Workers Split Open This Huge Stone From Salt Lake City – And Spotted A Treasure Trove Hidden Inside

The biggest house of worship ever built by the Mormon Church, Salt Lake Temple’s known across the globe. And when its capstone was laid in 1892, tens of thousands of onlookers were there to celebrate the occasion. Many of those present will likely have wondered what the future of the grand structure might have in store…

Well over a century later, Salt Lake Temple was undergoing some vital repairs. And so the huge capstone and the golden statue that it supported were taken down from the top of the building. But when experts looked into the sphere, they realized that it’d been concealing a treasure trove of historic artifacts.

So what secrets were hidden here at the end of the 19th century? And what can they tell us about Salt Lake City – and the people who lived and worked there? For months, experts have been chipping away at the capstone, in the process exposing objects that haven’t seen the light of day in 128 years.

So where did these artifacts come from? And how did they end up hidden inside a stone sphere some 200 feet above Salt Lake City? The story, it seems, is closely linked with that of the temple itself, and with the history of the religious group that settled here back in the 1840s.

Today, Salt Lake City’s home to around half a million members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons. Amazingly, that amounts to roughly 50 percent of the city’s population. And it all started back during the 1840s, when a man named Brigham Young arrived in the area, looking for a place where he could practice his religion freely.

That religion, records tell us, had begun some 17 years previously, with the ideas of Joseph Smith. Born in 1805 in Vermont, the future founder of the Mormon Church later moved to New York, where he allegedly experienced visions of angels. In one, according to his writings, he was led to a series of golden plates concealed in a hillside in the town of Manchester, NY.

Smith released the Book of Mormon in 1830. He alleged that its contents were a translation of these mysterious texts into English. And on the back of these claims, he founded his own church, soon acquiring a committed band of followers. Together, they set up communities in Missouri and Ohio, spreading the word of their new-found religion.

Before long, though, clashes with local residents forced the Mormons to seek another home. They eventually settled in the Illinois city of Nauvoo, where Smith and his religion continued to grow in influence. But at the same time, his opponents grew more and more distrustful, criticizing the church’s cult-like aspects and its support of polyamorous relationships.

Things ultimately came to a head in 1844 when the Nauvoo authorities clamped down on a local newspaper for speaking out against Smith. Riots soon followed, and an angry mob ultimately claimed Smith’s life. After his death, the role of the church’s leader was taken on by Young, who led the Mormons out of Illinois in search of a new home.

But what does all this have to do with Salt Lake City, and the temple that housed a secret stash of historical artifacts? Well, it was on the shores of the eponymous stretch of water that Young found himself, some three years after Smith’s death. According to legend, he’d pictured the landscape in a dream and knew that this was where to found a new Mormon settlement.

Less than a week later, reports claim, Young decided on the site for a new temple complex. And on February 14, 1853, work on this ambitious project began. But before it could be completed, the Mormons again went to war, this time with the national authorities.

After more than a year of fighting, Young was stripped of some of his power, but the construction of Salt Lake Temple recommenced. And on April 6, 1892, workers were ready to set the capstone atop the grand, 220-foot gothic structure. To mark the occasion, tens of thousands reportedly gathered to see the structure finally being completed.

At close to 4,000 pounds, the capstone was certainly an impressive piece of engineering. But there was something else remarkable about the sphere – something that wouldn’t be fully revealed until almost 130 years had passed. And when it was, the echoes of that momentous day echoed down through the generations.

Back in 1892, though, those secrets were sealed in place and craned onto the summit of Salt Lake Temple. Then, almost to serve as a guardian, a golden statue was settled on top. More than 12 feet tall, it depicts the Angel Moroni, a celestial figure that plays an important role in the Mormon scriptures.

According to the Book of Mormon, it was the Angel Moroni that visited Smith in a dream and guided him to the site of the fabled tablets. And today, depictions of this being – typically shown with a trumpet – appear in the church’s temples around the world. But the statue in Salt Lake City has experienced a far more eventful journey than most.

On March 18, 2020, Salt Lake City trembled as an earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale hit the region. Though the epicenter was some 15 miles to the west, the impact was enough to cause power cuts and leave homes shaking right across the state capital. And in Temple Square, the Angel Moroni suffered a poignant blow.

As the city shook, the trumpet tumbled from the angel’s hand, more than 200 feet above Temple Square. Of course, its descent could have harmed any unsuspecting pedestrians below. But luckily, it landed on a temple ledge. And even if it had tumbled to the ground, it would’ve come to rest in deserted streets.

That’s because the area around the temple had been closed since December 2019 as workers have embarked on a long program of restorations. And part of these plans involve the installation of supports designed to stabilize the building in the case of earthquakes. Once finished, planners hope, the structure will be protected for decades.

For two months, the trumpet-less statue stood forlornly atop Salt Lake Temple as work continued below. Then, on May 18, 2020, a crane gently lifted the angel, along with the capstone beneath it, from its lofty perch. But unlike the day when the pair were first placed there, this was a far quieter occasion.

In fact, fewer than 40 people gathered to watch the removal of the capstone and statue – compared to the 40,000 who turned out to watch their installation. Regarding the contrast with events back in 1892, Emily Utt from the Mormon Church’s History Department told the Church Newsroom, “It makes me laugh a little bit.”

