Nuggets on the Salt Lake Temple

I love learning more about old temples . . . especially the ones I've researched and written about (cough-cough-Spires of Stone-cough-cough).

This is a shot of me next to an Earth Stone on the Salt Lake Temple.

These were the largest, most expensive,

and most difficult stones to carve. Note how BIG it is!

Recently, two fun bits came to my attention about the Salt Lake Temple. They excited me, and I thought my readers might get a kick out of them too.

The first is an article at Keepapitchinin, a great blog with Mormon history and other nuggets.

"The Mountain of the Lord's House" is a post that goes into some detail about how the granite was quarried for the temple. More, it debunks some long-held myths. (None of which, I might add, I ever used in the book.)

For example, the holes drilled into the stone weren't used to insert dowels of wood. Stories have been passed down that wood was inserted into the holes and soaked in water. Then the expanding wood broke off the stone. Either that, or they'd wait until winter, and the freezing water expanded and did the same thing. Neither is true.

The article goes into great detail about why the holes were drilled along the grain-line of the granite and just how the stones really were broken off. Fascinating stuff, really. I loved learning that the Salt Lake Temple stone wasn't quarried with explosives like other temples' were.

Much of the same tools were used, though, including drilling the holes in the first place . . . and the guy holding the drill having to really, really trust the guy above him who was swinging the sledgehammer inches from his hands.

Back during the temple's construction, City Creek ran through the temple lot, and it was used as a water source by many people and businesses in the area. For decades, City Creek has been redirected underground through pipes. Today, part of it is now above ground again, thanks to the new landscaping surrounding the Conference Center and the new Church History Library.

Here's the part of the article I thought was beyond cool: they have not only brought up part of the creek again, but they deliberately picked quarry stones to line it that bore marks from the original construction period: you can see man-made chisel marks and holes that are more than a century old.

(I need to take a trip up to Salt Lake just to see this. If and when I do, I'll post pictures!)

Go HERE to read the full article. It's worth the read.

Finally, a friend sent me THIS LINK, which shows a miniature, 3-D replica of the entire Salt Lake Temple, including the interior, down to banisters and chandeliers. It's super cool, and almost like having the chance to walk though the building in an open house-type situation as they do before temples are dedicated. The level of detail is astounding.

Seasons

This is typically my Writing Journey day. I missed it last week, and I'm missing it again. Those posts take me a good chunk of time to write out, and I didn't have that time last week.

Technically, I do have that time today. But I won't be using it for that. In a few minutes, I'm leaving the house for something else.

Many, many years ago, during the baby era, I was visiting teaching a dear woman named Mindy who had exited her own baby years not long before. I was bemoaning how difficult it was for me to ever get to the temple. I lived about half an hour away at the time, and the temple I attended was so busy that it was not at all uncommon to wait in the chapel an hour and a half for a two-hour session.

When you have a nursing baby who refuses a bottle, being away for four or more hours is really not much of an option--or if you attempt it, the session is nerve-wracking and hardly the peaceful, spiritual experience it should be, because you know that back at home, your baby is screaming the roof off and wailing for your comfort.

Once or twice I got up early on a Saturday morning, nursed the baby, and raced out alone to do an intitatory session because they're shorter and I could get back before the baby needed me again.

Or there were situations where we'd be past the nursing issue and I'd get a babysitter all set up, but then the toddler would start vomiting or spewing out the other end ten minutes before we were to leave--and I could hardly expect a sitter to deal with that. Or something else would prevent us from going. I swear, there was always something. (Of course, isn't there always when you're supposed to get there?)

I sat in this sweet woman's house almost on the verge of tears. I wanted so badly to just get to the temple on a regular basis (at that point, I would have been happy with every other month). I knew she went every single Wednesday. All her kids were in school, so it was easy for her, and I envied her something fierce. Not to mention that I really felt guilty for not getting to the temple more often. It was just plain frustrating.

Here I was, her visiting teacher, supposed to be the one giving her comfort and support. Instead, she did it for me. She told me it was okay. To not worry so much about it right now. My time would come. We're all in different seasons of our lives, she said. There will be a time when all my kids would be in school and I, too, would be able to go to the temple during the day--even once a week, like she did, if I wanted to.

The time would come.

I have held onto that reminder for many, many years.

Today is technically the second day of school in our district, but with the way they work 7th grade, it's the first day all my kids are gone to school all day.

I promised myself years ago that when that day came, I'd be at the temple. So that's where I'm going.

To me, it's a sign of good faith to the Lord that I will go more often now that I'm in a different season.

And it's a nod to Mindy for her comforting words so long ago.

Plus, to be honest, it's also a bit because I really, really want to be there, and I can do that today without juggling any balls or doing back flips to make it happen.

So I'm going.

Hope no one minds waiting for the next installment for another week.

Writing Journey: Part XXIII

Today's Writing Journey post is really about part of my current journey, something that happened this week. Or, rather, yesterday. I began this series talking about my aspirations of wanting to be a writer back in second grade, and it's almost to the present, so I hope my readers don't mind a detour to the actual present.

A woman from the ward my in-laws recently moved from knew about my books (basically because my mother-in-law brags about me almost as much as my own mother does . . . it rocks) and that they were about the Utah temples. When she was put in charge of Girls Camp, she felt that I should be the person to come speak to the girls about that topic.

My mother-in-law put us in touch, and I agreed to go with them on a hike, where we'd eat lunch, and then I'd give a talk about temples using some of the research I've done. This was scheduled a couple of months ago.

We had to do some tricky arranging because I have two children with birthdays this week and other busy, crazy stuff, but it all seemed to be working out, largely thanks to my sweet in-laws who stepped in and made it all possible.

But then, about a week and half before I was to speak, I got a flu-like virus. (People keep asking if it was swine flu. Could have been; fit the symptoms, but the doctor never tested for it.)

I rarely get sick. Yes, I have my daily, chronic headaches to deal with and then migraines, and I have various ways of dealing with them.

But sick sick is something else, and this flu knocked me upside down and inside out. I felt like something in a WWF ring hit with a metal chair, and it left me lying like a lump of mashed potatoes.

For days, I couldn't stand to be vertical for more than about ten minutes. I have a headache calendar I'm supposed to be tracking my headaches for my neurologist . . . and during that time I had NO CLUE what to write on it, because my entire body ached so intensely the entire time, I couldn't separate what was headache and what was flu.

Worse, my husband caught it too. We were a lovely pair lying around with aches and pains, groaning and moaning. Our poor kids were pretty much ignored. Fortunately, they're old enough to forage in the pantry and take care of each other.

By the time the trip came around, my energy was pretty much back, but I had one lingering symptom: a hideous cough that just wouldn't go away. The day we packed up, the more I ran through the house getting ready, the heavier I breathed, the harder and harder these racking, nasty hideous, bone-shattering coughs came out.

And I worried.

How was I supposed to go on a hike breathing heavily and then (surely hacking up a lung) speak for an hour to these girls about an important topic?

How would I be capable of bringing in the Spirit and touching these girls' hearts so they felt in their souls that God loved them, that He wanted them to come home to Him and that the temple was the path to get them there?

How could I tell some of the stories I'd uncovered in my research of Logan, St. George, Salt Lake, and Manti, and relate them to their lives without messing it all up by gagging and hacking every three seconds?

As things stood, I couldn't. That was simple fact. I was coughing. All. The. Time.

I will admit that as an author, sometimes an appearance is about ME. At book signings, I want to look good. Maybe even if I teach a workshop, I want to make sure that not only do the writers in the room learn something, but they leave with a good impression of me.

