The spiritual heart of Mormonism in eastern Idaho

Of all the buildings in Idaho Falls, one stands out for both its beauty and cultural significance.

The Idaho Falls Temple was the eighth temple constructed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, if two early temples which are no longer in operation aren’t counted. And it has long been the spiritual heart of the region for eastern Idaho’s large Mormon population.

In the late 1800s, Idaho Falls was home to a small but growing LDS community. Small groups generally worshiped in small one-room meetinghouses, such as the one Delbert Groberg attended in his youth. Groberg, who would go on to serve as temple president from 1975 to 1980, wrote the Idaho Falls Temple’s definitive history.

Growing up, Groberg wrote, his adoptive mother told him regularly that she had seen a vision of a temple on the banks of the Snake River, on what was then just a sandy bank. Years later, he would help lead the push to make the vision real.

In the early 1900s, leaders in Idaho Falls began to lobby church leaders in Salt Lake City, asking that they approve construction of a new temple. Unusual for its time, the temple was backed by both Mormon and non-Mormon leaders, said John Groberg, Delbert Groberg’s son, in an interview.

“There are people who don’t understand the Mormon Church, and who object and picket, of course,” he said. “Idaho Falls was very significant in that sense. When it was announced that we would build a temple in Idaho … there was absolutely no division whatsoever. Everyone wanted it there.”

Don F. Kugler, non-Mormon president of the Chamber of Commerce, wrote personally to LDS President Heber Grant encouraging him to support construction of the temple.

“A temple will be a really wonderful thing for the community,” he wrote. “It will be a good thing to get the people of the business community together to help on this, and I’m sure we can do it.”

With approval in place, the cornerstone of the building was laid Oct. 19, 1940. Hundreds traveled to attend the event.

For the first year, construction proceeded quickly. But with America’s decision to enter World War II in late 1941, complications began to strike the project.

“You couldn’t get materials — it was going to the war effort,” John Groberg said. “You couldn’t get laborers — it was going to the war effort. … Most of the workers who worked on it of necessity had to be older men. And many of them basically came out of retirement to work on it.”

The temple was finally completed and dedicated in September 1945. Earlier this year it began undergoing renovations, which are expected to be complete next year, according to an LDS temple website.

John Groberg served as temple president from 2005 to 2008. He captured the meaning of temples and the ceremonies performed in them in his 2012 book “Refuge and Reality.”

“That which lasts forever is real; that which does not last forever is not real,” he wrote. “The temple is the real world, not this temporal one.”

John Groberg is a member of one of the church’s Quorums of the Seventy, a group of leaders charged with missionary and ecclesiastical work throughout the world. In his travels, he said, he has seen dozens of temples throughout the world. For all that, he said, the temple in Idaho Falls stands out.

“There are many temples that have similar looks, but I think it is very distinctive,” he said. “There’s not another one just like it.”

The temple was the first constructed using a so-called “single spire” design, later adopted by many temples around the world. And the fact that it lays on the banks of the Snake River has always given it special meaning, John Groberg said.

“It’s there by the living water in the middle of a desert,” he said.

Newell Richardson served as temple president from 2002 to 2005. Being called to serve in that post was a high honor, he said.

“You oversee everything that happens in the temple, and make sure everything follows good order,” he said.

This article was originally published in the Post Register on July 30. It is used here with permission.