In the news today: Location released for South Dakota’s first LDS Temple. I did not know South Dakota was getting a temple. It’s on Mt. Rushmore Road, just south of Rapid City and about twenty miles north of the Mt. Rushmore National Monument. If you’re a biker, that’s about 35 miles south of Sturgis. If you’re into TV westerns, that’s about 60 miles from Deadwood, SD. If you prefer movie references, the site is about 85 miles east of Sundance, Wyoming, where you can get a photo of yourself sitting with a bronze of the Kid himself on a park bench. If you’re into tourist traps off the interstate, it’s about 60 miles west of Wall Drug. So the LDS temple will be one more star attraction in western South Dakota.
What is the most surprising LDS temple site you have run across? As in, whoa, there’s a temple here? They’re everywhere these days, so sometimes you get surprised. Most recently for me it’s the LDS Temple and Casino in Elko, Nevada, right next to the 80. No, there’s not really a casino with the temple, but if there was it might increase attendance. I’m sure the LDS citizens of Jackpot, Nevada, are happy to have the option of driving 116 miles to the Elko Temple as opposed to crossing the state line into Idaho and driving 51 miles to the Twin Falls temple.
I suppose I’m being a little lighthearted with this post, but maybe today is a good day for a little distracting humor.
Here are a few questions for readers.
- On your next wild week in Sturgis, will you lead a caravan of righteous bikers over to the Rushmore Temple?
- Will you South Dakotans now support putting an image of Joseph Smith on Mt. Rushmore? Or adding Samuel the Lamanite to the nearby but yet-unfinished Crazy Horse Memorial?
- What’s the most surprising LDS temple location you have run across?
- Did you know there was once serious discussion by LDS leaders about outfitting a cruise ship as a mobile LDS temple? It would have visited remote locations where LDS members lived but could not easily visit an earthbound LDS temple. With the booming cruise ship business, this idea should be revisited as more of a themed cruise for LDS seniors, with either an onboard temple section or frequent shore visits to say Caribbean temples. The Church even provides a handy map of LDS temples in the Caribbean to help you plan your righteous cruise.
- Elon Musk put a Tesla in space. If not an actual functioning LDS temple, perhaps a small replica of an LDS temple could be launched. Perhaps in 2036, on the 200th anniversary of the magnificent spiritual outpouring at the Kirtland Temple in 1836. It would be fitting if a replica of the Provo Temple was the space temple.
Wheat & Tares 
Well. I suppose finding an LDS temple in Kirtland, Ohio, would be on my list. Of course, it’s an historical one rather than currently functioning one, but still. Yes, it takes a long time for wounds to heal.
We’ve all heard the comment “you can leave the Church but not leave the Church alone”. My response to that as a resident of SL County is I’d love to leave it alone but everywhere I look in every direction there’s an LDS temple that I have to see every day. I miss living in the Dallas suburbs (the Dallas temple is well hidden).
Is there an arrest warrant out for the architect? Also is there a rule that a temple has to be totally oblivious to its location?
Looking at this building and poking my eyes out with a screwdriver? Can’t decide.
A sad note. Ardis Parshall has died.
“…a man can and should and may be called of God, but it’s up to him, and him alone, whether he lives up to that calling. The same is true for me — I choose to do all I can to fill my role, or I choose otherwise.”
Funny you should mention space temples.
There’s a (really good) series of sci-fi books (and an adapted TV series) called The Expanse which is set a few hundred years in the future when humanity is colonizing the solar system but runs up against the constraint of limited resources and having no where else to go. (Interstellar travel not yet being possible or realistic).
The mormons, in an attempt to defy population controls on earth, build the largest space ship ever that has a rotating drum with a miniature sun and soil for farming and a temple for services. The mormons intend to launch the ship towards one of the nearest stars and plan for several generations of people to be live and die on the ship in transit.
Most of the characters in the series find the endeavor absurd and dangerous but are nevertheless impressed with the mormons’ faith and optimism.