But this was NOT one of those times. I didn't care one snit if anyone in that group ever bought one of my books. This wasn't about me. This was about about something so much bigger. This was about youth learning important truths and learning to feel the Spirit.

And I needed help.

Before we went to bed that night, and because I'm a grown-up who frankly lacks the faith of a child (and who believes that children's prayers sometimes have more power than those of grown-ups), after I gathered my four kids around me for family prayer (husband had stayed home for work), I asked a favor of each of them: before they went to bed, to say a little prayer for me that during the hike and my talk that the cough would go away. They all promised and gave me big hugs.

Before going to bed, I personally prayed hard and long. I had a difficult time getting to sleep because of the coughing. There was a really bad episode around midnight. It was so bad that one of my daughters whispered from her bed, "Mom, were you throwing up?"

My MIL and I left early the next morning, and I was still coughing. I was nervous, but I clung to the fact that I'd done everything I could: I loaded up on cough drops (I didn't take the prescription syrup, because that would make me drowsy--not good for driving), I'd prayed and kept praying, and my kids were praying for me. I'd prepared for my talk the best I could. The rest was up to the Lord.

I had a warm welcome by the Girls Camp leaders and girls. They were awesome. They even gave me a great gift: a red camping chair that they'd all signed. My cough had somewhat abated (meaning I no longer sounded like I was ready to lose a lung), but the hike was yet to come.

I'm not in bad shape, but for someone with a cough, the hike turned out to be much steeper and rougher than I'd anticipated. My breathing was hard. I was terrified. More than once I worried that if it went on much longer, I'd collapse into a coughing fit. (Oh ye of little faith . . .) I coughed three or four times during the hike, but to my surprise, not much.

We arrived at the devotional site and sat down. I popped in probably my fourth cough drop of the day, said one more mental prayer, and began.

Over the next hour, I cleared my throat a couple of times, but I don't remember coughing more than lightly once or twice.

I do remember saying a few things I hadn't planned on. I remember certain faces lighting up at various stories. I remember smiles at others. I remember a warm feeling in my own heart. I had several leaders come to me later with thank yous and gratitude and other words that touched me.

It's hard to read the faces of youth, but I hope some of what I said hit a chord with a few of them. If eyes are any indication, a few of the girls "got" it.

Afterward, I had a bite to eat then headed back down the mountain.

Not three minutes into the return hike, my cough returned with a vengeance, and I've pretty much been hacking like a banshee ever since.

I know that coughs can take forever to go away completely. Last night, my voice sounded awful, and this morning, the cough was really ugly again. You know what? I don't really mind.

For a few hours, when it did matter, my cough was held back, I believe, by a divine hand.

It's a small thing and it may sound silly to some, but for me, it was a miracle. I am deeply grateful that I was able to hike and speak, cough-free, for the sake of the message I was there to deliver to those sweet young women. .

If any of the Young Women who were at Tony Grove read this, thanks again for the great experience. You're the best. (And Shannon, thanks so much for inviting me!)

Writing Journey: Part XV

Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V
Part VI Part VII Part VIII Part IX
Part X Part XI Part XII Part XIII Part XIV

Many times over the years while doing events for my temple novels, I'd have people excited about one book or another specifically because of the temple it features. Maybe their daughter attended Utah State in Logan, or the reader was married in St. George or their parents were married in Salt Lake. 

But I frequently got one  question: What about Manti? 

Turns out that Manti is one of the most popular temples. More people seem to have a personal connection with it than to the others.

"It's next," I said every time.

But yeah . . . no pressure on writing a book about that one. 

As I'd done with three prior temples, I spent time seeking out sources about the Manti Temple and the founding of the city. I found a couple of books and two master's theses, all with great information.

But I ran into a couple of problems. 

First, most of the information I found was either about the founding of the city or about later improvements to the temple. Sure, there was stuff about the groundbreaking and fundraising and whatnot, but I wanted meaty information about the construction itself.

Second, I wanted the book to be set in the 1880s when the temple was well underway. But after reading about the settlement of Manti, I also wanted significant story elements from that era. Those two didn't really fit, because a twenty-something main character in the 1880s wouldn't have been born when Manti was settled.

Hmm.

I spent weeks sort of freaking out because I had no characters and no plot. I half wished I was doing another Shakespeare retelling as I had with Spires, because at least then I'd have a skeleton of a story to go by.

One day, right about the time I was going to panic, I was blow drying my hair (which in and of itself is pretty rare; I'm an air-dry girl). Hair drying is one of those brainless activities like vacuuming and going on a walk during which, I believe, your creative side can work without you always knowing it.

With my hair half dry, a line of dialogue popped into my head. "It's Tab, not Tabby. I am not a cat!"

I grinned into the mirror.

It was as if Tabitha had walked onto my mental stage. I knew who she was. I knew her past. I knew her personality. I knew about her son. I knew some of the challenges ahead of her.

I didn't know a lot about what her story would become once she returned to Manti. I had yet to meet Samuel or Jeremiah or Mantia, for starters, although I did know about the newspaper. 

Most importantly, I knew I had a story, and I couldn't wait to get to the computer to pound out what I'd found and discover more of it.

Only I had yet another minor problem: Easter was in less than a week. I had to sew my three daughters Easter dresses. It was either disappoint my girls, who were counting on me keeping up the tradition, or bottle up the creative energy and let it sit on a shelf for a week.

The dresses won out. But after Easter, you couldn't tear me from the keyboard.

Temple Trivia: Logan

Of all my temple books, House on the Hill tells more about its temple than any other. The Logan Temple is almost another character, it's such a big part of the story. Even though there are more stories in that book, plenty more aren't in it. Here are two of my favorites.

Carpeting the Temple
The original plan was to purchase factory-made carpet. 1,516 yards were purchased, but that wasn't nearly enough. Worse, the order had pretty much depleted the supply available. What to do?

Superintendent Charles O. Card asked the committee for permission to use handmade carpets. As soon as it was granted, stake Relief Societies were called on to band together to make the carpets.

The women donated rags, which were torn into strips at rag-tearing sessions. The strips were then sewn together by color and rolled into balls. The balls were taken to a weaving machine, which created long strips of cloth. They then sewed the strips together carefully so the carpet wouldn't twist or bulge.

As they were sewn together, the carpets were stretched across a room, tied to doorknobs on either side, to help keep them square. Some wards had to work together on pieces for the larger rooms to make sure the pattern remained consistent.

In spite of how hard they worked, the women weren't able to complete quite all of the carpet on time. The last of it was delivered to the temple on Tuesday, May 20, three days after the dedication. The carpet was installed all that night, with the last bit being laid at 8:00 AM, barely in time for ordinance work to begin that day.

In all, the Relief Society sisters made 2,144 yards of carpet, about two-thirds of the total 3,660 yards in the temple. The homemade carpet remained until 1925, when it was replaced by store-made carpet, with the exception of one bit, which hung on in one of the towers until 1959. When it was removed, that last section was cut into pieces, which were given to officiators and others. Presumably, one piece is still in the temple office.

The Hay Baler
One of the saddest stories in the construction is something I wanted to tell in the book, but I couldn't find a natural way to fit it into the plot. Since I refuse to throw in irrelevant history just for history's sake, I reluctantly left it out. So I'm going to tell it here instead.

Since the construction era was well before things like gas-powered cranes and other motorized vehicles, much of the power came from animals like horses and mules who hauled stone, pulled ropes on pulleys to raise stone blocks, and the like. (I do tell about Old Jim the donkey in the book. Fun story there.)

