The Cedar City Temple- Bring out the Iron

I can hardly believe the dedication of the Cedar City Temple is less than 6 days away.  I have felt the presence of angels in our little town since the commencement of this temple- I know that these angels are the men and women who helped lay the ground work for this temple in the early days of settlement.  Times have not always easy for this little town-I truly feel this temple will mend wounds for those involved in the Mountain Meadow Massacre more than 150 year ago (1857).  It is as if the temple has lifted the clouds of darkness  and has truly helped this valley to "blossom as a rose." 

A friend shared President Brigham Young's Epistle with me.  I was deeply touched by it and its place in history.  Yet I feel that as these words rang true for the Saints in establishing Cedar City and the Iron Mines in 1851, they also ring true although symbolically for the saints in this valley in 2017.  May we find our own iron within us!

 Epistle to Saints from Brigham Young and Heber C Kimball in meetings May 8-12:

To the brethren at Cedar City…we have formed an organization for the purpose of bringing out the iron. It is unnecessary for us to add that this is, and has been, the principal object of locating the settlements in Iron County—you have the ore, the coal, the timber in rich abundance—you have in your midst a supply of grain and need have no fears of a scarcity of food. You will gradually be strengthened in numbers as the emigration shall arrive and everything conspires to accomplish this most desirable object, the manufacture of iron. Brethren, shall it be done, shall the people of this territory be no longer dependent upon foreign and distant countries for their mill, irons, machinery, and stoves, their pots and kettles, their plows and every other useful and necessary implement which is composed of iron, or shall we be disappointed in our expectations and still labor under the present disadvantage of precarious and expensive transportation and continual drain of our money, or do without those articles which are so necessary and which are so easily furnished by a little well-directed industry and perseverance in our midst. You have raised your hand in solemn covenant that you will do all that lies in your power to accomplish this object, and we now leave you, with the fullest expectation that you will bend your united and untiring efforts to this purpose with the fullest assurance that but a few weeks shall roll around before the cheering intelligence will salute our ears,

‘send your orders, we are prepared to fill them. The iron is piled up in our houses and in our streets, send your teams and carry it away.’ 

You brethren have been selected for this purpose and set apart to this mission. Let no influence swerve you from this duty. Let no selfish interest intervene betwixt you and the accomplishment of your duties, but let a devoted magnanimity for the public interest, blended with a oneness if untiring efforts, characterize all your exertions in whatsoever you shall put yourselves to do, do it in a spirit on oneness and of faith believing, and the happiest results will be most likely to follow, so shall you accomplish the object of your mission and subserve the public good. 

             How reasonable to suppose that not only our knowledge but our talents, our capacity, be they great or small, should be devoted to the cause of God in whatever calling we may be engaged that is conducive to its interest…the work in which you are engage in the manufacture of iron at this juncture in one branch of the Kingdom of our God and should be pursued with all the vigor and energy that has hitherto characterized your exertions in these valleys—should be pursued as regardless of the consequence pertaining to pecuniary considerations as preaching the gospel. It is a sacred as any other mission, and when was the time and where the place that a faithful elder who trusted in God did not find food and clothing sufficient to supply his necessities? We do not recommend that you neglect to enclose your field, water your grain, and harvest the same; this is necessary to save and secure the labor which you have performed and the seed which you have put into the ground, but be generous to your mission to intervene and thwart the purpose thereof.

            Commence upon a small scale and product the iron before you go into any great expense, and then you can increase your operations as circumstances will permit and justify. Let your improvements be of a permanent nature that your labor be not lost. Do not be discouraged in your experiments if the first should fail. In new and untried localities that would be an incident most likely to occur and, yet, a subsequent trial prove more successful. But enough has been said upon this subject, words will not accomplish the desired object, but united and preserving efforts will.

Letter from Brigham Young and Heber C, Kimball to Iron County Stake, Parowan, Utah, May 12, 1852-L.D.S. Church History division, Salt Lake City, Utah, L.D,S, Film 6778. 

                            Iron We Must Have

DTo Think that they include a site for the temple on a plat drawn of Cedar City in 1852- it is not far from the present day temple site.

In November, 1851, 36 of the group were called to continue on to establish the Iron Mines.  Ground was surveyed and a Fort was laid out and named ‘Cedar City’ (because of the large number of Cedar Trees in the area) under the direction of George A. Smith, W.H Dame, and Henry Lunt.  The plat for Cedar Fort was drawn and recorded in 1852 and is built around a designated “Temple Square” with commercial, educational, and homes surrounding it.  (Although this is not the site of the Temple, it has a beautiful view looking to the south, of the magnificent structure that sits nearby Beacon Hill street on Cove Drive.)

 I echo the words of my Rigby's Great Great Grandfather Henry Lunt
.      “I rejoice, and am thankful to my heavenly Father, that he deems me worthily of being tried, and making “The desert rejoice and blossom as the rose” that the Prophet Isaiah speaks of.  –Diary of Henry Lunt recorded in May 2, 1852 after working against many trials to get the Iron Mines going. 

 On a beautiful fall afternoon, I mingled silently among the guests of the Cedar City Temple Open House.  It was a highlight for me to watch others partake of this holy experience! May all become like Captain Moroni and rent our coat and lift our banner- 

“And it came to pass that he rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it—In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children—and he fastened it upon the end of a pole.

“And he fastened on his headplate, and his breastplate, and his shields, and girded on his armor about his loins; and he took the pole, which had on the end thereof his rent coat, (and he called it the title of liberty) and he bowed himself to the earth, and he prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren, so long as there should a band of Christians remain to possess the land.” (Alma 46:12–13.)