Denver Colorado Temple

Before the Denver Colorado Temple was announced, Denver-area stake started a temple fund years before. They gathered enough donations to meet its assessment for the construction of the temple ahead of time.

The Denver Colorado Temple ground breaking was done by Gordon B. Hinckley on May 19, 1984. The Denver Colorado Temple was dedicated by Ezra Taft Benson on October 24-28 1986.

Historical records indicate that in 1858, the S. M. Rooker family—a member family from Utah—was the first to settle at the site that later became Denver.

It was extremely difficult to find a location for the Denver Colorado Temple. Two locations were rejected within a four month period of time. “We didn’t realize the forces Satan can muster when he really puts his mind to stopping a project. Literally all hell broke loose when we announced the first two sites to the public. We weren’t welcome at those locations. . . We obtained the third site, the right site, with very little opposition. Had we gone ahead with the site we’re at now without knowing what kind of blockade Satan was setting up for us, we would have failed. I bare my testimony we have the right site and the Lord helped us to get it by diverting our attention elsewhere until we learned the proper procedures to get approval.”

The original plan for the Denver Colorado Temple was for it to look similar to the Boise Idaho Temple, but that looked too much like a mountain lodge in Colorado and the idea was scrapped.

Several times during the construction of the temple, three white doves were seen circling the temple. They appeared again when the statue of the angle Moroni was set in place. The temple architect, Bobby Thomas wrote in his journal: “The ceremony was complete and most of the spectators had dispersed. Then, just above Moroni, President Joseph Barton saw three white birds circling above the angel and pointed them out to me. I then related the seeming approval or blessing that was in process and the three previous[dove sighting] which I had witnessed.”

The Denver Colorado Temple has hundreds of feet of hand-carved woodwork on the interior. The Colorado Temple also had hand painted designs on the walls and the ceilings.

The Denver Colorado Temple has more than 600 square feet of specially designed stained-glass windows.

When the Denver Colorado Temple open house began dozens of seagulls circled the angle Moroni statue. Media representatives caught the birds on video and it appeared in the Denver Post. A woman investigating the Church at the time called the missionaries and and said “Every seagull in Colorado must have been there. Surely there must be some spiritual significance. I want to know more.”