As a result of the animal labor, they had a temple stable where the work animals were fed and housed. For many families, their donations for the temple consisted of hay for the animals. To keep the hay in good condition and to be able to distribute it easier, they needed a baler.

Nolan P. Olsen describes it as being, "15 feet high, consisting of a large wooden enclosure, with a hole through which the hay was pitched. A large flat rock was rigged up so it could be hoisted up high by horse power, and when it was tripped it would fall into the enclosure and mash the hay flat."

The 300-500 pound bale would be tied up with ropes or wire and then stacked for later use.

One day the rope got stuck, and they couldn't trip the rock to make it fall. The workers couldn't get the rope to loosen or the stone to budge. At that point, a young man of 13 years, John Hincks, put his head inside the baler to peer up in hopes of seeing what the problem was.

Of course, that's the moment the rock tripped on its own. It came down and crushed his head, killing him.

The death of John Hincks was the first connected to the construction of the Logan Temple, but while it wasn't anywhere near the last, to me, it's one of the most tragic because he was so young.

As his grave marker said, he was "Like a flower in bud just bursting into view."


Today's tour stops:
Is It Just Me? (Featuring the Lunar Temple and a new face for me!)
Heather Justesen

Temple Trivia: St. George

The settlement of St. George was so significant to building the temple there, that that's what I'm focusing on today, rather than on specific temple stories. (I can go into those another time.)

After I learned about the settlement of southern Utah, I'm amazed anyone stuck around. Many didn't.

The original reason for getting a settlement down there was so the Latter-day Saints could be more self-sufficient. The Civil War had broken out, which led to a decrease in the cotton supply out West.

Combine that with the fact that Brigham Young didn't like to rely on outsiders for anything, and he decided that the Saints needed a way to get their own cotton.

(I found it ironic that even when the Cotton Mission was up and running, they always, always relied on dyes from back East to color the fabric.)

They'd already had success growing flax in what is now Utah Country, but they needed a warmer climate for cotton.

After scouts came back to Salt Lake and described the area, a lot of people were understandably wary. Volunteers were requested to settle the "Cotton Mission," but only one man raised his hand. The next week, Church leaders just called people from the pulpit, folks who had the skills they needed (everything from farmers to blacksmiths to coopers and even a mineralogist and a fiddler).

I'd heard about those kinds of mission calls and always marveled that the men just accepted their calls and did their duty. Not this time. About a third declined. They knew what a harsh environment they were being asked to live in. No, thanks!

Of those who did go, some turned around and went back as soon as they saw the area, and still more left after giving it a go for a time. The heat and other issues just made eking out a living there hard.

One early trial was an outbreak of malaria. (In the desert. I know; I don't get it either.)

A continuing problem was the Virgin River. The settlers had to dam it to reroute the water so they could actually water their crops. They spent much of the winter of 1861-62 making a dam and ditches. In the spring, floods washed out the dam and filled the ditches with mud. This delayed building their homes.

The dam washing out (and then rebuilding it) became a common theme: it broke again and again over the years, making it hard to grow food and build shelter, let alone to grow the cotton they were there to produce.

The settlers eventually began construction on a tabernacle, and then, on the counsel of Brigham Young, construction on a temple. I go into some of the challenges in building the temple in At the Journey's End, so I won't here. Just know that the people had their work cut out for them. I would have sat down and cried.

By the time the Cotton Mission was disbanded, there was quite a large settlement, and living there wasn't quite as big a sacrifice.

One interesting item is that a handful of people who were originally called to the Cotton Mission made a point of growing a token amount of cotton in their gardens every year even after the mission was closed.

Their reasoning: They'd been called to grow cotton and hadn't ever been released from that duty.

The early settlers had little in the way of material goods, and they sacrificed greatly to build both a tabernacle and a temple.

At first glance, building a temple there doesn't make much sense. The bulk of Church membership certainly wasn't in the area. The Salt Lake Temple was under construction (although it wouldn't be done for some time). Before long, the Logan and Manti Temples were being built and would serve more members of the Church.

In the end, President John Taylor, who became prophet shortly after the dedication of the St. George Temple, explained why it was built there: "Because there was a people living here [in St. George] who were more worthy than any others. Who were more worthy of the blessings of the temple"

Essentially, only the best of the best not only agreed to go down there, but they stayed and endured and sacrificed greatly because of their faith and dedication to God. That devotion was repaid with the blessings of eternity.

I'd say it was worth the price.

Today's tour stops:
An Ordinary Mom (in which I'm long-winded with thoughtful questions I've never been asked before)
If You Give a Mom a Moment (where she quotes lines from the book and tells why they resonated)

Temple Trivia: Salt Lake

Below: Me next to an Salt Lake Temple Earth Stone. Those puppies are huge!

(Taken roughly where Claude went after the dance his last night in the city, at least in my funky writer brain that has no grip on reality and thinks it really happened.)


One of my favorite pieces of trivia about the Salt Lake Temple is that Brigham Young originally wanted to build it out of . . . adobe.

Seriously. He even lobbied in general conference for it. He argued that adobe would outlast stone. (Wha-ha?)

When I first read that, I was confused. How in the world could he have assumed that the magnificent structure he saw in vision was made out of dried mud? Of course it was gray granite!

At first sandstone won out. It was relatively lightweight and close to the Temple Block. Work moved right along until, due to Johnston's Army, they buried the foundation to protect it and fled the city. As many people know, once the foundation was uncovered some years later, it was cracked and had to be replaced.

That is when the gray granite we know and love was chosen for the stone. Spires of Stone goes into some of the difficulties in transporting the stone and how long it took to bring ONE stone to the temple compared to the sandstone (4 days round trip for one stone versus a couple of stones per day with sandstone). The work basically came to a standstill.

More on the transportation problem in a minute.

So the temple was going to be built out of gray granite after all. But I still couldn't figure out why Brigham Young had ever thought it should have been adobe. He'd seen the temple in vision! Couldn't he tell?

Then I came across a quote from a captain in Johnston's Army, describing what Salt Lake City looked like as they marched through. Many of the homes and other buildings were made from adobe.

Which he described as looking like cut, gray stone.

Eureka!

My opinion is that Brigham Young thought what he saw in vision was the same substance he saw around him all day long. Adobe is what he was familiar with, and it makes sense to me that his mind would have gone there first instead of assuming the grand, gray building was made of granite (which probably wouldn't have even occurred to him).

Back to the stone-hauling issue: So eventually they determined to use the granite up Little Cottonwood Canyon. But as I said, it was seriously heavy and far away.

Leaders tried to come up with all kinds of solutions to the transportation problem, because at the rate they were going, it probably would have taken a century or more to build instead of 40 years. My favorite (because it's just so out there) was building a canal from Big Cottonwood Creek and floating the stones to the Temple Block.

They basically built the canal (quite a feat, considering all the ravines and obstacles it had to get through). It was twenty feet wide at the base, gradually widening at the top, and was four feet deep.

But it didn't work; it wouldn't hold water. W. C. A. Smoot said the soil across an area in Parley's Canyon was loam, which acted like a sieve for the water. It drained about as fast as it came in.

You kind of need water for a canal to work. So the canal idea was abandoned.

They tried a wooden railroad, but it didn't work, either. Wasn't strong enough. They eventually halted work at the quarry and built a commercial railroad that could take dozens of stones to the Temple Block in a day. And that is when the work finally picked up.

