The Logan Temple.
IT is intriguing how different newspapers reports of the same event can be.
Example: Here are two Utah newspaper headlines for December of 1917:
-"Logan Temple is damaged by fire," Salt Lake Tribune, December 6, 1917.
-"Logan Temple destroyed by fire," Box Elder Journal, December 7, 1917.
The Salt Lake Tribune story stated that a fire on December 4, 1917 caused $75,000 in damages. The fire had started in a closet under the main stairway, on the east end of the building. Nearby residents spotted the fire and called the Logan Fire Department.
The Tribune report continued: Firemen responded and the blaze was quickly extinguished with just one hose. However, then minutes later, a second fire broke out, this on the third floor and threatened to engulf the entire Temple. That fire required the firemen's largest hose and lots of water to put the blaze out. It was later discovered that the closet where the first blaze began contained a main electrical switchboard and that is likely how another fire began, by electrical wires two floors up. The initial blaze was sparked by an extremely flammable mixture of polish that the temple's janitor had left in the small closet. Then, some electrical wires melted on the switchboard and sparks hit the polish and ignited the large fire.
The Box Elder newspaper stated, "The beautiful Logan Temple was entirely destroyed by fire Tuesday evening. Of course, the walls remain, for they are of stone. Almost the entire interior of the structure was burned to ruins." The fire started at 7:45 p.m., when no one was inside the temple. Damage was estimated at $100,000.
The Logan Temple opened in 1884 and cost $500,000 then to construct.
Just over three months later, Logan Temple reopened on March 11, 1918. The Salt Lake Telegram reported on that day that $30,000 were spent on materials, to replace those destroyed or damaged in the fire. Countless thousands of dollars were saved in free labor donated by Church members in Cache County.
-There was also an earthquake that caused significant damage to the Logan Temple. On March 27, 1975, 7:31 p.m., a magnitude 6.0 quake occurred 15 miles southwest of Malad City, Idaho. This quake was felt all over the Intermountain area. Several years later, a close inspection of the Logan Temple during a renovation, revealed that the main wooden support beam on the roof of the temple had cracked in the quake.
According to the late Fred Baker, chairman of the Church's Physical Facilities, from 1965-1991 (interviewed about this in early 2012 by the Church History Department), this is why the Logan Temple renovation, from 1977-1979, was so extensive. Most of the inside of the temple had to be gutted and rebuilt. Sadly, some spectacular paintings were also removed and never replaced.
Brother Baker stated:
"When they took it (the inside of the Logan Temple) down, we found that the main structural beam had cracked right in two from an earlier earthquake. If you had redone the temple and put the First Presidency and all the people up there on that (upper) floor, it may have totally collapsed. After all that, the Presidency told Emil (Fetzer, Building Committee member), 'Thank goodness you were wise enough to completely remodel the Logan Temple.' But local people hated us for touching their temple, and I could understand that. We never received that kind of response from the local members when we did the other temples. We did all thirteen existing temples, but the Logan Temple was the only one that we got such a negative response on."
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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.
