Men against stone

A burly mason steadies a half-inch thick iron rock drill against a granite boulder. His partner mason swings an eight-pound sledge against the drill. The smack of steel-against-steel-against-rock echoes from the walls of the quarry in Little Cottonwood Canyon southeast of Salt Lake City. Dust clouds the drill and pulverized sand dribbles from a deepening hole. When the hole is about four inches deep, another hole is started about seven inches farther along the grain line of the rock. Eventually a row of holes forms a neat dotted line over the massive boulder.

By this means, this giant boulder and other rough "cathedrals of nature" were reduced to the polished block used to erect the great temple in Salt Lake City.

Men worked four decades at the temple quarry. In the early years, about 30 or 40 men lived in a permanent camp at the quarry. They worked 10-hour days, six-day weeks at their arduous task.

Temporary workers, mostly those donating a tithe of their time, were expected to contribute food to the cooks' pool. At mealtime, cooks served generous helpings of beef, mutton, biscuits and potatoes. Fruit and pastries were a welcome but uncommon treat.

The men lived in tents with wooden floors. Many of the men were recent immigrants working to pay off their debt to the Perpetual Emigration Fund. Others were single men who stayed at the camp weeks at a time. Married men often walked to the city to spend Sunday with their families.

A news report in the 1870s from the Deseret News described the men splitting a 3,700-ton boulder: "There it stood like a great castle seemingly bidding defiance to any . . . but the resolute sturdy hands of the stalwart men [whoT said in their hearts it should be made to come down from its lofty height. . . ."

After a row of holes were drilled, masons, standing on top of the rock, then placed wedges into the holes, with half-round rods, or "slips" between the wedge and the stone. Masons beat a rhythm as they pounded from wedge to wedge, and back again.

As hammers sounded, men scrambled from below. With a resounding boom, the castle-sized boulder fell in half. This boulder alone provided for the temple an estimated 2,960 stones weighing about 2,500 pounds each. In this manner were the rough cathedrals of nature transformed into building blocks for a temple. - John L. Hart

(Another in a series leading to the centennial of the Salt Lake Temple on April 6, 1993. Illustration by Deseret News artist Reed McGregor.)