In the end, it was a good thing that the Salt Lake Temple took four decades to complete. By the 1893, science and technology had improved to the point where the temple had better heating, hygiene, lighting, plumbing, and more than it possibly could have had even a decade before.

This temple—by far the largest ever built even yet—would serve the people better (and safer) than it could have otherwise. It could immediately handle more people and reach its potential, whereas before it would have been too big to manage such a feat.

I think the Lord knew that.

Today's tour stops:
Dunhaven Place (In which Tower of Strength becomes Tower of Terror.)
Temporary? Insanity

Temple Trivia: Manti

One of the best part about writing novels based on historic temples is learning so many cool tidbits that most people never hear about.

I learn far more than ever makes it into my books (first and foremost because they are novels, not history lessons), so I thought it'd be fun to pass along a few fun things that aren't in my books, starting with Manti.

First off, David, a friend of mine (who has a private blog, or I'd link over) passed along an article about the Manti Temple. It's a great read. Thanks to my research, I already knew most of the information in it.

(Edited Oct 2011 to add: The old link above stopped working, so I've replaced it. Another piece about the Manti Temple is HERE. Also, I've since learned that a commonly stold story about Scandinavian boat builders basically making a boat and flipping it upside down for the roof is almost certainly untrue. There's no evidence of it, and the roof doesn't resemble the hull of a boat at all.)

One part of the above article made me smile: it includes one story that's retold in Tower of Strength.

I won't say which, but if you read the book, you'll recognize it. (Okay, fine. Two words: Parry mules.)

The Washington Monument
Before my research, I hadn't known that a stone was cut from the Manti Temple quarry and brought to Washington, D.C. to be used as part of the Washington Monument. In the center is the word Deseret and above that the all-seeing eye. The stone sits near the top.

Workers' Wages
One common misconception is that no workers were paid for their labor on the Manti Temple. Early on, Brigham Young did declare that no one would be paid and that the temple would be built entirely with volunteer labor. Because he said that, people assume that was how things actually played out. (The quote is even on a plaque at the base of Temple Hill.)

However, after President Young's death, his successor, John Taylor, changed things. While there was still a lot of volunteer and tithing labor, many workers did get regular pay. He, the quorum of the Twelve, and the temple officers set the rates based on the different jobs, paid in either cash or commodities.

Among the wages: common laborers received $1.25 to $2.00 per day, quarrymen $2.50 to $3.00 per day, and the master mason, E. L. Parrry, received $5.00 a day.

Personal Donations
After they were settled and doing well (and being creatively thrifty--there are lots of fun stories about that), the people sacrificed and donated what they could to the cause of the temple.

Ellice Moffit, who was a young girl at the time, reported that their family had saved up enough money to buy a few gallons of linseed oil and white lead for paint so they could paint the fence around their house. The Church asked to use it as part of the first coat on the temple.

The family simply handed it over. Sister Moffit reported, "We all felt good about that, we felt blessed." (A Folk History of the Manti Temple, by Barbara Lee Hargis)

Fun Characters
A lot of Danes settled the area, and they were great at laughing at themselves. Another story in A Folk History is retold about "Silent Pete," a man who was very unlike the talkative Danes; he usually gave one-word answers.

The story goes that Noble Andrew, a Dane, asked (I'm not repeating the accent recorded in the original, and I'm not sure what was meant by "bot" flies): "I understand, Peter, that your horse got bot [sic] flies. What did you give him to get rid of them?"

Silent Pete answered, "Turpentine."

A week later, they met again. Noble said, "By the way, Peter, what did you say you gave your horse to get rid of the bot flies?"

"Turpentine."

"That is what I thought you said. It killed mine."

Silent Pete answered, "Killed mine, too."


Today the tour is very busy:

Summer's Nook
Mormon Mom Blogs
Crazyland
Book Blogging Babes

And I was interviewed at:
Modern Molly Mormon

(Be sure to visit MMB for a chance to win and entire SET of my temple books!)

Quiz Winners & Answers

I'm still in the process of re-entry after my trip.

I have lots and lots to report and post, but for today, it'll be just the winners to the quiz.

Oh, and to mention where I was and what I was doing while I was away—of which there will be much future bloggage, because it was just way too cool.

Back story: From 1984 to 1987, my parents presided over the Helsinki, Finland mission, so I lived there from the ages of 10 to 13. It was a hugely formative era for me in so many ways. I'll go into that more another time, but to be brief, two years ago, my parents were also called to be the first president and matron over the new temple in Helsinki.

Hubby and I went to visit them and the country during part of the maintenance closure (when they'd have time to spend with us!). We stayed long enough to attend the temple after it reopened.

The trip was amazing on so many levels. I really felt like I'd come home after 21 years.

Like I said, LOTS to report on that, not the least of which was seeing classmates Katri and Leena again and catching up with them. Many photos forthcoming!

Now, without further ado, here are our winners and the quiz answers, for those who want to read that far:

Julie Wright of Scattered Jules had the most correct answers at 15. She wins the Utah Kernels gift basket. I may have to go on a road trip to eat some of the gourmet popcorn with her. I know firsthand how good it is!

MelanieJ of Write Stuff wins for her creative answers. Her whole write-in list of answers had me laughing out loud. To #17 (I think I have cute . . .) she put, "children (that answer alone should totally win this for me)." Possibly. (I DO have awfully cute children, you, know, in a totally unbiased observational way.) But all her other answers were very funny and creative too. (According to her, I've never been to Oz, I hate my Vista upgrade, and I had no cat named Spears . . . but neither did I have one named Paris, Simpson, or Lohan.)

So MelanieJ wins the Seriously, So Blessed! T-shirt.

And for linky-love about the quiz, the winner of the Line Upon Line greeting cards bundle is Jami from Superfluous Miscellany. About hoping to win, she wrote, "I know the secret. (Actually, I only overheard it, but that's close enough.) I am sending winning vibes out into the universe and the universe is about to dump the motherload in my lap." Must have worked!

Now for the answers:

1. Which of the following did I undergo at the age of 12?
B. Cosmetic surgery
I was bestowed clown ears through my paternal line. While living in Finland, where excellent medical care is inexpensive, we got them pinned back. It was nice to stop being teased mercilessly. (Yes, I’m looking at you, Mark Skousen from third grade.) Fortunately, none of my children inherited my ears.


2. Which have I done in Utah?
D. Scaled down the Robber’s Roost cliffs
I’m a sad excuse for a Utahn, I know—no skiing, no Lake Powell, and not even Timp Cave (although I hope to rectify that one soon). Robber’s Roost was really cool.


3. All of these titles are childhood favorites. But which was the first to inspire me to write my own stories?
C. The Mouse and the Motorcycle, by Beverly Cleary My first attempt at a book was Mean Marvin the Mouse right around age 8.


4. Which of the following classic musical groups do I not particularly care for?
A. The Mamas and the Papas
If you’ve read Lost without You, you know I love ABBA. The others in the list are absolute classics I grew up listening to.


5. I have performed in all of the following musicals except:
B. The Sound of Music
Some of the best times of my adolescence were performing in plays. This was the first one I ever tried out for—and I didn’t make it. Readers of my first book could probably guess that I had been in Into the Woods and Fiddler.


6. If I were to return to school for a master’s degree and didn’t study English literature or writing, what would I probably study instead?
Linguistics. Because I’m a language nerd. I had a couple of basic English language courses for my major—taught by a linguist—and they were my favorite classes, hands down. (Dr. Oaks = best teacher ever.) Probably helps that Dad is a linguist.


