Granite For The Temple
Compiled by Don Strack
This page was last updated on September 14, 2006.
(...a work in progress; research continues.)
The Salt Lake City temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was dedicated on April 6, 1893. Construction had begun with a ground breaking on February 14, 1853. In the forty years between these two dates, the delays to completion were numerous and many, but the most visible was the difficulties of moving the granite construction materials from their quarry, twenty miles north to the temple site in Salt Lake City.
At first, sandstone was used as the temple foundation, but because of the planned size (and weight) of the building, was soon found to be inadequate. In about 1858-1859 after construction resumed following the troubles with the U. S. government and the coming of Johnston's Army, a granite quarry was opened at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, 20 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.
The temple site itself was located within but a few days of the Pioneers' entry into the Salt Lake Valley in July 1847. In her 1931 biography of her father Brigham Young, Susa Young Gates relates how on July (?), Brigham Young stood in an open area bisected by City Creek and said, "Here we will build the temple of our God." At that time, the temple block was laid out covering ten acres, on the pattern of the ancient temple in Jerusalem: "It extends a full city block, -- one eighth of a mile in each of its four directions; and, it is interesting to note, these dimensions are practically the same as those which, according to Josephus, enclosed the grounds on which stood the Temple of Herod." (Talmage, The House of the Lord, p.115)
The formal decision to go ahead with temple construction was voted on less than four years later at the church's general conference on April 6, 1851. A general epistle issued by the First Presidency of the Church, on the following Monday, April 7, saying, "We contemplate laying a wall around the Temple Block this season, preparatory to laying the foundation of a Temple the year following." They addressed the needed transportation of building materials at the same time, "A railroad has been chartered to extend from the Temple Block in this city to the stone quarry and mountain on the east, for the conveyance of building materials; the construction to commence immediately." (Talmage, The House of the Lord, p.114)
Construction of a railroad began as early as May 1851, as evidenced by a note in the May 17, 1851 issue of Deseret News, saying, "The railroad grading is progressing well, considering the frequent hindrance by rain." Another mention came on November 15, 1851, "The railroad is progressing, the grading is completed to a considerable extent; nothing has been done on it since spring, until recently." More progress was reported on January 24, 1852, "The grading of the Rail-Road is progressing; all under contract. It is proposed to use broad tire on the grade, at present, without rails." (Unfortunately, no additional information has been located about this early attempt at moving the granite for the temple. Research continues...)
A general description of temple construction was given by Apostle George A. Smith at the semi-annual conference on October 8, 1873:
We have met with a great many obstacles in the way of its progress. After the foundation was level with the ground, we commenced to use granite, which had to be hauled some eighteen miles, and we hauled it with oxen and mules. Whenever oppression from our enemies or other causes did not prevent, we progressed with this great work.
We have now gained an advantage that we never had before—that is, railway communication directly with the granite quarry. It is true that we have to change form narrow to broad gauge, causing a little trouble; we bring from two to four car-loads a day of this granite on to the Temple Block. There are some eighty men cutting these stones, and there is a party of men now engaged in laying them. (Journal of Discourses, Volume 16, page 279)
In his "Establishing Zion: The Mormon Church in the American West, 1847-1869", Eugene E. Campbell wrote:
The third important building under construction during the 1860s was the Salt Lake Temple, begun in 1853 but not completed until 1893. The foundation was initially of sandstone but was torn up when a large granite quarry was located in Little Cottonwood Canyon, twenty miles southeast of the city. Except during the Utah War, several hundred tithing artisans worked steadily on the structure. Other workers brought lumber from a sawmill in Big Cottonwood Canyon. About fifty teams from the various wards in Salt Lake Valley hauled rock from the quarry to the temple site, where stonecutters dressed the large stones. Three or four yoke of oxen were required for each load, which consisted of one huge block and two smaller blocks. Larger granite blocks weighed as much as five tons; blocks weighing three tons were common. Cattle yards to take care of three hundred head of cattle were constructed near the Little Cottonwood quarry. Hay was furnished by the public works, and each ward was asked to furnish grain for the animals. The drivers lodged near the corral in tents. With luck, teams could go from Salt Lake City to the quarry and return with a load to the temple site in two days.
In general, church leaders tried to restrict the use of tithing funds to the purchase of imported machinery and supplies and, after the construction of a railroad to the quarry in 1873, to pay for the freight. Construction of the railway made it possible for whole trainloads of granite blocks to be rolled onto the temple grounds every few days as needed. Threatened famine from grasshoppers and other natural crises interrupted the work repeatedly, and it was also suspended in 1868-69 during the construction of the transcontinental railroad.
Another bit has come to light... Ron Andersen wrote in 1997: Vine Street follows the north bank of Little Cottonwood Creek and was apparently a trail used by Indians and probably animals before them. The first store and post office in Murray was at the corner of State and Vine. The road along Vine Street was narrow between the springs on the Mick Riley golf course and Little Cottonwood Creek. Wagons hauling granite rock to Temple Square would frequently bog down, if this stretch of the trail was wet.
The actual location of the church granite quarry appears to be near the intersection of North Little Cottonwood Road, and South Little Cottonwood Road, in the mouth of the canyon.
The community known as Wasatch, where the D&RGW standard gauge branch ended and the narrow gauge branch of the former W&JV began, along with being the interchange point between the standard gauge Salt Lake and Alta Railroad and the narrow gauge Little Cottonwood Transportation Company, appears to be near what today is known as Wasatch Resort, approximately one mile further east (up-canyon) from the granite quarry.
The community of Granite was centered around the Granite ward house, at the intersection of today's 9800 South and 3100 East. Granite was the community that grew up at the location where the granite wagon teamsters would overnight and graze their teams of oxen and draft horses.
It appears that the alignment of the Wasatch and Jordan Valley Railroad, and the later D&RGW Wasatch Branch, was along today's South Little Cottonwood Road east from the intersection of 9400 South an Highland Drive. West of there, it appears that the alignment matches a diagonal line that includes today's Cy's Road, to the approximate center of historic Sandy at about 8800 South and 150 East.
Sources:
Gates, Susa Young. The Life Story of Brigham Young. New York, 1931.
Campbell, Eugene E. Establishing Zion: The Mormon Church in the American West, 1847-1869. Signature Books; Salt Lake City, Utah, 1988.
Cooley, Everett L. "Utah's Capitals" Utah Historical Quarterly, July 1959
(Expanded research notes can be found here.)
***
