Fun Facts about the Star Valley Wyoming Temple

-The Star Valley Wyoming Temple is the first temple to be built in Wyoming! Star Valley is also the location of the first stake in Wyoming, the stake was organized in 1892!

-The Star Valley was announced in 2011 and it was dedicated in 2016 by David A. Bednar.

-When President Monson announced the Star Valley Wyoming Temple he said: “I think I’ll dedicate that one, there’s good fishing up there.” 🙂

-At the groundbreaking ceremony for the Star Vally Wyoming Temple Craig C. Christensen of the Seventy said: “There couldn’t be a more appropriate place for a house of God…The temple is a gift of God. It is to the great heritage that is here… It links generations together. The temple will become a landmark, a sacred place for this valley for years to come.”

-The Star Vally Temple design has references to the Wyoming State Capital, the Afton Tabernacle, and other Mormon pioneer structures.

-A prediction of a temple Star Valley came when the area was first settled in 1870’s. Moses Thatcher of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The prophecy was recorded years later in the Deseret Weekly in 1894:

“A fine tract of bench land on the eastern portion of Afton will afford a beautiful site for a Temple hereafter to be built, as per prophesy of Elder Moses Thatcher. This bench lies at the mouth of Swift Creek canyon, from whence flows a large stream of pure water, flanked on either side by a park of beautiful swamp pines, many of which are more than 100 feet high.”

-Moses Thatcher named Star Valley because “it is the Star of all the Valleys” and he dedicated the land as a Latter-Day Saint settlement.

-The Star Valley Temple, The Cedar City Temple and the Provo City Center Temple all have a beautiful stained glass mural of the Savior. These three temples all have sister pieces from a single mural that was redone. It was originally in First Presbyterial Church in New York City.

-During the dedicatory prayer there is a beautiful section of the pioneer sacrifices that were made from the first people in Star Valley:

“We thank Thee for the faith of the pioneers who helped to establish Thy Son’s Church in the areas included in this temple district. Their sacrifices continue to bless us today. We pray that we, like so many of them, may be true to Thee in both life and death.”

-The beautiful stained glass windows is a flower commonly known at the “fireweed” or Chamerion Angustifolium this flower is a robust native perennial, it is known to have fine roots. The Temple designers never said why they chose this flower, so it is up to you to find the symbolism for this temple and where it is built.