7. I name cars, but I’ve never driven one called:
A. Harold.
Arthur was Dad’s little red truck I buzzed around in as a teen. I drove Louise through my last two years of high school (until little sis wrecked her on my graduation day . . .). Betty took me through college. And Eleanor was Mom and Dad’s car that we eventually inherited after I got married and they got a new car.


8. At Olive Garden, I am most likely to order:
C. Chicken Parmesan
Fatty? Yes. Tasty? Oh, yeah.


9. Which salad dressing do I consider nasty?
C. Bleu Cheese
I have an aversion to ingesting mold.


10. Name one of my two favorite writing “toys.” (Bonus if you can name both.)
My beloved AlphaSmart Neo and my OED on CD. See above about being a word nerd.


11. What city did I live in until the age of four?
Springville, Utah.


12. Two-part question, with a point for each right answer: With my children, I duplicated the family I grew up in.
1) What does that family look like?
Boy, girl, girl, girl.
2) Where do I fit in?
I’m #3, the middle girl.


13. We had lots of cats in my childhood home. Which name did NOT belong to one?
E. Fiona
This is our current cat’s name.

14. Which household chore do I hate?
A. Sweeping the kitchen
Ugh. I swear, it always needs to be done, and you can’t really get a sense of satisfaction afterward, because it’s not that visible.


15. Which city have I NOT visited?
D. Frankfurt


16. Name my favorite L. M. Montgomery heroine.
B. Valancy
Rilla’s a close second, and Emily comes in third. But no one beats Valancy. She’s a riot.


17. I think I have cute:
B. Toes


18. But I hate my:
C. Cheeks
Many a blog post about them . . .


19. I almost never leave the house without:
A. Waterproof mascara
Largely due to my long but very blonde lashes (blogged about previously), I look very different with and without mascara, to the point that without it, people (even family) think I’m ill or upset, when in reality, my lashes are just naked. Waterproof is a must.


20. My husband and I met as ballroom team partners doing which dance?
C. Cha-Cha
We were pretty darn good, too.


21. In high school, I took two years of which language?
A. Russian
Not sure why I did that. I took French in junior high. I still like deciphering the Cyrillic alphabet betimes.


22. I have all of the following nationalities in my blood except:
A. Norwegian
My paternal grandparents were Swiss and German immigrants. Mom was born in Finland, and her dad was Swedish.

23. Which of the following classic writers do I enjoy reading? (In other words, which one do I NOT despise?)
B. Steinbeck
Forgive me, Luisa! I really do like Steinbeck. Hated him in high school, but found a love for him as an adult. He’s brilliant.

MelanieJ, you can rest assured that I despise Faulkner with a serious passion. I ranted about that here. (If you Google, "I hate Faulkner," that post comes up #1. Hah!)


24. Which did I learn to do first: knit or type?
Knit, around age 11.
I could do the fake pecking typing at that point, but didn’t officially take keyboarding until 9th grade. On a typewriter. Yes, I’m that old.


25. My part-time job in college was:
B. Secretary in the P.E. department
At one point, I spent hours each day typing up a huge report about the graduate program, which was coming under review for accreditation. One reason I can type as fast as I can today. Yay for speed! And I didn’t quite get carpal tunnel, either.


Thanks to everyone who played!

Seeking My Plot

Most successful writers I know have no dearth of story ideas. The majority tend to have so many ideas that they often have to sort through them to decide which book to write first.

There was a time when that described me, too. I had plot ideas swimming in my head all the time, and I have several unpublished manuscripts to attest to that. I worked on them before and shortly after the time that I wrote House on the Hill.

For years I had felt compelled to write something about the Logan temple. I'd had a love of Cache Valley and the temple there for a long time and knew that there was a story I had to write about it. At the time, I had no plans for sticking with the historical fiction genre or for writing more books about temples.

In fact, the next book I wrote was a murder mystery, a sort of sequel for Lost without You, my first book, that takes place ten years later when the daughter, Angela, is a high school senior. I had a ball writing that one (it was totally awesome when my cop brother didn't guess the bad guy).

And then House on the Hill sold. Really well. And readers were suddenly clamoring for more. That's when I got a call from my publisher that boiled down to, "Hey, let's do more of that."

When I went back to the drawing board, I realized that I really loved doing historical fiction. In a lot of ways, writing it came more naturally than some of my other, contemporary, work had. The problem was that my writing mind had left the historical arena. I had that murder mystery plus two other contemporary novels I was working on.

The question loomed large: What should I write next that would be historical?

I decided pretty quickly to write a follow-up to House on the Hill, because the number one question I was getting from readers was, "What happens to Abe?"

Well, I'll find out, I thought.

When talking it out with my husband, he suggested writing about another temple. And then doing a whole series of temple books. I loved the idea and jumped all over it.

That was a few years ago. Now I've got three temple books in print, a fourth written and awaiting acceptance, and a fifth in the research phase. It's great, and I'm loving the experience. I've learned so much Church history, things we don't generally hear about, and I've come to appreciate and respect the early Saints so much more.

The trick, though, is that I no longer have the luxury of thinking about plots ahead of time. I have no inkling of what storyline my temple books will have until I start digging into the research.

How in the world could I decide what would happen in At the Journey's End until after I read up on the types of events that really occurred on the Honeymoon Trail? I couldn't.

For me, the location and its history become a secondary character to the book, the backdrop to the main story. I still maintain that I don't want the history to become the point of any of my books. The history is and always will be the backdrop for the plot and characters. The stage, if you will. You won't find a history textbook, with gobs of things that are "good for you" shoved down your throat. Ick.

The bottom line for me is I can't come up with a viable storyline until I know what constitutes the stage: what was going on in a particular area at a certain period in time, what the "personality" of the place was.

I thought I was an anomaly in my method, but in the most recent Writer's Digest, I came across a quote in an interview with Sara Gruen, author of the best-selling novel Water for Elephants. I don't have any delusions about being the next Sara Gruen, but something she said made me think that maybe I'm not entirely loopy for working the way I do. Talking about her latest book, she said:

"I didn't think about story until I'd done a fair amount of research into the backdrops, but then it was clear."

Yes! I wanted to shout from the rooftops. That's how it is for me, too! Someone else writes this way!

Maddie from At the Journey's End popped into my head fully formed after about two weeks of research. Tabitha from my upcoming Manti book trotted "on stage" one day with her name, a great line of dialogue, and her back story after I'd been reading up on Manti for several weeks (and starting to worry that I'd never have story to tell about it).

This is the point I'm at right now. For drafting purposes, it's getting a bit late in the year for me to not have a story in mind if I hope to turn in a manuscript by the end of the year, like I usually do. There's a bit of pressure growing, that same bit of worry I've felt before.

You've been reading about that place off and on for weeks now, it says. You have no story. It won't come this time. Who are you kidding?

As much as I talk myself out of the worries, the calendar ticks away one day at a time, and I do get a bit anxious. But then yesterday I was (yes!) smacked in the face with my heroine's first name. I don't know who she is yet; I'll have to spend some time getting acquainted with her and her family. I do know she has a brother she's very close to who will play a big part. Beyond that, it's very sketchy.

But it's coming.

This morning I opened up one of my research books that I've been putting off, and I read thirty pages. It's a sign that I'm getting stoked again. The characters will show up when they're ready, and the story will, too.

I can't wait to meet them.