Dave, thank you for this lighthearted take on what will certainly become a serious problem for the Church over the next several years: too many temples, not enough patrons or workers to reasonably support them or justify their existence, along with increasingly watered-down temple liturgy, and the insistence on building them against the wishes (and zoning laws) of the local communities. These problems are of the Church’s own making, and totally preventable/avoidable. Worst of all, it’s the rank-and-file members (not the senior Church leaders) who will be paying the price.
Thanks for the comments, everyone.
Jack Hughes, I intended to write a more serious post reviewing a recent book on LDS temples, but didn’t quite have my material ready to go. Maybe next week. But today’s post is at least half serious. The evidence of Pres. Nelson’s temple-building binge is that there are now temples in a lot of places you wouldn’t expect them, such as Elko, Nevada. There’s one in Alaska. There’s one in Saskatchewan. There are two in New Mexico. This is a significant change from what it was like only forty or fifty years ago, when a “temple trip” was a multi-day affair of hundreds or even a thousand miles for many LDS, certainly overseas and even within the United States. This building spree also supports the higher profile of LDS temple rites and attendance for LDS members in the 21st-century Church.
Vajra, that temple and the equally ugly one in Ogden have been torn down, I believe, and replaced with more traditional looking and attractive ones. So, don’t worry, the church repented of ugly temples. I have seen what they replaced Odgen’s ugly building with and it isn’t bad. I haven’t seen what they replaced that Provo temple with, as I avoid the city I was raised it like the plague is there. The “plague” being BYU. Seeing as I lived in Provo when the above monstrosity was built, I remember commenting to friends that God couldn’t have inspired anyone involved with something that ugly. I am sure he has better taste.
I didn’t see the Rapid City temple, but I was surprised to encounter a pair of senior missionaries at Mt. Rushmore a few years ago. A couple of summers ago, my wife and I went on a road trip through South Dakota. We stopped in at Mt. Rushmore and were surprised to find a senior missionary couple, nametags and all, manning a little table they’d set up in one of the established “free speech” areas that the National Park Service has established there. The only other person/group in the free speech area that day was some sort of New Age spirituality thing (crystals and all)–and they were attracting much more interest than the Mormons!
If I remember correctly, the senior missionary couple had set up a “Family Search” table. We didn’t approach them, but I believe they would have run a search for anyone’s ancestors–and then given them a little testimonial on the importance of eternal families. We passed by several times in the half day we were at Mt. Rushmore, and we never saw that anyone that had stopped at the booth–it was just the senior couple sitting there and waiting. This was in spite of it being 4th of July weekend when Mt. Rushmore was overrun with visitors.
The thing that really stuck with me is how tired and bored the senior missionary couple appeared to be. Maybe we just caught them at the wrong time, or maybe we just misinterpreted their appearance (maybe they always look bored when they’re actually really happy), but I just got the sense that if this was the best idea the Church had for these 2 senior volunteers for that day, that they weren’t very excited that they had reported for duty.
I kinda like those two ugly temples. But I did watch The Jetsons in COLOR.
Yeah, I liked the old Ogden and Provo temples, too.
Was sad to hear of Ardis’ passing as well.
I wonder how many people, once the SD temple is completed, will have to travel much less (even if still multiple hours) to attend a temple. Reminds me of Christ ministering to the one, and makes my heart glad.
“The evidence of Pres. Nelson’s temple-building binge is that there are now temples in a lot of places you wouldn’t expect them, such as Elko, Nevada. There’s one in Alaska. There’s one in Saskatchewan. There are two in New Mexico.”
Three of these five were dedicated 26 years ago at a time when Russell Nelson was fifth senior in his quorum after Packer, Perry, Haight, and Maxwell, and the First Presidency was Hinckley, Monson, and Faust.
The Anchorage temple was originally 6,800 square feet, then it was expanded to 11,900 sq. ft. six years later and rededicated. Two years ago the stake center next door was torn down to build a new Anchorage temple now under construction that will be 30,000 sq. ft. So, yes, it is surprising now much use there may be for a temple in remote places we don’t think about much.
