Manti Utah Temple

That white building on the hill is the Manti Utah Temple, and it has dominated the Sanpete Valley for more than a century. Brigham Young announced its construction in eighteen seventy-five, and ground was broken in April of eighteen seventy-seven. The exterior is cream-colored oolite limestone quarried from the very hill on which the temple stands.

Construction took eleven years. When it was dedicated on May twenty-first, eighteen eighty-eight, with services running through May twenty-third, it became the fifth completed temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Designed by William Harrison Folsom, who relocated to Manti for the project, the temple can be seen from miles away across the valley floor.

It remains one of the most photographed landmarks in central Utah and an active house of worship more than one hundred thirty years after its dedication.