More on Manti

First off, I have to say that the writing conference was terrific. Several other author friends were there, including Josi (my abosolute ball of a roommate) and Jules. My co-director for the 2008 LDStorymaker conference, Heather, was also there, and the two of us had our brains going the entire time in planning mode, noticing how they did certain things and getting new ideas for the conference.

It was also a great chance to learn some new things, refresh your mind on others, and just get charged for writing in general. I even squeezed a little writing in on my Neo.

I thought I'd post a little more about the Manti trip, since it was such a great day and my husband and I took so many pictures. (Trust me; I'll spare you most of them--like the dozens of headstones--but some are just too cool not to share!)

First, to address one question from last time: I have no idea why there used to be a tunnel through the bottom of the east tower. Wild tidbit for which I have to answer!

Now for a few new photos:

Here I am standing next to a marker for where the Little Fort used to be, built to protect the early settlers from Indians. The fort was built out of solid stone, and I'm guessing the rock here is one of them.

The west doors are huge. Here I am pretending to walk inside. I'm about 5' 5", to give you an idea of how huge these puppies are. A lot of wedding pictures are taken right here.



Now this one was way cool. Right up close to the wall on the southeast side (if you go up the staircase there), you can see where this one was snapped. You can still see tool marks on the stone--lots of different sizes of chisels must have been used on these stones. Some look almost pock-marked, while others seem sort of checkerboard-like. Each worker must have had their own style.



Last one today: the EAST side of the building, which is technically the front, but you almost never see this view, since it faces the hillside. I love the double staircase--which you can't see here at all (they're below the windows; you can see the very tips of the bannisters)--because I couldn't back up far enough. The hill was in the way.



I've had a few crazy days where I've fallen somewhat behind on my daily wordcount, but I will catch up. The Manti book is almost done. It's so close I can taste it!

(Sort of like the lunch hubby and I had at Gandolpho's. Yum . . . I had no idea they make such yummy chocolate cake!)

And may I say, I really love Tabitha? She's such a neat person, even if she is fictional!

To Manti We Will Go

A week ago I took a trip down to Manti for research purposes. While I've been there before, it's been several years, and I had never been there using my writer eyes, if that makes sense. I notice things in a very different way when I look at them as possible writing subjects, such as the many old homes still in Manti.

While I normally notice and enjoy things like that, I probably wouldn't remember any particular home after leaving. And I certainly wouldn't drive really slowly through the streets of Manti with hazard lights flashing, jumping out every so often to snap pictures of potential homes for locations in my story. Here are two buildings that will figure quite prominently in the book:





It was also good to be able to see the layout of the city and determine how far my characters would have to walk to get from A to B and whether my scene where I describe C could really have taken place where I put it (fortunately, that one works as I wrote it).

There are a couple of scenes I need to tweak already because now I have a new perspective on the area. For example, I hadn't realized just how close to the temple the cemetery is. The cemetery figures into the story, so that is helpful information.



The headstone below has an inscription that struck me as something I might use as well. The intriguing part is hard to read in the picture, but I jotted it down in my handy-dandy notebook, so we're good.



One thing that struck me about the cemetery is the mixture of very old and very new graves side by side. We found graves from 2007 intermingled with ones from the earliest settlers, headstones that were still shiny next to ones that crumbled and were illegible. Among the graves we found Edward Parry, the temple's master mason, and William Fowler, who wrote the hymn, "We Thank Thee Oh, God, for a Prophet."

A fun tidbit I recently learned about the Manti temple is that at one point (years after the dedication) it had a grand staircase leading up the hill from the street. The picture below shows where it used to be. You can tell by the gate opening that's still visible (but padlocked and unusable).



Another fun thing I got to see was the spot where a tunnel used to go right through the east side of the temple. People used to joke that you could "go through" the temple without a recommend. The tunnel was wide enough to drive through in a car. It has since been closed off, and at a distance, the spot looks like another window. A close-up view from the south, however, shows where it used to be:



We took a boatload of photos, and I have so many more I'll likely share here again soon.

For now, though, I'm heading off to pack an overnight bag, because I'll be at a writing conference until Saturday night. It should be a great shot in the arm--and a ton of fun to boot, since I'll be hanging out with some of my best writer buds ever.

I hope I'll get a little writing done while I'm there, but when you're sharing a hotel room with one of your best friends, there's a good chance girl chat will interfere!

Writing Topsy-Turvy

The way I write comes as a surprise to many people, readers and writers alike, but I can't help the way I do it: I don’t write my books chronologically.

Yes, I do start at the beginning and go from there. Sort of. My beginnings have a tendency to be cursed. My critique group laughs at me because I’ll bring what I think is my first chapter with the heading reading only, "Chapter." I won’t commit to it being "Chapter One" until later, because way too often I’ve had to rewrite the chapter—several times, start elsewhere in the story, or (worst of all) trash the section altogether.

Once I figure out the beginning, I generally go on my merry way for several scenes or chapters. But then I can’t help myself; I always jump ahead.

While I don’t write strict outlines of my books with every scene and plot point pre-determined, I do have a general idea of where I’m going. If the plot has points from A to Z, I know what D, G, K, P, and W are. I also know Z. But I don’t always know how I’ll get from A to D or what will fill the gap between D and G. Or exactly how K will develop to that point.

And sometimes even when I do know some of these things, I get really excited about an upcoming scene at say, L or S, and want to write it now. So I do. I figure it’ll come out better when my creative side is on fire about it than waiting until I write another 40,000 words to reach the scene the "real" way. By then my excitement might have petered out, and the resulting scene will be watered-down.

When I fill in the gaps and bridge to the later scenes I’ve already written, some details will have changed, and those scenes that I wrote out of order must be revised—sometimes significantly, sometimes just a tad here and there.

As I’ve mentioned before, I do a ton of my drafting on the fly with my AlphaSmart Neo. If it weren’t for that trusty tool, I wouldn’t get nearly much done.

But with each book, thanks to my upside-down, topsy-turvy way of plotting it out, eventually I reach a point where can’t just sit down and spit out the next scene. I have to be in front of the computer with the entire manuscript before me. That way I can read for flow, see where the holes are and how various scenes need to interconnect, and so on.

As wonderful as the gadget is, I can’t do that on my Neo.

Which makes for difficult drafting of the remaining fourth or so of a book, which for me isn’t the ending fourth of the pages.

That’s where I am now. Some days I have a specific scene I can write on my Neo, such as yesterday, when I sat in the car and wrote as my husband drove us down to Manti for research. (way cool visit, by the way. I’ll report on that soon.)

But such writing jaunts are getting harder and harder as the spots I need to bridge are shrinking and the chronology needs to be clarified and smoothed out.

Which makes my current 4-week challenge, well, more of a challenge for me.

Yikes-a-moly.

Thanks to everyone who has wished me luck on this last leg.

If only my Neo could help me right to the bitter end . . . sniff.

Inquring Minds

Since the release of Spires of Stone about a month ago, I've gotten a few questions posed repeatedly. Since I'm guessing that others have the same questions, I thought I'd answer them in one spot.

Here goes:

1) Are your historical books a series? (Do I have to read them in order?)
The simple answer: No. They're stand-alone books that can be read without having cracked open another one.

The slightly more complicated answer: At the Journey's End does take one character from House on the Hill and carry on his story. It's not really a sequel, but more of a spin-off. Rest assured, you can read his entire story without having read the other book. However, if you plan on reading them both, I suggest reading House on the Hill first so the ending isn't ruined when you pick up Journey's End.

