St George – A Nephite Temple
The choosing of the St George temple site is not only enlightening in a religious and historical sense it also reveals the determined character of Brigham Young. We read the following in the St George temple history immediately following the decision to erect a temple in Utah’s Dixie. Church leaders began to search for an appropriate building site. Many rumors have been circulated concerning an undocumented statement by Brigham Young that Moroni the Nephite general had actually dedicated the site where the temple now stands. Little information is available concerning this statement but the following declaration by David Henry Cannon Jr one of the first settlers in St George sheds some light on the background of the statement.
“I am eighty-two years old tomorrow (October 14, 1942) I am the only living person so far as I know who heard and saw what I am to relate. At the time of which we shall speak I was a lad of eleven years all seeing and all hearing and drove a team hitched to a scraper.
President Brigham Young had written to Robert Gardner President of the Stake High Council. In his letter he expressed a wish that a temple be built in St George. Also, that brother Gardner select a few leading brethren and as a group to visit sites where it might be best to build the temple. This they did visiting spots each thought might be best. They could not agree and so informed President Young.
President Young arriving later somewhat impatiently chided the brethren and at the same time asked them to get into their wagons or whatever else they had and with him find a site.
To the south they finally stopped.
But brother Young protested the men, ‘this land is boggy. After a storm and for several months of the year no one can drive across the land without horses and wagons sinking way down there is no place to build a foundation’.
We will make a foundation said President Young. Later on while plowing and scraping where the foundation was to be my horses leg broke through the ground into a spring of water. The brethren then wanted to move the foundation line twelve feet to the south so that the spring of water would be on the outside of the temple.
Not so replied President Young we will wall it up and leave it here for some future use, but we cannot move the foundation. This spot was dedicated by the Nephites. They could not build it (the temple) but, we can and will build it for them.
To this day the water from that very spring is running through a drain properly built for it.
I make this statement of my own free will and choice and without any fear or misgiving Signed David Henry Cannon Jr (Public Services-Church Historical Department St George temple section, pg. 24.[
One individual is said to have witnessed Brigham Young speaking in the St George Tabernacle Church and heard Young state that the spirit world was not far from us and if the veil could be taken from our eyes there wouldn’t be either a man woman or child who would dare go out of this tabernacle as the spirits of the Gadianton Robbers were so thick out there. This is where they lived in these mountains (Heber Jarvis quoted by Lundwall pg. 86.) The Gadianton Robbers were enemies of the Nephite people in the Book of Mormon, a book Mormons believe to be sacred scripture similar to the Bible. Thus, if the spirits of the Gadianton’s still inhabit the St George area, the Nephite people could have lived near there at one time. Also, as the Gadianton Robbers lived primarily from stealing food from the Nephites, as mentioned in the Book of Mormon. If Brigham Young actually stated what Jarvis claims he said, then Nephite people that lived at or near present day St George could very well have dedicated the St George Temple site many years ago. Also, a written statement by Brigham Young again mentions the Gadianton Robbers that the spirits of the Gadianton’s are around us you may see battlefield after battlefield scattered across this American continent where the wicked have slain the wicked. (Brigham Young quoted by Lundwall pg 296). This declaration is also found in The Journal of Discourses volume 12 pg. 128.
Consequently, it’s an established fact Brigham Young claimed the Gadianton Robbers lived throughout Canada, the United States and Mexico. This being the case it parallels that the Nephite people also lived and travelled these same areas and could have chosen and dedicated the St George Temple site. It appears that Cannon’s story is possibly true at least according to statements made by Brigham Young.
1992 The Geographical Analysis of Mormon Temple Sites in Utah Garth R. Liston Brigham Young University – Provo Page 45-60
https://bookofmormonevidence.org/st-geo ... te-temple/
