The second temple Tyler and I visited on our quest to visit all the temples in Utah was the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple. We went on May 14th, 2010 to the 4 o'clock endowment session. It had been a busy day at work and I was rushing to meet up Tyler on time for this session. Once I finally got there though it was nice, peaceful, and set a wonderful tone for the rest of the evening. In all we had a great time there :)
History:
It is named Oquirrh Mountain because it was built on the base of the Oquirrh Mountain range. This mountain range is on the west side of the Salt Lake Valley and while the Wasatch Mountains lay on the east side. You might be thinking Oquirrh is kind of a weird name, it is actually an Indiana name. The word means "wooden mountain" in the Goshute Indian language and in the Ute Indian translation it means "the shining mountains." At first the planned named was going to be the South Jordan Utah Temple, but was figured to be too confusing for people so it was changed to Oquirrh Mountain. This was believed to be too confusing due to the fact that the Jordan River Temple is also in South Jordan. In fact South Jordan is the only town in the world to have two temples. The temple was announced October 1st, 2005. The groundbreaking was on December 16th, 2006 and it was dedicated August 21st-23rd, 2009. One interesting fact about the open house of this temple is that Angel Moroni was actually hit by lightning during a lightning storm on July 13th, 2009. It blackened Moroni's face, arm, and trumpet. No worries it was replaced before the dedication. The dedication was interesting in that on August 23rd, church was cancelled statewide for the first time ever so members could attend the dedication.
Architecture/Decor :
As said above the temple is located on the base of the Oquirrh Mountains, so much of the decor of this temple is based off of the natural beauty of these mountains. Inside there are beautiful murals of the Oquirrh Moutains, and designs of the native plant life with in the architecture. One thing I really liked as well was the wonderful use of natural light throughout the temple. It gave it a bright outside feeling to this temple. The temple is also amazing to look at from I-15 or Bangerter highway because it is such a large beautiful building sitting on a mountain ledge looking over the Salt Lake Valley from the east.
Helpful things to know if you are visiting the Temple:
Location:
The Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple is located in South Jordan off of, the highly traveled highway, Bangerter. It is very easy to get to and is right off of Bangerter, no need to weave through complex subdivisions to get there. It is also a nice new area of town, with the starter home development of Day Break and on the other side of Bangerter is the District, a wonderful shopping park. It really is an ideal date night area: temple session followed by dinner and a movie (the District's movie theater you can reserve your actual seating spot when you buy tickets in advance. This is perfect for opening night).
Scheduling and Temple Clothes:
Unlike many other Utah Temples you can not rent temple clothes here and you need reservations. They do let some people in without reservations if the session isn't full (I know this because we forgot to call a head b/c we didn't know you needed to), but it is always nicer to the temple workers as well as less of a worry if you call a head.
If you want to learn more, read more at these great sites. These are the sites, I used for my facts and pic:
Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple:http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/oquirrhmountain/
Oquirrh Mountains-Wiki:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oquirrh_Mountains
Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple Wiki :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oquirrh_Mountain_Utah_Temple
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