The Manti Temple: From Rattlesnake Heaven to Mummies to Bigfoot

                                            The Manti Temple.

By Lynn Arave

THE story of Adam and Eve and the Serpent probably has a little more relevance at the Manti Temple, than at any other Church Temple.
Why?

ACCORDING to www.ldschurchtemples.com, "The Manti Utah Temple was built on a rattlesnake-infested site, known as the Manti Stone Quarry."
The Temple's construction started in 1877 and was completed 11 years later in 1888, as the third temple in Utah.
Located on "Temple Hill," the exterior of the Temple was obtained from quarries in the hill where it is located.

                                          Some of the exposed rock just east of the Temple.

                Some above ground rock, left intact,  in a yard just to the south of the Manti Temple.

This hill was apparently rattlesnake heaven as not dozens, but hundreds of the poisonous reptiles called it home when the first pioneer settlers arrived there.
In fact, according to the Ensign Magazine of March 1978, settlers "battled rattlesnakes for possession of the valley." 
According to several pioneer diaries referenced on scholarsarchive.byu.edu, the Temple Hill had the greatest infestation of all.
The first pioneers arrived in the fall of 1849 and sought refuge by building dugouts on the south side of the hill that would later be known as "Temple Hill."
After what was one of the worst winters ever in the area (according to the local Native Americans), a warming spring brought hope to the settlers.
However, as temperatures warmed in the spring of 1850, rattlesnakes began to appear everywhere on the hillside -- even in people's dugouts, beds, etc.

             The famous, now cancelled, Manti Pageant used to be held on this open lawn.

One pioneer diary claimed 300 snakes were killed during the first night they appeared. Another stated at least 500 were killed. Still another claimed "1,500" were wiped out. The extermination of the reptiles continued several more nights too.
Settlers primarily used primarily torches and clubs to kill the snakes and the miraculous factor is that there was not one report of a snakebite.
According to Utah Pioneer Stories on Sanpete.com, the spring of 1850 brought this development:
"Soon hundreds of hissing rattlesnakes appeared in the dugouts. They were everywhere! As the sun began to go down the snakes became more plentiful and the battle was on. The settlers armed themselves with clubs, torches and anything else that they could use as a weapon against hundreds of snakes."

                   Manti is a Utah pioneer city older than any outside the Wasatch Front.

Some 27 years later in 1877, presumably most of the snakes were gone by then, as Brigham Young announced the temple site.

President Young reportedly said, “Here is the spot where the Prophet Moroni stood and dedicated this piece of land for a Temple site, and that is the reason why the location is made here, and we can’t move it from this spot; and if you and I are the only persons that come here at high noon today, we will dedicate this ground.” (LDS Church News, March 8, 1958.)

A section of the City's garden, southwest of the Temple. There used to be a "Mortal" Moroni statue standing nearby, but it was permanently removed in about 2012.

(Note that some now question that Moroni  actually dedicated the site for this temple. That's because it relies upon a single source and the occurrence was never included in any official Manti Temple histories, such as its dedication proceedings.)

Construction began that same year and the first step was to level out the hilltop so a temple could sit there. It required significant blasting as the hill contained a lot of rock.

Note that there is no Angel Moroni on either of the Manti Temple's spires. That's ironic, a lack of Moroni's image on the outside of the temple, given that from at least one source, the Prophet Moroni as a mortal, wandered the Americas and possibly dedicated the very spot where the temple is to be such.

(In fact, even today Temple Hill only has dirt that extends downward from a few inches deep to several feet before hitting all rock.)
When the temple builders were creating the western foundation for the structure, they discovered an extensive network of caves and tunnels, obviously where the rattlesnakes used to nest in winter several decades earlier.
Rattlesnakes have left a lasting impression on the Manti area. Indeed, one of the tallest mountain summits in the area is named Rattlesnake Peak, at 8,612 feet above sea level.

-There are also other, more fanciful tales regarding the Manti Temple.
There are unconfirmed stories of strange inscriptions on some of the rocks found inside Temple Hill's caves during the early construction.
Other tales speak of even metal plates and mummies found beneath the hill in its caves.
Some stories claim local Native Americans spoke about an ancient temple and altar being on the hill long ago. These Indians also warned of the dangers of going inside any of the caves.

-Even stranger story: At the timber camp in Ephraim Canyon, during the early construction of the Manti Temple, likely in the late 1870s, there was an incident one night where men of the camp were terrified by some creature in the forest. It made strange noises, killed some of their dogs and frightened their horses. They finally started a bonfire and shot guns in the darkness to try and get it to leave. It did finally depart.
Some believe this creature was Bigfoot and could have been the first recorded sighting ever of Sasquatch in Utah territory.

The enclosed arch where you used to be able to drive through the temple without a recommend.

-TRUE TALE though is that you used to be able to drive THROUGH the Manti Temple.

The original construction included an arched tunnel at ground level, just wide enough for a small automobile or wagon to pass through.

The archway was eventually filled in decades later and is now a large window and stone.

Still, people back in the day used to joke that Manti was the only temple you could go through WITHOUT a recommend.

(Some early photographs of the Manti Temple clearly show the archway.)

Another ironic occurrence to the construction of the Manti Temple was that much of its lumber came from the nearby “Hell’s Kitchen” area of a nearby forest.

NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.