Montpelier Temple groundbreaking announced for June 17
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MONTPELIER — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced the groundbreaking of the Montpelier Idaho Temple will be on June 17.
The announcement came down from the church’s First Presidency that Elder Ryan K. Olsen, General Authority of the Seventy, will preside over the day’s events.
Temple Communications Specialist Bill Thompson lives in Cokeville, Wyoming but was a teacher at Bear Lake High School in Montpelier for eight years. He said he’s never seen so much buzz in the community.
“The people are excited,” he said.
Attendance to this groundbreaking is by invitation only, with a live broadcast of the event available for the more than 15,000 Latter-day Saints in the proposed temple district.
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Thompson said the event is by invitation because of the amount of space in the available area. He said that they’re hoping to have 500 people there in person to witness the groundbreaking.
The official press release states further details will be announced as the date of the groundbreaking approaches.
The 2,597 residents of Montpelier found out their town would be getting a temple in April 2022 when Church President Russell M. Nelson announced it.
The temple will be constructed on a 2.6-acre site located on the northeast corner of Washington and Sixth Street. The structure will be two stories and encompass around 27,000 square feet.
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The press release states a rendering of the temple’s design will be made available at a later date.
Thompson said he expects the temple to bring more tourism to Montpelier.
“You have Bear Lake right next to it and I can visualize families coming up in the summertime for family reunions and including in their reunion a trip to the temple,” Thompson said.
The state of Idaho contains around 470,000 Latter-day Saints and over 1,200 congregations. Idaho already has eight other temples either in operation, under construction or announced in Boise, Burley, Idaho Falls, Meridian, Pocatello, Twin Falls and two in Rexburg.
Idaho has the third-highest number of temples among US states.