-The Draper Utah Temple is the 129th operating temple in Utah. It is the 12th Temple built in Utah and the 3rd Temple built in the Salt Lake Valley.
-The theme around the Draper Temple design is the Sego Lily Utah’s state flower. You can see these flowers throughout the whole temple. The Sego Lily was the plant the pioneers used as sustenance, they said it was “manna from heaven.” The Sego Lily flower is also used in the design of the Winter Quarters Temple.
-The Draper Temple has the biggest sealing room of all the temples with seating for 80 people.
-The Draper Temple is built on the convergence of two fault lines. The temple is engineered to last over a hundred years, or even hundreds of years. With two fault lines, it took a lot of work to make the temple strong enough to withstand what could come!
-The baptistry in the Draper Temple is on the downward slop on a hill and it allows for beautiful natural light to come into the baptistry.
-At the time of ground breaking of the Draper Temple it was uncommon for the entire first presidency to come to the ground breaking ceremonies, but they were all able to attend the Draper Temple ground breaking. During the groundbreaking President Hinckley said that he is often asked why there are so many temples in Utah. “Because we need them” President Hinckley would answer. “It is a tribute to our people, so faithful in temple attendance.” While costly to construct and costly to maintain, “We must have them.” He said as Utah population grows there may be a need to build one or two more temples in the valley. “But it will be a while.” He said “don’t count on it tomorrow..”
-Holdman Studios made the windows for the Draper Temple. Holdman Studios team spent two and a half years planning and preparing the windows for the Draper Temple when a fire broke out in the warehouse where the windows were stored. They were able to rescue windows, all but one window was saved!
-The Draper Temple was one of the most widely attended open houses in Church history. There were around 684,721 visitors and served over 1,030,000 cookies!
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Sources:
“Temples of the new Millennium” by Chad Hawkins p.260-261