- The Vernal Temple is the 51st dedicated temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The Vernal Temple was the 10th temple built in Utah.
-The Vernal Temple is the first temple that was made out of an existing building-The Uintah Stake Tabernacle. The Tabernacle had fallen into disrepair and had not hosted any conferences in over 14 years before the Temple announcement.
-The idea of turning the Uintah Tabernacle to a temple was first proposed in 1984. The idea was rejected by the first presidency and the building was even put up for sale for a bit. In 1993 it was proposed again for the tabernacle to be changed to a temple and this time it was met with approval!
-On the outside of the Vernal Temple has two dedication dates. The first was 1907, the date the tabernacle was dedicated, and 1997 the date the temple was dedicated!
-At the dedication of the Uintah Stake Tabernacle on August 24, 1907, President Joseph F. Smith's words would prove prophetic when he said he "would not be surprised if the day would come when a temple would be built in your own midst here."
-There were some amazing “coincidences” that helped the building of this temple go more smoothly. They needed more well maintained brick from that same time period. They found a house owned by a man named Nick J. Meager. He had planned to raze the home but instead agreed to donate it to the Church. More than a thousand volunteers helped dismantle the home, brick by brick. Volunteers had salvaged 16,000 bricks!
-Another amazing “coincidence” when the construction workers were excavating the basement they discovered and open arch underneath the tabernacle doors. This large gap in the foundation amazingly allowed for heavy equipment to get through. It was the exact width to the inch that is needed to for a backhoe tractor to get through!! How amazing is that!!
-The walls of the tabernacle were 4 bricks deep. The inside layer was all gutted and rebuilt as the new temple.
-The Vernal Temple has a stained glass window on the east side from made from Mt. Olivet Methodist Episcopal Church of Hollywood.
-The oxen under the baptismal font were on display form more than twenty years in the South Visitors Center on Temple square in Salt Lake City.
-The old dome of the Uintah Stake Tabernacle was removed and renovated into a gazebo, located at the Ashley Valley Commnunity Park. The Vernal Utah Temple was given two domes instead of the one that the tabernacle had.
-“A young women at the temple open house commented that her great-grandfather had been told in a blessing that he would help construct a temple for the Lord. Motivated by this blessing he traveled to Salt Lake to receive instruction. He was told to go and use his talents on the Ashley Uintah Stake Tabernacle, where he stayed and worked until it’s completion. Not having built any other building for the Church, he died believing his blessing had been unfulfilled. The dedication of the Vernal Temple on November 2, 1997, marked the fulfillment of the man’s blessing.”
Sources:
Temples of the New Millennium p. 104-105