(The existing Anchorage temple continues in operation during construction of the new one. This reminds me of several high schools I have seen construct a new building on top of the ball fields, then tear down the old building to create new ball fields.)
The Regina, Saskatchewan temple with two stakes in its temple district appears to match what Gordon Hinckley announced October 1997: “But there are many areas of the Church that are remote, where the membership is small and not likely to grow very much in the near future. [ . . .] We will construct small temples in some of these areas [ . . . ] These structures would be open according to need, maybe only one or two days a week”
A very old surprise temple is the one that was dedicated in Hawaii over a hundred years ago. At the time there were four operating temples, all in Utah. None yet in Idaho or Arizona. The first stake in Hawaii was not organized until 1935, sixteen years after the temple.
Anna, the Albuquerque temple can’t decide it it’s a mortuary or a Marriott . And the spire at the back of the building? Let’s just say my puppy would be proud.
The Albuquerque temple’s rendition of a sunstone really fits for New Mexico. When I designed with the stonecarver a headstone for my wife’s grave, I adapted the Albuquerque temple sun as a nod to New Mexico as her home state. (I used 12 major and 12 minor rays instead of the temple’s 16 and 16 because at the smaller scale of a headstone 32 rays was too aggressive.)
A temple in Albuquerque, And since 2000. (How did I miss it) Somebody tell Vince Gilligan pronto.
And in the Expanse, my interest was ignited by the the ship Nauvoo. I was intrigued by the idea of Mormon colonists. My interest nosedived. Who cares about Behemoth, not me. All these years later. I am still severely disappointed.
The Hong Kong temple is rather odd. 24,000 members. Let’s say maybe 10,000 are active and let’s say of that number, 5,000 hold recommends. That’s not a lot of use for a building sitting in the most expensive city in the world.
On my mission there we had a monthly P-day that was converted to a temple P-day and 180 missionaries did an endowment session. We were told our attendance doubled the monthly endowment numbers. That means on any given day maybe 10 people are going to the temple.
I think church leaders originally thought it would be a SE Asia hub but when I was an expat in India the very few members who could afford a temple trip either went all the way to Utah or went to a Philippines temple as the flight, hotel, etc was all significantly cheaper.
I think church leaders also thought HK would be needed for the future day when China allowed their people the opportunity to join Mormonism. This feels less likely with each passing day, notwithstanding RMN’s fever dream of a Shanghai temple that is now on permanent hiatus.
Other oddities I’ve noticed: Buenos Aires, London, Rome temples are well off the beaten path of the city they are named after. I’m confused because their build seems to require a car to visit yet I would imagine most saints in these cities don’t own a car. So who exactly is the target audience here? I realize they have now announced a “city center” temple in BA, probably for this very reason. There are probably others like this; these are just the ones I’m aware of.
Surprise! Look, there’s a Temple Open House…in Fairview, Texas that we didn’t want the neighbors to know about because we were such arrogant jerks in the planning commission approval process.
groundbreaking (Feb 21st) not open house
Setting aside how horribly the church approached everything related to the Fairview temple, I would have very much loved the original design over the scaled-down version!
Re: Fairview temple. I don’t understand by the Church has battled city councils there and elsewhere (Boston, Lone Mountain Nevada, Cody Wyoming, and Heber City Utah come to mind) to build a tall spire when other beautiful temples have no spire at all (Laie, Mesa, Cardston, Paris, Tucson). I like variety and many recent temples look almost identical. Why can’t we copy and paste Paris and Tucson replicas into these more residential locations for the sake of variety and public relations? Fairview would have been my temple when I lived in the Dallas suburbs a dozen years ago, and I would have appreciated and taken pride in the relative uniqueness of a spire-less temple.
And what’s with the floodlights at night? It ain’t Paree’… just high Prole.