“Our opening [of the capstone] has been a few people on a loading dock with very small chisels,” Utt added. “I don’t know if [the people of 1892] could have imagined that kind of interaction. They had such fanfare. Our opening was much quieter.” But despite the lack of pomp and circumstance, the team was about to discover something incredible.

A couple of days later an even smaller gathering of people, including Russell M. Nelson, the current president of the Mormon Church, stood in the Church History Library. There, they watched as the capstone was cracked open, finally revealing its secrets – a time capsule that’d been sealed for 128 years.

Curator Emiline Twitchell withdrew a number of artifacts that’d been hidden inside before the sphere was craned into place. And over the following weeks and months, a team continued to chip into the layers of concrete, revealing even more hidden treasures.

So what exactly was stashed inside the capstone all those years ago? Well, some clues can be found in the media reports published around the time of the temple’s completion. Reading these, it becomes clear that those present during the ceremony left a number of artifacts behind for future generations.

Initially, though, hopes weren’t high that any of these items would be retrieved. “We did not expect to find much, because we knew that the contents of the capstone had not been insulated from the weather during the 128 years that had elapsed,” Nelson told The Church News.

Despite these suspicions, church officials were still keen to look inside. “We wanted to be there anyway,” Nelson added. “Just to be close and to pay tribute to the leaders and courageous pioneer craftsmen who against all odds built this magnificent temple.” But when the capstone began to reveal its secrets, the assembled onlookers were pleasantly surprised.

Conservators eventually found four separate compartments sealed inside the capstone: one each on the north, south, east and west sections. And, as it turned out, a number of artifacts had survived their ordeal more or less unscathed – but some hadn’t been quite so lucky.

Among the objects to emerge unscathed was a plate forged from copper. Etched with a series of names, the gleaming artifact documents the people who were present for the temple’s groundbreaking ceremony in 1853. And other inscriptions detail those who attended the capstone’s installation 39 years later.

According to reports, the plate had been among several artifacts placed inside the capstone for future generations to uncover. But not everything about this time capsule was planned. In an 1892 article for the Salt Lake Herald-Republican, a reporter noted that several onlookers had spontaneously taken it upon themselves to add to the collection at the time.

At this point, it seems, the great granite capstone was still in two halves. And as workers awaited the order to complete the installation, an idea rippled through the crowd. The Salt Lake Herald-Republican article read, “Someone said, ‘There’s a dime, lay it in.’ Instantly every man on the platform eagerly thrust out a dime or a nickel or a quarter of a dollar.”

These offerings were duly sealed up inside the capstone alongside the other artifacts. And now, 128 years later, they’re among the objects that have survived. Experts estimate that they’ve extracted around 400 coins from the sphere, including dimes, nickels, quarters and pennies.

As well as these impromptu contributions, conservators have also uncovered items that were clearly prepared in advance. Speaking to the Church Newsroom, Twitchell said, “One of the really delightful things was finding coins that had been engraved. We have some coins that had been ground down on one side so that a person’s name could be engraved… Some of them appear to have been done professionally and some of them [look] like someone just scratched their name onto a nickel.”

But while the coins and copper plate have made it through the decades relatively unharmed, sadly the same can’t be said for the other artifacts inside the capstone. In a cavity on the east side, workers had stashed a number of books including a copy of the Holy Bible. And alongside them were a collection of letters describing Mormon beliefs.

In the southern section, more historic texts were uncovered, such as the Book of Mormon and Voice of Warning, which had been penned by one of the religion’s 19th-century luminaries. In total, researchers located a dozen books, though five of them have yet to be identified. But sadly, any would-be readers among the small crowd were left disappointed.

That’s because the books had sustained severe water damage during their time inside the capstone. Speaking to the Church Newsroom, Twitchell explained, “Concrete will sweat and leach and get hot as it’s curing. And the books essentially were sponges to all of this process that the cement is doing. And so they just leached in all of that moisture and sat for decades and decades and decades.”

As a result of this destructive process, the books were barely legible. But did the artifacts in the western cavity fare any better? Before the capstone was opened, the Mormon Church’s Historian and Recorder Elder LeGrand R. Curtis Jr. speculated that this section, which was believed to contain photographs, might hold something of great interest.

According to The Church News, the Salt Lake Herald-Republican reported something extraordinary back in 1892. Apparently, a rare image of Smith himself was added to the time capsule before it was sealed. “There are no known photographs of Joseph Smith,” Curtis Jr. explained. “If there really was a photograph of Joseph Smith that would be a find.”

But sadly, the photographs, like the books, had been damaged beyond repair. Was a priceless snapshot of the man who launched the Mormon Church lost as water seeped through the cavity over the years? Though we can never know for sure, experts believe that the images were just copies, rather than original prints.

Moving forwards, conservators hope that the artifacts from inside the capstone will eventually go on display. In the interim renovation work on Salt Lake Temple continues, with the project predicted to continue until at least 2024. Will a new set of artifacts be hidden inside, reflecting the world as it is now? Or has the sphere’s stint as a time capsule come to an end?