A Look Back at Arizona's First Temple, in Mesa

Thanks to an invitation from Lynn Johnson, President of the Arizona Museum of Natural History Foundation, I was privileged to recently get a special preview tour of the magnificent new Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple in Gilbert.

With more than 400,000 LDS members in Arizona and the curiosity of others, it is not surprising more than that number will have toured the remarkable facility before it is closed to the public prior to dedication March 2.

The Gilbert Temple is the fourth in Arizona. With all the attendant publicity, I began wondering how a similar opening was covered some 86 years ago when the state’s first temple was dedicated in Mesa.

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