I live near one of the first generation Hinckley-era mini temples, in Lubbock, Texas. It is supported by something like 5-6 stakes. It has a relatively sparse opening schedule, but it does considerably increase access for people who would otherwise have to drive several hours to Dallas, so it was very much in line with Hinckley’s vision. I’m quite familiar with the sparsely populated area in southeastern Idaho and was quite surprised by the announcement of a temple in Montpelier. Further investigation revealed there are probably more stakes in the region than I imagined, so maybe 5-ish stakes is the new norm. The real surprises are when they are announced in places with even fewer stakes, which I think is happening in a number of places internationally. Budapest was a big surprise to me. The other surprise is the size of newer temples. They are getting bigger relative to the expected amount of membership they are serving. Most of the Hinckley mini temples have the same 10700 square foot floor plan, which is about 2/3 the size of an average North American stake center. Now we’re building 20 and 30 thousand square foot temples in places that aren’t going to be used any more than some of the existing ones 1/2 or 1/3 their size. I think this reflects an fundamental difference in philosophy between Hinckley and Nelson. Hinckley seemed to prioritize cost efficiency. Nelson seemed to prioritize temples being very visible (see the Fairview Texas controversy that other commenters have brought up), and was willing to risk overcapacity in both size and density of temples on faith that it will all get used eventually. I’m not so sure about that.
IIRC, there’s a group of LDS bikers whose explicit goal is to take temple trips.
“the LDS Temple and Casino in Elko, Nevada”
Some time ago we were driving down the interstate at night, and it just wasn’t safe to keep going given our fatigue, so we pulled into Elko. We found one hotel with a vacancy, and it was only for one room. A very hot room, and AC that wasn’t working well. I went down to Albertsons and found Ben & Jerry’s oatmeal cookie dough ice cream. Didn’t know that existed. The fam loved it!
Chadwick asks, “Other oddities I’ve noticed: Buenos Aires, London, Rome temples are well off the beaten path of the city they are named after. I’m confused because their build seems to require a car to visit yet I would imagine most saints in these cities don’t own a car. So who exactly is the target audience here?”
Can’t speak for BA or London, although I suspect the answer in London is similar. Rome has been continually inhabited for +/-3,000 years. You can’t sling a cat there without hitting a medieval church or an ancient Roman ruin (or a medieval church built on an ancient Roman ruin). Permitting to build any closer in to the heart of Rome would have been tied up for decades in Italian bureaucracy, antiquities preservation litigation and regulations, and just plain finding enough land. The temple, visitors center, and housing for workers and missionaries sits on 15 acres – a former farm that the church bought in the late ’90s. Finding that kind of space today any closer to city center would be nearly impossible on several levels.
The target audience is, most likely, “temple tourist” traffic. I haven’t heard a breakdown; I could poke around as some former mission companions of mine, etc. are or were temple workers or (senior) missionaries there – but I think relatively little of the traffic is comprised of Italian Saints. Saints in the northern stakes – 6 of the ten Italian stakes are in the current Italy Milan Mission – are asked? directed? to attend the Rome Temple even though for 5 of those 6 stakes the Swiss Temple is closer, and when it’s a 5+ hour trip by auto or train, it’s probably not a weekly thing. President Nelson announced a Milan Temple in October 2024. Absent Nelson, I will believe it when I see it. Activity rates are falling in the northern stakes, a great deal of, or most, missionary work is happening among non-Italian immigrants but very little success occurs among native Italians, and there are wards and branches where the majority of active members do not speak Italian as a first language and sometimes barely speak it at all.
Maybe this helps, I dunno. For “qualification” purposes, I served in the former Italy Catania Mission from 1987 to 1989, have retained the language, and have remained in touch with a good slice of former companions and others in Italy both in and out of the church.
thx New Iconoclast for the update. You lucky duck – spending 2 yrs touring the fabulous Italia. Yeah, I realize it’s hard to appreciate a place’s awesomeness when you are trying to preach to uninterested citizens, but . . some of us have spent considerable $$ just to be able to say that we briefly walked the streets of Rome.