As for Spires of Stone, it isn't connected to the other books at all as a sequel or a spin-off. It opens a good decade earlier than House on the Hill and only briefly features two characters from the other books, but those are merely cameos, more of a hello to readers than anything. It stands alone.


2. Did you include this story in Spires of Stone? What about this one? Or this one?
Probably not. Two reasons.

First, the construction of the Salt Lake temple took a whopping 40 years. To use more than a tiny fraction of the stories involved would have made a history text rather than a novel. My goal is to tell a good story where the history serves as a backdrop. I never want to resort to spoon-feeding a history lesson.

Second, I purposely pick elements to portray that not everyone talks about. I want readers to discover neat stuff they didn't know before, and generally speaking, that means not retelling the stories that have been told a thousand times before.


3. Why didn't you tell more about the construction?
The biggest reason is again, the scope of the construction. If a building takes four decades to complete, good luck finding a few months at any point where lots of dramatic events happen. Alternately, trying to tell a story that encompasses many years doesn't usually work. My plot required only a few months.

So I took what I felt was one of the more interesting points in the construction and focused on that: when the second foundation is finally above ground level, and the period when Brigham Young closed the quarry. (Read the book to find out why he closed it; how's that for a cheesy plug?)

Plus, photography plays a significant role in the story, and I couldn't have the technology too advanced for my purposes. All of those elements made me zero-in on a few months of 1867.

But I do flash back to another part of the construction (when the first, cracked foundation is being ripped out). Plus, the epilogue takes places 25 years later at the capstone celebration, another big-time history moment.


There you have it: the most frequently-asked questions about Spires of Stone so far. If you have any others, drop me a line, and I'll answer.

Pt. IV Answer

In my excitement over my new cover, I sort of spaced answering the final trivia question from the last edition of our Temple Trivia series.

Here goes:

What event briefly halted work on the Manti Temple?
A) The death of Brigham Young
B) The assassination of President Garfield
C) A stone quarry explosion
D) A grasshopper plague

The answer: B, the assassination of President Garfield.

For a couple of days, everything stopped in his memory, including the temple construction, as people mourned the loss of their president.

There's a chance Brigham Young's death stopped the work, too, but I found no record of it. However, the temple might not have had a full-time crew at that point, since Brigham Young died so early on in the construction, just four months after the ground breaking. So maybe there just wasn't any work going on to stop when he died.

The stone quarry didn't have any major accidents, just minor stuff like dropping a big rock on someone's foot.

Finally, the Manti settlers did have grasshopper plagues, but they happened before temple construction.

There you have it!

My New Wrapper

It's so close, I can almost taste it! In just over a month, Spires of Stone will be officially released.

Even better, I now have the cover image, which is always a moment to remember: first seeing how your baby will be "wrapped." This one's a bit different than my last two, being as it has two women on the cover instead of one. I asked for that, since the book really has two heroines, and I didn't want to pick between them as to who would be on the cover.

Do they look like the characters in my head? No. But that's okay; who can see into my head anyway? I've had the fortune to have all of my historical covers with beautiful artwork on them, so I'm not about to complain.

As for a little about the book, here's the backliner (that blurb thing you read on the back of the book!):

Bethany Hansen wasn’t sure when or if she would ever see Benjamin Adams again. She also told herself that it didn’t matter. But when Ben and his two brothers come home after more than two years of serving a mission to the Eastern states, her feelings of heartache and anger also return—fiercer than ever. And so do Ben’s feelings for her.

Good-naturedly, Ben’s brothers attempt to reunite the two, even as they separately vie for Bethany’s younger sister, Hannah. What follows is a charming historical romance complete with wonderful characters and witty dialogue that explores the redemption and power of finding—and rediscovering—true love.

And here are what some other authors have said about it:

In the spirit of Much Ado about Nothing, Spires of Stone is a wonderfully rich story that will linger in your heart and mind long after you’ve finished reading it.”
—Michele Bell, Author of Perfect Timing and A Candle in the Window

With intrigue, love, redemption, and characters you’ll cherish, Spires of Stone will capture your heart.
—H.B. Moore, author of the Out of Jerusalem series

The construction of the Salt Lake Temple provides an illuminating backdrop for this story of romantic love, scandal, sacrifice, forgiveness, and reunion.
—Kerri Robinson, coauthor of A Banner Is Unfurled

A witty and well-crafted historical romance that will leave you wishing it were twice as long.
—Jeffrey S. Savage, The Shandra Covington mystery series

I hope readers enjoy it as well. As Michele Ashman Bell pointed out above (and as I hinted in a previous post), the book is somewhat of a retelling of Much Ado About Nothing. That said, the characters took on lives of their own, so there are parts that veer away from the original, especially in the last half.

When the release date's closer, I'll blog about how I morphed Shakespeare's story and characters to fit 1867 Salt Lake City. Some people have asked me why certain characters have the names they do, and some of that is a misunderstanding of which Shakespearean characters they actually represent. So I'll clarify some of where my head was when I wrote it.

In any event, this is probably my most light-hearted historical, with more humorous scenes than any other. I had a ball writing it, and I hope readers will enjoy it, too!

Temple Trivia Pt. IV

Until I start researching a fifth temple, this is our final installment!

First, to the trivia question from last time:
When debating before construction began over what to build the temple out of, what material did Brigham Young lobby in General Conference for?

A. Granite
B. Oolite
C. Adobe
D. Stucco-covered Sandstone

The answer is one that made me laugh out loud when I first found it—and then I was seriously confused until I found something else that to me explains it.

The answer: C-Adobe!

Why on EARTH would Brigham Young want adobe for the temple? To me, it made no sense. He had SEEN the temple in vision, right? Couldn't he TELL that it was stone?

Apparently not.

He believed adobe was stronger than stone, saying that when all the other stones (San Pete rock, sand stone, marble, limestone) would be washed away by the river, "you will find that the temple which is built of mud or adobe, as some call them, still remains and in better condition than at the first day it was built."

Okay then . . .

Here's my theory:
In 1857 when Johnston's Army came marching into Utah to quell a supposed rebellion, Captain Tracy, one of Johnston's men, wrote, describing the homes and other structures in Salt Lake City, "The buildings were almost entirely of adobe, giving them the appearance of grey cut stone" (emphasis mine).

Aha! Turns out that their adobe LOOKED like gray stone! So when Brigham Young saw the vision of the completed temple, he probably thought he was seeing adobe, when in reality, he was seeing the rock that would eventually be cut from the Little Cottonwood Quarry.

Now for Manti!

1) The original plan called for the Manti Temple Hill to be terraced with walls of stone, so some major blasting of rock and leveling out the rough and barren hill was undertaken well before the temple was under construction. Eventually four walls were built up, terracing the hill, and then the temple construction began. Some people said that with the terraces and then the temple walls at the top, at times it looked like they were creating a major fortress. They planned to landscape the hill with the terraces, but that never happened.

2) The landscaping wasn't done for some time. Temple president Anton Lund compared the unfinished, sagebrush-covered hill with the gorgeous temple at the top to "a fair maiden of his native land, Denmark, dressed in a beautiful silk gown, but with clumsy wooden shoes on her dainty feet." The terraces were mostly ripped out in 1907, at which time the hill was graded to a cone shape and the landscaping was finally done.

3) The first winter spent in Manti was brutal. Many Saints dug out holes into the south side of what would become Temple Hill for shelter against the winds and storms. They even created vents to act as chimneys for their fires. The following spring they decided pretty quickly to move away from the hill, as they discovered it was infested with rattlesnakes. Fortunately, no one was bitten, even during the several days where pioneers used all kinds of things to try to kill the creatures, including torches, clubs, guns, and stones.

4) A few years later (before construction began), the hill became a place for children to play and young couples to spend their courtship. Sledding and picking wildflowers were popular past times, as well as hunting for arrowheads, fossils, and pretty stones the girls would collect.

5) In 1852, a stone was cut from the hill—the same stone used for the temple—and shipped to Washington, D.C. for use in the Washington Monument. The stone is there today near the top of the monument. Carved into it is the symbol of the Beehive and the word, "Deseret."

Now for the final trivia question:

What event briefly halted work on the Manti Temple?
A) The death of Brigham Young
B) The assassination of President Garfield
C) A stone quarry explosion
D) A grasshopper plague

See you next time!

Temple Trivia Pt III

Time for the next set of temple fun! That means we're moving on to the Salt Lake Temple.

But first, to answer the trivia question from last time:
Who served as the first St. George Temple president?
A. Lorenzo Snow
B. Orson Pratt
C. George Albert Smith
D. Wilford Woodruff

The answer: D-Wilford Woodruff (Very good, Brillig!)

During his time as temple president, Wilford Woodruff had the famous vision of the signers of the Declaration of Independence (and other early prominent Americans, including their wives) asking for their temple work to be done.

Years later, he was the prophet who got the Salt Lake Temple finished, pushing the Saints to raise the funds necessary and work their hardest so it could be dedicated at the 40-year mark. The capstone celebration took place at the 39-year mark, and it was then that he urged Church members to push hard to get the interior of the temple done within the next year. It was a close call (in fact, some of the murals inside weren't quite completed by the dedication), but it's thanks to him that they had the dedication when they did. He was also the one who dedicated the Salt Lake Temple.

So he's a fitting segue to move from the St. George temple to the Salt Lake one. (Photo by Bobak Ha'Eri)


1) One of the biggest reasons for the exceedingly long construction period was a simple transportation problem. Once the original sandstone foundation cracked and was removed, leaders decided to switch to granite, which was much farther away than the sandstone (3-4 miles versus about 20) and much heavier. Instead of getting a couple of loads a day, it now took 4 days to bring one stone from the quarry.

Church leaders tried several things to speed up the transportation process, including digging canals to float the stones to the construction site and a wooden railroad. Nothing worked until Brigham Young decided that a standard, commercial railroad would be the only way. He closed the quarry (which upset some people) so efforts could be focused on getting a real railroad. The line took several years to complete, but when it was done in 1873, they could deliver two dozen stones to the lot in a single day. Finally, real progress on the temple could be achieved!

2) On the first day of dedication, a large storm with intense winds kicked up. Many felt it was the Adversary's way of showing his displeasure with the completion of the temple. During the storm, a flock of seagulls hovered around the spires. If the wind drew them away, they'd immediately fly back to the temple.

3) While attending the second day of dedication, Emma Bennett of Provo went into labor. She was moved from the Assembly Room to a smaller one and gave birth to a son near the close of the evening service. Apostle James E. Talmage wrote of this event in his journal: "Some sects would hold that such an event desecrated the holy place; but the Latter-day Saints will take a directly opposite view."

4) By the time the temple was complete, so many modern innovations were available that weren't when it was begun. Some felt that perhaps the temple needed to have such things, and that's one reason why it took so long to complete. These items included electricity (even getting the temple its own generator), interior heating, and the ability to have better plumbing and boilers for sanitary purposes (the science of which grew in leaps and bounds during those 40 years).

The Deseret Weekly commented on this, saying, "Every hindrance ultimately tends to show that there is an overruling hand, and that in the order of God, through his servants, the house, finally completed, will be more worthy of its Divine character" (quoted in Every Stone a Sermon by Holzapfel).

There's a ton more I've learned about the temple, and much more that's included in Spires of Stone, including information about some of my personal favorite parts: the Earth stones. Watch for the book when it comes out in September to read more. I'll also be adding more about the temple to my website in future weeks.

Now for the Salt Lake Temple trivia question:

When debating before construction began over what to build the temple out of, what material did Brigham Young lobby in General Conference for?
A. Granite
B. Oolite
C. Adobe
D. Stucco-covered Sandstone

Up next: The Manti Temple.

Temple Trivia Pt. II

As promised, first I’ll answer the question I posed last time:

Which was a source of regular frustration in the early years of the Logan temple?
A) The heating system
B) The roof
C) The record-keeping system
D) The landscaping

The answer: B, the roof.

In 1883—before the temple was even completed—a windstorm blew holes into the roof of the Logan temple. And that was just the start. By 1906, the roof had been repaired five times, including once in 1896 when the tin on the roof was blown right off. The roof was replaced in 1909, but still had trouble. In 1917 it had so many holes that the temple presidency requisitioned sixty wash tubs to catch rainwater!

Now for the next temple: St. George.

(Photo courtesy Wikipedia user Ricardo630.)

Note that I’m posting about them in the order I wrote and researched about them, not in the order they were completed. St. George was the first temple dedicated in Utah, and Logan was the second. I’m totally backward.

Like last time, I won’t be discussing historical bits that appear in At the Journey’s End, but (also like last time), below is a photograph of something that is mentioned in the book: the original tower and dome of the St. George temple, much shorter and squatty-looking than Brigham Young wanted it. He didn’t insist the Saints fix it, since they had already sacrificed so much to build the temple. But about a year after his death, lightning struck the tower and they rebuilt it the way he wanted it.

The tower and dome look much more proportional now!

(Photo courtesy Darrin Smith.)

Now for the St. George temple trivia:

1) This was the only Utah temple Brigham Young dedicated, because he died about three months later. At the dedication, he was so weak that he had to be carried room to room inside the temple.

2) The original architectural drawing for the temple featured a tall spire instead of a tower/dome construction.

3) Getting enough wood to build the temple—in the middle of a desert—proved difficult. It had to be cut and hauled in from Mt. Trumbull in northern Arizona, some 70 or 80 miles away. But first the trees had to be lugged to the sawmill in Antelope Springs, about halfway to St. George. The mill was about two miles away from water, so according to the history of Robert Gardner who was in charge of the lumber needs, "it took one man with a team all the time hauling to supply the Mill to keep up steam, and for domestic purposes."

4) The baptismal font and twelve oxen that supported it were made in a foundry in Salt Lake City and then hauled to St. George via railroad and oxen. The font was transported in several pieces and later bolted together. On the way down, the ox drivers had a difficult time keeping US soldiers (who believed they were carrying cannons) and others from peeking into their load. The drivers had a charge not to show the font or oxen to anyone besides bishops and whoever the bishops deemed could see them. The transportation took place during the same time as the John D. Lee trial, so emotions were high.

5) In 1928, a fire broke out in the annex of the temple in the early morning hours and caused several thousand dollars' worth of damage. The fire began in the furnace room shortly after the morning fire had been lit. Without an organized fire department—and with low water pressure—the fire was difficult to fight. Fortunately, it was put out before hurting the temple proper besides smoke damage, but the annex was burned up completely, leaving nothing but the stone walls standing.

Now for the St. George trivia question:

Who served as the first St. George Temple president?
A. Lorenzo Snow
B. Orson Pratt
C. George Albert Smith
D. Wilford Woodruff

Next time we’re going out of chronological order again, because the temple I wrote about third is Salt Lake City, but it was the fourth one dedicated. It’s also the one that’s freshest in my mind because that’s the book I just finished and is slated for release in two months. (Woohoo!)